VOD of the Dead - BLOODTHIRST (2023)
Genre mashups are to horror as ethnic fusion restaurants are to dining. They bring together seemingly separate ideas (or cuisines) and borrow from each other to create something that is both familiar and novel at the same time. Much like the Korean taco phase that gripped LA in the early 2000s, genre mashups in horror are not going anywhere and seemingly get more creative with each passing year. While some are more successful than others, the best examples of this hybrid are able to pique your interest by defying your expectations of what is to come, while also marrying ideas that alone may not work, but blended offer up something more engaging. This is the task at hand for the newest horror/sci-fi/action mashup from Lionsgate, the post-apocalyptic vampire actioner Bloodthirst. Is this mashup a match made in horror heaven, or is it just a badly muddled cocktail of weak ideas?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
In a post-apocalyptic world run by vampires, only the strong survive. John Shepard, Vampire Hunter, is one of them. John has to track down and eliminate the master vampire before he himself gets turned.
HOW IS IT?
The line between serious and silly is a hard one to balance sometimes, and it can make all the difference in how well-received some high-concept horror movies are. Without having a clear sense of tone to guide the performances many films simply fail to either scare you because they are too absurd or worse, make you groan instead of laugh at unintentionally cringe moments of supposed humor. Bloodthirst is the rare example of a film where everyone behind and in front of the camera is confident in both the tone and the vision of this vampire-ridden futuristic landscape. Playing a mix between The Road Warrior and John Carpenter’s Vampires, Bloodthirst demonstrates that if you put all the right people together you can make one hell of an entertaining vampire flick that is the right amounts of serious and silly proportionally applied.
Bloodthirst follows vampire hunter John Shepard (COSTAS MANDYLOR) who is one of the handful of surviving humans actively taking offensive action against the ruling vampire class. The world we see in Bloodthirst isn’t large, but it feels grand in its vision and lore. Unlike so many other interpretations of the fearless fanged ones, these vampires can go out during the day so long as they have black robes to shield the sun from their skin. In spite of this huge pivot in lore, there isn’t a lot of reasoning to do this aside from getting the benefit of filming during the daytime. Still, the vampires themselves are led by a King (ROBERT LASARDO) and a Queen (TARA REID) who are actively seeking to hunt down and bleed dry as many humans as possible. While on paper this may sound a bit overdone, in practice these tweaks in the formula offer up a genre-mashing hybrid of sci-fi and horror that fans of more action-adventure-oriented fare are sure to enjoy. Alongside the focus on action is also a heavy serving of blood squibs and jugular sprays to tide folks over who seek more bloodshed. The special effects work is above average, especially with some of the more gruesome scenes while the look of some of the vampires is a bit uninspired. Nevertheless, this doesn’t detract from the film’s entertainment value as long as you are okay with a little bit of cheese on your post-apocalyptic vampire taco.
The aforementioned “cheese” in this case is that there are times when the lack of budget sometimes makes some of the more complex ideas fall a bit short of their intended impact. Like the voice modification, which seems to be a product of adding more menace to the vampires' voices. In reality, it makes some of their dialogue really hard to hear and is more annoying than anything. That said, everyone in this movie is playing this material straight and that elevates this to be far better than your average high-concept horror you’re bound to find on SyFy. Every actor is delivering a straight-faced performance that over the course of the runtime is more endearing than eye-rolling. The comparison to Carpenter’s Vampires largely stems from that same playfulness, albeit Carpenter’s film is far more crass, and that the efficacy of the story is tied to how much you like seeing these characters on screen. If James Woods wasn’t as charismatic in Carpenter’s film, it would’ve been a vastly inferior film. The same can be said here of the performances of Mandylor and LaSardo who each play their part with respect, and seem to be having a lot of fun doing it.
LAST RITES
Bloodthirst is an entertaining genre mashup that brings together post-apocalyptic vampires and a slew of character actors all turning in great performances. While fans of more serious fare may not enjoy all the elements, one can’t deny how much fun the film is and how audacious the vision is.
THE GORY DETAILS
Directed By
Written By
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Where can you watch it?
Bloodthirst - Available NOW on Digital, On Demand, and DVD!
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