Bloodthirst – review

Director: Michael Su

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

The apocalypse has happened… that’s the premise of this 2023 film set in the Nevada dessert and it is a low budget flick that had some pretty good vamp imagery (even if the white face chalk was heavily used) but struggled with its narrative and threw in a plethora of characters that were underused.

What type of apocalypse it was isn’t particularly commented on and I think we have to assume it was a vampire apocalypse, rather than the vamps taking advantage of devastating war or ecological disaster. We have, according to information at the head of the film, two opposing vampire factions and both of them and the humans are facing extinction.

attacking the farmer

It starts at a desert farm and the farmer (Denny Nolan) and his wife (the woefully underused, blink and miss her Eileen Dietz) are tending a farm, when a group of strangers approach. Dressed in black, with goggles, hoods and looking like escapees from a Goth rock video – the vampires are visually stereotypes. They swaddle but the sun doesn’t actually seem to be an issue. Anyway, they are going to eat the wife but the leader (Robert LaSardo) bites the famer but doesn’t kill him, allowing him to turn. A couple of travellers are in a loft and are spotted. They meet their end, one committing hari-kari rather than turning.

Costas Mandylor as Shepard

A man in a long coat, mask and googles, and accompanied by the slightest breeze of Spaghetti Western tunage, gets out of a vehicle – he has a crossbow in hand. His name is John Shepard (Costas Mandylor, Kiss of the Vampire) and he is a vampire hunter. He enters a building and finds a body. He is sat having a drink (of water presumably) when he thwarts a thief, Charlie (Johnny Huang), who claims the body is that of his mother. Shepard buries her but knows full well she was not Charlie’s mother. Charlie aims to stay with him and they travel together after the thief retrieves a police car.

the vampire queen

The Master vampire approaches a building and a woman runs inside and warns the survivors hiding there that vampires are coming. They aim to get out the back (but end up down in a root cellar!) and the woman and one other stay for when the vampires come in. They deny any others being there but have to take the vampires into the cellar immediately. The humans are going to be a food store for a little while, one woman is bitten and left to turn whilst handcuffed to her daughter, for sh*ts and giggles. Eventually the Master’s vampire queen (Tara Reid, A Return to Salem’s Lot) pitches up and he is summoning more of his bloodline. We do see the opposing Master, who accuses this one of betraying him and is in a permanent monster mode.

the sisters

As for Shepard and Charlie they come across a woman (Dee Cutrone) who gives Shepard a cross (we see the cross not working when wielded by a survivor at the master) and says a man of the cloth needs one – so he was clearly, once, a priest. They then meet a biker (whose bike has run out of fuel) named Rico (Rich R. Rendon) and then also meet a pair of sisters, Elena (Elissa Dowling) and Brooke (Sarah French, the Night Watchmen & Blood Bride). The sisters kill the farmer vampire with garlic laced shotgun shells – though Shepard suggests garlic doesn’t work and so it is no surprise when the farmer returns to undeath and bites their Dad (William 'Bill' Connor). Dad had already arranged for Shepard to speak to militia leader Torque (Bishop Stevens, Family Blood) to enlist help finding the master.

vampiric death

So, garlic didn’t work against vampires, sunlight didn’t, we hear that they tried stakes to no avail and crosses didn’t work. Yet, for some reason crosses fired from a crossbow does work for the hunter, causing red lightning to emerge like a charge across the farmer vampire before he dies. The cross Shepard was given also has an apotropaic impact. Is it down to his true faith? We don't know. He was also bitten and didn’t turn for reasons unknown. Unfortunately, we do not get any real background from the film. We can suppose it was something to do with the master, as stabbing the master causes the same red lightning to affect both the master and the hunter; with the master also feeling the death of the farmer, it is clear that he is connected to those he turns. He also knows Shepard by his first name. It is frustrating that we aren’t told.

this cross doesn't work

It is also frustrating that we have loads of characters and little more than stereotypes. Every vampire looks like they have escaped from the same Goth rock video and spends the time hissing and being growly. The militia are (bar one) criminal and rapey. There are things in film that didn’t gel like the farm from the opening scene apparently being untouched through the full, extinction level event. Or the father and daughters having a still to make alcohol, for the running of vehicles, that they give to the militia as a “tax”. Its not that alcohol can’t be used to run an engine, its that the pitifully small box of bottles/jars would be unlikely to keep their fleet of military vehicles moving!

the other master vampire

Most of the acting is borderline passable – but any failing is more because the actors had little to work with. The film does set itself up for a sequel and, to be fair, did more than many of the budget films out there but needed to develop characters, explain the narrative and perhaps it is a case that less would have been more. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK