Bloodthirst

Imagine living in a future where no one is really safe, where laws are not what they used to be since society has changed. Where clean water is no guarantee and you have to find different ways to survive. Living in an ordinary neighborhood doesn´t exist anymore and there are no traditional schools as they used to be. This may sound like a nightmare for most people but imagine if this was just a small part of how life was? This scenario is exactly what we got in the 2011 post apocalyptic horror film Priest from director Scott Stewart ( who also directed the great 2010 action horror film Legion ). What made Priest such a different film is that they combined action with horror where there is a theocrazy under an organization called The Chuch. Basically a church who serves one special purpose to save human lives. These are trained priests who are chosen to fight against vampires who have caused a lot of damage. The Priests managed to turn the tide. After the war ended between humans and vampires, the Clergy disbanded the Priests since they are no longer needed. One particular Priest ( Paul Bettany )  is approached by Hicks ( Cam Gigandet ), the sheriff of the free town of Augustine. Priest learns that his brother, Owen, and his wife, Shannon, were killed in a vampire attack while his niece Lucy ( Lilly Collins ) was kidnapped. It seems that there are still a group of vampires out there causing chaos and Priest asks the Church to reinstate his autority, but leader Monsignor Orelas ( Christopher Plummer ) does not believe there is any threat of vampires and decline his request. Priest is a fun film for a number of reasons. It is like a cheesy throwback to action films of the 90´s with horror influences included with religious messages. And i do like the idea of the battle between humans and vampires in this apocalyptic world, Definetely worth checking out on streaming or physical media if you appreciate similar films like this. I did not think we would see any apocalyptic vampire film in a while until i heard about Bloodthirst. I didn´t watch the trailer for the film just to avoid knowing as little as possible and just saw the poster instead. Produced by the very well known brothers Sonny Mahal and Michael Mahal who are really creative and have produced films such as Attack Of The Unknown, Death Count, Bridge Of The Doomed and Night Of The Tommyknockers. Bloodthirst is also directed by Michael Su who also directed one of my personal favourite western horror film in recent years Night Of The Tommyknockers. Considering several great titles in the past from Sonny Mahal and Michael Mahal, is Bloodthirst one of their best prodced films so far or is not not as good as i was hoping it would be?

In a post apocalyptic world run by vampires, the only ones who will survive are the ones who strikes back. John Shephard ( Costas Mandylor ), Vampire Hunter, is one of the humans who isn´t afraid to take on a fight against them. John´s main goal is to track down the Vampire Master ( Robert LaSardo ) and end his life, no matter what he has to do.

Imagine if you were inspired by certain ideas from classic films such as The Road Warrior and John Carpenter´s Vampires and made a completely different story. This is one way to explain the concept of Bloodthirst without giving away too much of the plot. Since i have always been of fan of vampire films in general i especially appreciate films that give us a apocalyptic approach. And this especially makes me happy to see that Bloodthirst tries to go the old school way just like James Carpenter´s Vamires did with the desert as a playground. Having vampires in the desert is actually a really good idea since they could easily attack from anywhere here, no matter if they are found in a house or a desert mine. One interesting detail that Bloodthirst does is that the vampires are not harmed by sunlight. They can attack at any hour of the day and that definetely makes them more fearful than the ordinary vampire. Since this film have plenty of characters i feel that we need to talk about some of them. Let us begin with a very well known actor known as Robert LaSardo as the character Vampire Master. I have to say i am impressed how well Robert manage to portait a vampire master, not only in his body language but especially his approach towards each victim. The way he make each victim understand that there is no way out if he have chosen to transform you comes across very clear in his attack scenes. I was especially surprised to see actress Tara Reid here as the character Vampire Queen since i have never seen her do any character like this before. I would have liked to see her do more human attacks considering she is the Vampire Queen but i still enjoy her performance. Outside of the vampire characters there is especially one character i think fits very well in the plot of this film. It is actor Costas Mandylor( who plays the character Hoffman in the Saw franchise ) as the character John Shephard. He almost feels like a combination of Mad Max and Walker Texas Ranger with a futuristic look. Always lovely to see actress Sarah French and im not surprised that she deliver another great character. Bloodthirst may be one of the more interesting vampire films i have seen in recent years for trying to combine different ideas and dare to try a different path in the apocalyptic horror genre. The vampires are effectful and the horror influences are fun enough to make this film entertaining. Director Michael Su deliver another solid film and proves that the vampire genre is surely still alive and doing well. Bloodthirst is not only for you who love some bloody fun but this is also a film especially for vampire fans in general.

Rating: DDD