A truly bizarre movie, a tragicomedy that Graham Greene might have written in collaboration with Bram Stoker. But it's repetitive and overstays its initial welcome.
Comment
10/20/09
Thirst (2009)
82
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:97
Fresh:80
Rotten:17
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: The stylish Thirst packs plenty of bloody thrills to satisfy fans of both vampire films and director Chan Wook Park.
Theatrical Release:16-10-2009
Synopsis: Sang-hyun is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a... [More]
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Ok-bin Kim, Mercedes Cabral
Director: Chan Wook Park
Reviews for Thirst
Park is clearly an exceptional director capable of being weirdly funny, quirkily fantastical, brutal and sexy, sometimes at one and the same time. There’s no one quite like him.
10/20/09
Park directs with his usual eye-catching skill and attention to gruesome detail, and creates a story with strong emotional resonance.
10/20/09
A rollicking, hysterical splatter-sex-comedy only confirms ‘Thirst’ as one of the year’s more extreme, enjoyable entertainments.
10/16/09
Top CriticWith its rapacious appetites and forceful directing style, is definitely a vampire film for grown-ups.
10/16/09
Top CriticNot one of Park's best films, but it has bite.
10/16/09
Top CriticThis fervid extravaganza is easily Park’s best film since Oldboy.
10/16/09
Top CriticRed blood and black humour spurt hard as Thirst reveals itself to be one of the most deliciously skewed incisions into the vampire romance subgenre.
10/16/09
There’s plenty to get your teeth into – just a shame you’ve got to wait so long for the main course.
10/16/09
A baroque shocker of sensuous unease and cinematic excess marbled with veins of jet-black comedy, Thirst is far from a perfect film, but it might still prove to be a great one.
10/16/09
Chan-wook's film is as gluttonous and stylish as I'm a Cyborg, but fortunately Thirst's renewed appetite for bloodlust and self-annihilation suits the director's pyrotechnics better.
10/16/09
While its most dazzling scenes recall David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Schrader’s Catpeople, it topples into self-parody in spells, as if John Waters was remaking In The Realm Of The Senses.
10/16/09
A fresh spin on the vampire myth resulting in a wildly inventive and blackly comic horror. Pity it's got more padding than the average fat suit.
10/16/09
Gruesome, disturbing, definitely over-long but strangely moving, Thirst brings vivid new ideas to an overworked genre.
10/16/09
Once on course, he is uncontrollable. I don’t mean the hero, I mean the director. Park’s gallows wit and visual inventiveness keep us alert for an hour amid the ramshackle story structuring.
10/16/09
The film is way too long, and quite sick, though Park's demented lyricism will stay with you.
10/16/09
Unleashing torrents of stylishly shot blood-letting he mocks the anaemic approach to the carnal undercurrents of vampire lore favoured by western cinema.
10/16/09
An enjoyable, extremely stylish and well acted vampire drama that builds to a terrific finale, though it's also overlong, struggles to find the right tone and drags considerably in the middle section.
10/15/09
The over-long duration makes it a gruelling journey at times, but it's worth sticking to the end, just to see what the hell Park will come up with next.
10/12/09
The heart of Thirst may be a vampire film but its soul is a morality play, while its flesh is a sensuous playground of desire.
10/05/09
Top CriticLatest News for Thirst
July 30, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Funny People Is Ambitious But Uneven
This week at the movies, we've got the tears of a clown (Funny People, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen), extra-terrestrial visitors upstairs (Aliens in the Attic, starring... More...
July 30, 2009:
Director Park Chan-wook Talks Thirst - RT Interview
Thirst, the story of a priest who becomes a vampire following a failed medical experiment, was one of our favourites at this year's Cannes Film Festival. So when we had the... More...
July 16, 2009:
Park Chan-Wook Coming to Comic-Con for Thirst 
More...
May 24, 2009:
Cannes 2009: The Tomato Report - Haneke's The White Ribbon Scoops Palme d’Or
Michael Haneke took Cannes' top honour tonight as his film, The White Ribbon, won the prestigious Palme d'Or. It's Haneke's third major Cannes prize but his first Palme d'Or.... More...
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