Thirst (2009)

If you have a thirst for the demented, Park Chan-wook’s Thirst is for you. Though you may hear, correctly, that this is a vampire romance, it’s miles away from Twilight, so think thrice before bringing your tween daughter. Park, the director of Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, brings his signature visual flair to the story of a priest who becomes a vampire. His faith is immediately tested by temptation to sin, represented first by the vampire’s thirst for blood but also by hunger for sex with “his neighbor’s wife.” The film focuses on the growing bond between these two and their conflicting ideas about how to live. The priest guiltily struggles to repress his vampiric instincts while his lover believes vampires should suck the marrow out of life, so to speak. As collateral damage begins to pile up around them, this philosophical argument comes to a head. Stylish, well-acted and drily funny, Thirst has a sick kick.