Thirst

And here I am endorsing a vampire movie — and it's not even German. Given the sheer volume of bloodsucker cinema out there (Count Dracula alone has appeared in over 200 films, just shy of the record held by Sherlock Holmes) I'm guessing we've had to endure vampire priests on screen before now. Aside from the likelihood that every vampire iteration has been worked through, Christendom does have a particular weakness for baroque portraiture of spiritual confliction. I'm aware of two comics that explore such characters: the American Astro City and the manhwa Priest (both unread by me). I'd like to imagine the premise has been exploited primarily for caustic satire, but apologetic allegory seems more likely.

Thirst...I'm not sure which it is. Which is partly why I like it. Chan-wook Park has been artfully playing with blood for so long the vampire genre is a natural, perhaps inevitable fit. He gives us two principals pacted into a yin yang tug and fuck: the conscientious clergymen tortured by his accidental commitment to a liquid diet and the amoral hedonistic minx who mocks him. The superhuman particulars of vampirism are treated with almost throwaway casualness (of a sudden and without fanfare seemingly normal priest hops off a building), which is tasteful because by now we're overfamiliar with it all; Park knows to just get on with the story. It's a simple story poetically told, as is Park's strength, and not without its complement of twisted humor and kink.

The thing I love about Catholic priests is how much they hate themselves. They do my job for me.