Director: Phil Messerer (2008)
Starring: Eilis Cahill, Devon Bailey, Jojo Hristova, Michael Strelow
Another vampire film, but thankfully free of sparkling vampires. Any modern vampire film in which the vampires don’t sparkle or fall in love is fine by me. Thicker Than Water: The Vampire Diaries (Part 1) does not feature sparkling vampires and nobody falls in love. That automatically earns it a Scream Queen in my book. Or on my blog, as it were.
Anyway, Thicker Than Water is described by writer/director Phil Messerer as a heady mix of The Evil Dead and, um The Royal Tenenbaums. With its low budget and its vampires, one would think that Thicker Than Water should really be shit. I feel quite bad in that I did expect not to enjoy this film. But no, the film really is quite good, which is a nice change.
Thicker Than Water tells the story of the Baxter family, a set of ordinary suburban folks whose world is turned upside down when one of their daughters is turned into a vampire. The film is narrated by Lara (Cahill), a precocious young Goth. After her more popular sister, Helen (Bailey) humiliates Lara on their 16th birthday, the bitter Goth lays an Anne Rice style curse down on Helen’s bimbo ass. This culminates with her sister becoming a daylight-avoiding bloodsucker. The family close ranks to protect their infected brethren, hiding her away and feeding her on random passers-by.
In terms of plot, there’s not a terrible amount going on, but there doesn’t really need to be. Thicker Than Water shines with its funny, intelligent script and good performances from its leading players. The direction rises above its low budget in that you can really see the influence of Sam Raimi and even Wes Anderson in there. Fans of vampire fiction will really enjoy this movie, since it respects the usual tropes whilst also bringing something new to the table. It doesn't skimp on the gore either, which is always good.
Thicker Than Water won a bunch of festival awards, and its easy to see why. It copes with its low budget better than most, combining a snappy, witty script with some great gore and an intelligently executed concept. It’s a good job that the ending sets itself up for a sequel, since I’ll eagerly await further entries to the Vampire Diaries.
Anyway, Thicker Than Water is described by writer/director Phil Messerer as a heady mix of The Evil Dead and, um The Royal Tenenbaums. With its low budget and its vampires, one would think that Thicker Than Water should really be shit. I feel quite bad in that I did expect not to enjoy this film. But no, the film really is quite good, which is a nice change.
Thicker Than Water tells the story of the Baxter family, a set of ordinary suburban folks whose world is turned upside down when one of their daughters is turned into a vampire. The film is narrated by Lara (Cahill), a precocious young Goth. After her more popular sister, Helen (Bailey) humiliates Lara on their 16th birthday, the bitter Goth lays an Anne Rice style curse down on Helen’s bimbo ass. This culminates with her sister becoming a daylight-avoiding bloodsucker. The family close ranks to protect their infected brethren, hiding her away and feeding her on random passers-by.
In terms of plot, there’s not a terrible amount going on, but there doesn’t really need to be. Thicker Than Water shines with its funny, intelligent script and good performances from its leading players. The direction rises above its low budget in that you can really see the influence of Sam Raimi and even Wes Anderson in there. Fans of vampire fiction will really enjoy this movie, since it respects the usual tropes whilst also bringing something new to the table. It doesn't skimp on the gore either, which is always good.
Thicker Than Water won a bunch of festival awards, and its easy to see why. It copes with its low budget better than most, combining a snappy, witty script with some great gore and an intelligently executed concept. It’s a good job that the ending sets itself up for a sequel, since I’ll eagerly await further entries to the Vampire Diaries.
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ReplyDeleteGreat review as always man. This sounds like something that I'd be into. BTW how do you find such obscure titles like this. Oh, I added a link to you on my page, it would be cool if you could add me, I'm just starting my own site.
ReplyDeletewww.thebloodyhorror.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteheres the link...i feel really stupid now