by Allen Alberson

Created on: December 03, 2009   Last Updated: December 04, 2009

With the latest installment of the Twilight saga, New Moon, vampires are all the rage in Hollywood and across America. People who would never go to a more traditional horror movie are rushing to the theater to see New Moon, choosing Team Jacob or Team Edward or swooning over the love between Edward and Bella. Anything Twilight is a hot commodity these days and Hollywood is taking advantage of it. While horror and vampire purists may avoid Twilight, they are also reaping some rewards from it's popularity. Vampire movies are running in heavy rotation on cable and series such as Moonlight and Nick Knight are being resurrected for TV, getting more exposure as everyone tries to cash in on the vampire craze. If Twilight has done no other good it has at least allowed these classic series to temporarily raise from the grave and seek a new audience. In the midst of this undead frenzy, a new vampire movie comes to us from South Korea.

Thirst is the newest film from South Korean director Chan-Wook Park. Park is best know for his revenge trilogy, especially his second film in the series Oldboy. Oldboy is a very violent but very beautiful film with an extremely disturbing storyline. Thirst is a welcome addition to the vampire genre with all of Park's violence and beauty intact. Like Twilight, Thirst takes a new twist on the vampire legend. Also like Twilight there is a love affair between the vampire protagonist and a female character. However aside from this there is little in common between the two films.

Sang Kang-ho stars as a caring priest, Sang-hyun who isn't content to just minister to the dying. He begs the Vatican to allow him to volunteer for a controversial experiment to develop a vaccine for a deadly virus known as EV. San-hyun is injected with the virus and slowly succumbs to it. Unknowingly to the priest he is given a blood transfusion from a vampire and although clinically dead, he is revived and begins to quickly recover from the virus. Due to his recovery he starts to gain fame as a healer and people flock around him begging for him to pray for them. As a healer he is reunited with a child hood friend and his wife and mother. The wife Tae-ju, is beautiful but seems very repressed. Soon after this the virus starts to reappear and he notices his vampiric tendencies come to light. He develops a thirst for and attraction to blood as well as a painful reaction to sunlight. He also finds that human blood causes the virus to go into remission and increases his

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