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Review: The Thirst

• Pros: Some good lines and decent ideas
• Cons: Lousy production values, some equally weak performances and a less than stellar DVD presentation
• Overall: If you are big into vampires, this is worth a rental

• DVD Video Quality

  6

• DVD Audio Quality

  7

• DVD Extras Quality

  7

• Constantly changing accents

  1

• Overall

  6

“That isn’t cricket!?” – Maxx

The allegorical link between vampirism and drug abuse isn’t a terribly new idea, but it is a fairly potent one. The Thirst pulls together a group of characters who are faced with the fallout of drug addiction. Maxx (Matt Keeslar) is in a 12 step program to deal with his alcoholism. His girlfriend Lisa (Clare Kramer) is in the hospital (for reasons that aren’t entirely clear) and is facing certain death. In the middle of the night a woman claiming to be a grief counselor appears. But she is more than she lets on to be and before long she seduces Lisa to join a traveling family of vampires. This group spends some time at an S&M dance club and by coincidence Maxx and a few friends go there to try to break out of their grief at the loss of Lisa. Maxx sees her there and tries to track her down which leads him into the middle of a vampire snack attack (sorry couldn’t resist).

Now Maxx is turned into a vamp as well and he and Lisa try to face off against the rest of the vampire family in order to save a group of children campers and redeem themselves.

The basic plot is fairly solid and there are some very funny one-liners in it, but the movie is done no favors by the low production values. The obvious video look and constantly shifting accent on the lead villain (Jeremy Sisto) took me out of the movie every single time. Which is a shame, there are some neat mixtures here. The blending of a 12 step program and vampirism is something I hadn’t seen before, and Matt Keeslar delivered his role with a conviction and sympathy that typically isn’t present in this tier of filmmaking.

On DVD The Thirst is presented with an anamorphic widescreen transfer. All of the glaring grainy images are present here, but this seems to be less a fault of the transfer and more an intentional stylistic choice. The audio is available in either a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track or a Dolby stereo track, both are a touch quiet when it comes to dialogue, so the louder sound effects and musical cues may catch you off guard.

For special features the disc includes an audio commentary with writer/producer Mark A. Altman and composer Joe Kraemer, a collection of deleted scenes and a still gallery. The deleted scenes are all fairly redundant bits that were wisely trimmed. The audio commentary is interesting enough, but without the cast or director there tends to stay a bit on the distant side. It is nice to hear from the writer as to their intention, but a lot of the translation process from page to screen is lost.

The cover features a blurb that states that this movie is a combination of A Requiem For a Dream and Near Dark, and I can see that, but it is most definitely more Near Dark than anything else. It isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it does have a few nuggets of brilliance. Fans of the genre will find something to enjoy here, even if it isn’t something that you will keep coming back to.

Posted by: El'Ahrai

Posted on: 2007-05-10 00:34:38

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