Thirst (2009)
Thirst (2009) — So a guy turns into a vampire and guess what? HE DOESN’T FUCKING SPARKLE! Of course this is only the tip of the iceberg about why this film kicks Twilight‘s ass but I will do the dignity of this film justice by not mentioning that accursed franchise’s name again in this review. That being said it’s not the best vampire movie and does not touch the greatness of Let the Right One In, but in the hands of Park Chan-Wook you know you will at the very least get something interesting. Not on the level of Oldboy, but definitely something that reflects Mr. Park’s decidedly different worldview. The story is about a Fr. Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest who is about the most selfless person ever and volunteers for medical research to try and cure a really gross-looking fatal illness. Since I’ve already used the word “vampire” twice in this you can guess what happens (unless you suck at guessing). What the film mostly is about is a man losing his humanity. However he is turn into something arguably more than human on the outside and suddenly does not have the level of resistance to his baser urges. Tae-ju, the wife of his childhood friend Kang-woo, plays a large part in this. I’d rather not give spoilers, not that there are any huge twists or anything (even though Oldboy had the mega-twist, Park doesn’t need to rely on them movie to movie like a certain Philadelphia-area director…). While not for the queasy, Thirst brings back the EVIL vampires who wants to kill you instead of talk about their feelings instead of sparkling in the Pacific Northwest [I said I wouldn’t mention its NAME again, not that i wouldn’t insult it more]. So if you want to see some mean motherfucking vampires: Thirst.
Persistence of Vision 