Film Reviews

Thirst

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Kang-ho Song
• Details: South Korea / 133mins (18).

Cut to the chase: Just when you think zombie and vampire movies have peaked, along comes two in a week - Zombieland and Thirst - that shake up the recycled sub-genres of horror.
"I just want to save people." Sang-Yeon (Song) is a catholic priest who has volunteered to be a guinea pig in an experimental vaccine for an incurable disease, a disease that sees the victim vomit blood and break out in unsightly boils. The vaccine is unsuccessful: Sang-Yeon dies, but six months later he's alive and well and proclaimed a saint by some. However, something happened in the last minute blood transfusion on the operating table and Sang-Yeon has developed an acute ear, brutal strength and a thirst for human blood. He also is filled with lust for depressed wife Tae-joo (Ok-vin Kim) and, as luck would have it, she for him. But can he trust her with his terrible secret?
Chan-wook Park, the director of innovative movies like Old Boy, comes up trumps when searching for something original in the vampire movie. Morally-convicted vampires is nothing new, but a priest? Park has a talent for easing the viewer into a comfort zone, initially paying off what that viewer might predict will happen, and then jolting them out of it; the tactic works brilliantly - the tone is so disparate it's tough to guess what the hell is going to happen next. Park is such an accomplished director, though, that whatever path he takes you down is an interesting one. Visually, Thirst is nothing special - Park shoots the majority of the movie in the cramped flat belonging to Tae-joo's husband and stepmother (Hae-sook Kim) and the dark streets surrounding - but that makes the impressive special effects, which Park uses sparingly, all the more extraordinary.
It might be too long for what it is, and Park soon forgets about the morality of it all until the close, but these are minor criticisms - Thirst is sexy, violent and, when it wants to be, hilarious. Horror fans are in for a treat.

Review by Gavin Burke