Movies
Thirst (Kr)
“At the hands of a less competent director, THIRST could have been an abomination, but thankfully Chan-wook delivers something above par that should probably be met with two cans of Red Bull.”
Quite possibly my favorite director on the planet right now is Park Chan-wook, who brought us such classics as JSA, OLDBOY, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and LADY VENGEANCE. For this legendary Korean director to take on the horror genre is like having Paul Thomas Anderson turn to horror. While Chan-wook has been primed for the genre with the amount of bloodshed in his previous films, he also took his love for lengthy exposition-filled drama along for the ride, which just doesn’t digest well in horror. At the hands of a less competent director, THIRST could have been an abomination, but thankfully Chan-wook delivers something above par that should probably be met with two cans of Red Bull.
THIRST finds Korea’s leading man, Song Kang-ho (The Host), as a much-loved priest who becomes a vampire after a failed medical experiment; he becomes a tortured and depraved soul.
Park Chan-wook is known for his character pieces and his ability to really mold a personality for his protagonist. While typically this works for Chan-wook, it hinders THIRST a great deal. The film carries an overcomplicated plot that is not only confusing, but also drags the film to an unnecessary 133-minute length. There are unusually subplots such as one involving a vengeful spirit that’s supposed to provide a level of comic relief. THIRST is a solid drama for most of 133 minutes, so when it goes over-the-top for these segments, it literally takes you out of the movie. In fact, whenever Chan-wook attempts to throw comedy into the film, whether it be in-your-face or subtly, it’s completely lost in translation (like many Asian comedies). Even though Park has said in interviews that he loves the comedy aspect and really would like audiences to relish in it, the movie should have been 30 minutes shorter (at least) as most of the comedy could have easily been trimmed.
With that said, THIRST succeeds on so many other levels that it’s hard to focus on the negative. The most impressive aspect of the screenplay (co-written by Chan-wook and Seo-Gyeong Jeong) are the dueling leads. Sang-hyun plays a priest who believes that life is precious and volunteers for a secret vaccine development project to help save lives from a deadly virus. He becomes infected and returns to life as a blood-sucking vampire. He is also conflicted between the carnal desire for blood and his faith, which forbids him to kill, therefore leading him to a hospital where he drinks from people in comas. He meets Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin), who is married to his childhood friend. The two fall in love and she becomes the pawn that forces him to choose evil over good. While he still holds down his principals as a Priest, he feels like a traitor to his faith and begins to bend his own rules – until they break. Tae-ju is filled with darkness as she seduces Sang-huyn into killing her husband (his friend) and eventually he kills her as well, but his love for her causes him to reanimate her as a vampire. From this point on Chan-wook does the tango with audience as the two polar opposite vampires battle for control over one another. One of the strongest aspects of THIRST is this physical and narrative battle between these two, who both love each other, can’t live without each other, and yet aren’t compatible in the least. But in an odd and beautiful way completely contrast each other.
For the hardcore horror fans, while most of the film is loaded with heavy exposition, there are still some pretty bloody and violent moments throughout. Chan-wook takes a page from George A. Romero’s MARTIN and brings the realism to THIRST. He gives Sang-huyn disgusting blisters when he doesn’t feed, when the duo have sex he fills the audience’s ears with gross sound effects and has the characters lick each other’s armpits and feet, and when the blood flows none of it sounds appealing (the slurping sounds are disgusting). There is nothing enchanting about THIRST; even the look of the film itself if darker and duller than any of Park Chan-wook’s previous works.
It’s quite unfortunate that THIRST never got trimmed and tightened up, as it really is just way too long. What the film really lacks is momentum; anyone with an attention span as short as mine is guaranteed to squirm through most of the 133 minutes. Beyond the pacing issues, this vampire tale is one worthy of seeing in a theater, just muster up enough energy to stay awake through it all – the finale is definitely worthy of your full attention.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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