An Icelandic horror comedy, Thirst (Þorsti) is low budget and throws in a lot of gore. There is a bit of vampire/zombie lore that isn’t overly explored properly but fits nicely together in what it implies but it relies on sexual sadism for part of its humour and whilst I get the impression it was aiming to be pro-lgbt it felt as though it could be actually be anti-. That said the take on religion was interesting.
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| at window |
It starts with a man on the phone to his child whilst he is driving. He then speaks to his wife, mentioning that he had to go back to the office and would be late. However, this is a lie, he is heading for a rendezvous in the countryside. He parks and a car ahead puts its lights on, blinding him. There is a knock on the window and Hjörtur (Hjörtur Sævar Steinason) is there and asks for an invitation into the car.
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| gore |
The man is getting nervous it seems, he says he has never done this before and suggests going to Hjörtur’s car. Hjörtur agrees but, once in there, he gets further cold feet. Hjörtur speaks soothingly and then goes down on him. We hear sucking sounds and then the man complains that it is rough… And then the blood spatters and what a load of blood. There are a couple of scenes where the blood flow makes it feel as though we are in a Japanese splatter-punk movie. Hjörtur rises with the man’s severed penis and testes on his mouth (there are a number of such attacks).
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| Jens Jensson as Jens |
In a police station, Hulda (Hulda Lind Kristinsdóttir) is being held. Plain clothed officer Jens (Jens Jensson) goes to interview her despite protests from a colleague that it is inappropriate as he knows Hulda's mother (Birna Halldórsdóttir). Hulda is a drug addict and was at her brother’s when he overdosed. He is not known to be a drug user and so Jens is trying to pin a murder rap on her but she has no memory of what happened. Eventually he has to let her go.
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| ripping them open |
Walking down the street she passes a store where a (cheaply shot) televangelist, Ester (Ester Sveinbjarnardóttir), is on telly prophesising the end of days – later we discover that she is Jens wife and they are members of a Christian-doomsday cult. She goes to her mother's house but she won’t let Hulda in. She stumbles across Hjörtur being beat up and intervenes (not knowing that he is a vampire and can take care of himself). The two attackers end up killed (Hulda stabs one of them in the genitals and Hjörtur literally rips a head in two), she is covered in blood, two passing cops get dismembered members pushed into their mouths by a super-fast Hjörtur, who then vanishes. She ends up back in the police station.
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| bloodied and back at station |
After a terrifically bad trip dream, Hulda is released again and she and Hjörtur become friends – no-one has ever helped him before. To repay her he tries to bring her brother back – and I’ll come back to this – and we discover that Ester and Jens are hunting for the Prince of Darkness (Hjörtur is cast as that) and believe Hulda is involved and part of the prophecy. Their daughter returns from foreign sabbatical but it is soon clear that she has changed theological sides, convinced that evil will win. This was the religious aspect I rather liked, that the cult could be subverted so easily for personal gain (surviving the apocalypse).
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| feeling zombiefied |
The brother has been dead too long when Hjörtur tries to bring him back and he thus becomes a zombie. So we have a vampire creating a zombie. However, when the zombie bites someone’s arm they do not zombify but become a vampire. Perhaps zompire is the better name as he is destroyed by a cross being placed on his head – in a fairly rubbish effect. This is the bit that could have done with being explained that bit more – especially as there are victims that he kills who don’t seem to return (as a vampire or zombie). There is a strange animated section accompanying a taxi driver’s tale that was out with the whole story, but was strangely interesting.
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| Hjörtur and Hulda |
So, thematically what didn’t gel as it should have done was the lgbt aspect. Hjörtur is gay and although the cult see him as the Prince of Darkness (and evil) they are painted as bonkers anyway and so that is no commentary on his sexuality. However, the fact that most of his attacks seem to involve sexual sadism feels too negative (one character he attacked certainly survived). I really got the impression that the character was meant to show a pro-lgbt agenda but the sadism undermined that. That said I liked the Hjörtur character as he was generally portrayed – an aging hippy vampire, who was slightly sad and actually excited that he had a friend.
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| Hjörtur on a sign |
My biggest issue with the film was it working out what it wanted to be. The gore moments were fun but too few, too spaced out. The humour was black but was inconsistent. The pace dragged at some of the points in between – but moments like the trippy dream or the animated story worked in its favour. It also looked a tad cheap (though I enjoyed the movement effects they put around Hjörtur). On the other hand, it’s an Icelandic vampire movie (there is only one other Icelandic movie on this blog,
Draugasaga, and that was an honourable mention for what is a ghost story), which in and of itself makes it a novelty.
5.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is
here.
On DVD @ Amazon US
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