Maxx(Matt Keeslar)is a recovering(..and melancholy)alcoholic drowning in sorrow over his girlfriend's woes with what he perceives to be drug addiction, when in fact Lisa(Clare Kramer)is dying of cancer and just hasn't told him. After her death, Maxx grows incredibly depressed and his friends attempt to show him a good time, taking him to a goth bar with industrial music, called Dante's Inferno, where he believes to have seen Lisa. Returning to the club, he discovers it is her, but she is now a vampire and part of "the family", a ferocious brood who take great delight in slaughtering people in private enough places. Lisa, against her better judgment, turns Maxx and is shocked and disgusted when he himself enjoys the savage brutality in killing and drinking blood from humans..this metamorphosis from a really swell guy into a cold-blooded, inhumane psycho, cheerfully sloshing pints of blood all over his face, was in need of repair.
Darius(Jeremy Sisto), Mariel(Serena Scott Thomas), Duke of Earl(Neil Jackson), Lenny(Adam Baldwin), and the "sisters"(Kylah Kim and Ave Rose Rodil) expect Maxx and Lisa to ingratiate themselves in the family, and obey their rules. This, of course, will not be the case, as Lisa decides that being a part of a pack planning to attack a group of Christian children when they arrive isn't exactly the right thing to do, convincing Maxx that this whole vampire business is for the birds..they're so devious, the family would feast on a hemophiliac girl in a wheelchair!
One thing's for sure, if you are a horror fan looking for plenty of blood-letting, Jeremy Kasten's The Thirst delivers, because gallons are shed in this joker. The blood-drinking in this one gets really nasty as the red stuff literally explodes like a geyser from neck wounds as those fed from(..and those feeding)are drowned in it. The sheer ferocity of the vampire attacks can become pretty hard to watch as the feeding frenzies(..particularly two major sequences in Dante's Inferno, and a strip bar known as Le Petit Mort, where Maxx gets in on the action along with Lenny & the sisters)carry on for quite a while. Kasten doesn't pull many punches with this one as it gets pretty gratuitous. The Thirst kind of reminded me of Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, the idea of a family of ravenous vampires, who travel from city to city, town to town, slaughtering human targets like wolves to sheep. You could almost consider Keesler the Adrian Pasdar of this film, how he is influenced because of his desire to be with Lisa, and how he reluctantly, but agreeably, volunteers to join the family. Then, as Near Dark did, we see them attempt to liberate themselves, knowing that the family are relentless scavengers who would kill anyone, if just for the hell of it. Boy, Sisto and Baldwin just let it all hang out in this one, not retrained one tiny bit, and go so over-the-top/unhinged, you can only amuse at their scenery devouring.
Not much in the way of originality I'm afraid. Some may even be reminded of JS Cardone's The Forsaken while watching this. Bloodthirsty gorehounds unite, though..in this regard, Kasten bathes the screen in red crimson, giving vampire fans at least that much. There is an attempt at telling a love story and how death can not separate two who care so passionately for one another. Most potent sequence could be when Maxx attempts, regrettably, to turn a female friend of his, and, gosh, does it end badly.
Darius(Jeremy Sisto), Mariel(Serena Scott Thomas), Duke of Earl(Neil Jackson), Lenny(Adam Baldwin), and the "sisters"(Kylah Kim and Ave Rose Rodil) expect Maxx and Lisa to ingratiate themselves in the family, and obey their rules. This, of course, will not be the case, as Lisa decides that being a part of a pack planning to attack a group of Christian children when they arrive isn't exactly the right thing to do, convincing Maxx that this whole vampire business is for the birds..they're so devious, the family would feast on a hemophiliac girl in a wheelchair!
One thing's for sure, if you are a horror fan looking for plenty of blood-letting, Jeremy Kasten's The Thirst delivers, because gallons are shed in this joker. The blood-drinking in this one gets really nasty as the red stuff literally explodes like a geyser from neck wounds as those fed from(..and those feeding)are drowned in it. The sheer ferocity of the vampire attacks can become pretty hard to watch as the feeding frenzies(..particularly two major sequences in Dante's Inferno, and a strip bar known as Le Petit Mort, where Maxx gets in on the action along with Lenny & the sisters)carry on for quite a while. Kasten doesn't pull many punches with this one as it gets pretty gratuitous. The Thirst kind of reminded me of Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, the idea of a family of ravenous vampires, who travel from city to city, town to town, slaughtering human targets like wolves to sheep. You could almost consider Keesler the Adrian Pasdar of this film, how he is influenced because of his desire to be with Lisa, and how he reluctantly, but agreeably, volunteers to join the family. Then, as Near Dark did, we see them attempt to liberate themselves, knowing that the family are relentless scavengers who would kill anyone, if just for the hell of it. Boy, Sisto and Baldwin just let it all hang out in this one, not retrained one tiny bit, and go so over-the-top/unhinged, you can only amuse at their scenery devouring.
Not much in the way of originality I'm afraid. Some may even be reminded of JS Cardone's The Forsaken while watching this. Bloodthirsty gorehounds unite, though..in this regard, Kasten bathes the screen in red crimson, giving vampire fans at least that much. There is an attempt at telling a love story and how death can not separate two who care so passionately for one another. Most potent sequence could be when Maxx attempts, regrettably, to turn a female friend of his, and, gosh, does it end badly.