THE THIRST

Max (Matt Keeslar, JECKYLL) and Lisa (Clare Kramer, THE FALLEN) are recovering addicts. He attends meetings with fellow addicts, determined to remain clean. But he reveals that he fears Lisa may start abusing again, as she has just started working in the wrong environment - a strip joint.

Later that evening, Lisa collapses mid pole-dance, coughing up blood. She's whisked away to hospital, where her doctor reveals she has terminal cancer - she already knew - and gives her a telling off for not having shared this news with Max.

Following a harrowing meeting with creepy nurse Mariel (Serena Scott Thomas, HOSTAGE) - a nightmare, or reality? - Lisa is paid a visit by a frantic Max. He immediately thinks her "accident" is related to drug use ... but is even madder when he reveals the truth, and how she's hidden it from him for so long.

Max leaves in a tantrum but, after trying to cop off with addict friend Macey (Charlott Ayanna, SPUN) and failing, returns to the hospital to make up with Lisa. However, he learns she left with Nurse Mariel - even though none of the staff nurses have actually heard of a nurse Mariel ...

Rushing home to their apartment after hearing a suicidal message left on his mobile phone, Max finds Lisa in the bathtub, her wrists sliced open.

Following Lisa's funeral, Max withdraws - lounges in bed all day, lets the apartment get untidy, forgets to shave ... that kind of thing. That is, until one night Macey and another friend call round and insist on taking Max out for the night.

Their idea of a fun night out? A pretentious, unintentionally hilarious Goth S&M club called Club Inferno. It's here that Max is convinced he sees Lisa, alive and dancing.

After digging her grave up later that night to find it empty, Max returns to the club and sneaks his way upstairs to the VIP area - where he finds Lisa. It turns out she is now part of a clan of vampires, who have descended on the club to commit a bloody massacre.

Max escapes death, with Lisa's help, then follows the vampires - led by the enigmatic Darius (Jeremy Sisto, MAY; WRONG TURN) - to their remote lair.

When Max is captured by the vampires, they give Lisa a choice: "turn him or kill him" ...

Likening a vampire's bloodlust to drug addiction has been done many times before (Abel Ferrara's THE ADDICTION and Larry Fessenden's HABIT are obvious references), but THE THIRST scores points by focusing very much on the lead couple's desperation to stay together, whatever the outcome. Theirs is a convincing relationship with highs and lows, and their likeable characters provide an emotional thread that keeps you watching until the end.

The cast's talents range from adequate to decidedly ropey (the English vampire is embarrassing), with Sisto being most memorable for offering a more extravagant performance than usual. He may not be as scary as he's meant to be, but he pulls off the required charm.

The film never drags, despite using its good rock soundtrack on a couple of occasions to pad out the running time. THE THIRST crams in plenty of enjoyable, sometimes surprisingly dark plot twist. Okay, there are moments of silliness - the foray into Club Inferno is yet another case of some scriptwriter thinking people find Goths scary ... nope. And there's some misplaced humour among the vampires that strives for THE LOST BOYS' feel but fails miserably.

But by-and-large this is impressively grim, unforgiving fare. Well-edited, visually arresting (with lots of stylish colour-filtered lighting and skewered camera angles) and tightly scripted, THE THIRST is a well-made production (a Starz Company one, at that ...).

But what's most striking about director Jeremy Kasten's (THE WIZARD OF GORE remake) film - more so than it's attractive visuals, sexy cast and downbeat tone - is the gore. With geysers of arterial spraying each time a victim's throat is bitten, this rivals Leif Jonker's DARKNESS as the bloodiest vampire movie ever made. What's more, the FX are pretty good too.

Anchor Bay/Starz's disc presents the film uncut in a 16x9 enhanced 1.77:1 transfer. There's some ghosting and grain evident - not the cleanest of transfers, but reasonably sharp and bright nevertheless.

English audio is available in 2.0 and 5.1 mixes, both of which do a sterling job.

Animated menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 8 chapters.

Extras include a decent, informative audio commentary track from Kasten and composer Joseph Kramer.

We also get an attractively presented photo gallery, consisting of 24 stills promoting the film.

Finally there's some deleted scenes (more like extended takes, actually) and the screenplay is available to download as a DVD-ROM extra.

If you love gore-soaked vampire films (who doesn't?), check this out.

Review by Stu Willis