Thirst

Movie: Thirst

I saw it on: August 22, 2009

Cast: Shin Ha-kyun, Kim Hae-suk, Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-vin, Park In-hwan

Genre: Horror, Drama

Synopsis: A Catholic priest (Shin Ha-kyun) volunteers to test a new medicine and becomes a vampire as a result.  He falls in love with Tae-joo (Kim Ok-vin).  Tae-joo is married to the son of the woman who adopted her when she was 5.  The priest is horrified by what he has become and struggle to survive without killing anyone.  Falling in love with a married woman only add to his problems.

 My two cents: Shin Ha-kyun is a huge star in Korea – he starred in the recent Korean hit “The Host”.  It is probably a cultural thing – but this movie did not meet my high hopes.  I did not really get caught up until the list 30 minutes of the film.  I also hated the sub-titles.  Every time the word “because” should have appeared, they used the word “cuz”.  This really got on my nerves.

I will say that the way the priest tried to keep nourished without killing anyone was a new one to me.  I also do not recall having seen a priest-vampire before.  There was some gruesome humor in the way some of the victims were killed along the line.

“Let the Right One In” still stands as the only foreign language horror film I have truly enjoyed.