Thirst

(2009) ***1/2

Of all horror genres, vampire movies connect most easily to romance -- obviously there's the notion of eternality, in life and love, to play around with, but there's something more primally and immediately romantic about vampires. When a life is taken, there's no item to separate killer from killed, as there is when a slasher stabs with a knife. It's a personal kill, directly from mouth to blood. A vampire literally drinks life away. It's a complete sensory (and sensual) experience, indulging touch, taste, and smell -- and indulging hunger, the most innate sense to any living organism.

So when a vampire shares its blood with a mortal, whatever vampire strength being passed along gets passed along with that hunger. And again, what could be more romantic than that? It's a vampire's way of saying, this is my hunger, my desire. I want it to be your desire too.

I've seen vampire movies play up the romance of the "turning" scene, most notably The Hunger -- but in that case, the women involved were little more than strangers. When it happens in Thirst it's a vampire turning a woman he actually loves. I've never seen a turning scene more loving and doting than this one.


Thirst is inescapably a horror movie because it's about vampires, but it's as much a romance as it is a horror film. In fact, remove any references to vampirism and you have mostly a story about a man who gives a woman what she wants, and then she takes and takes and never stops taking. That's a storyline anyone can relate to, no matter what kind of movies you like. Seriously, raise your hand if you're thinking, "that sounds like my ex."


This is the most recent film by Chan-Wook Park, who also directed Oldboy and The Host. He's the most famous director ever to come out of South Korea, and he's gained his notoriety almost entirely with horror films. He's emblematic of what the bloggers here would want anyone to understand about the genre: that in the most able hands, horror movies are capable of far more than just frightening or repulsing us. This is a love story -- the fact that it gets bloody just means that the stakes are higher.