"Thicker than Water: The Vampire Diaries: Part One" Review - Written by Anthony T

Thicker than Water: The Vampire Diaries: Part one
Year: 2008
Director: Phil Messerer
Studio: The Sugar Factory
Stars: Eilis Cahill, Devon Dionne, JoJo Hristova
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 86 Mins
Official Website: http://vampirediaries.wetpaint.com/




“Thicker than Water: The Vampire Diaries: Part one”, not to be confused with the CW series, is an award winning film that has won awards at such film festivals, as the Indie Gathering, Honolulu International Festival, B-Movie Film Festival, and Bare Bones International Film Festival.

The film is about a family’s world turned upside down, when the youngest daughter becomes a vampire. That happens, when Lara (Eilis Cahill), a Goth teenager, performs a intricate ritual on Helen (Devon Dionne), her younger sister. Something goes wrong, and her sister mysteriously dies in her arms. She finds out later, from her gay neuro-mad scientist brother that Helen had a strange virus in her system. Then one night, she returns home Instead of killing her, the family decide to help her, by luring victims to their house. Soon, this would take its toll on the family, as the carnage is destroying their morality, as it brings them closer with each other.

“Thicker than Water: The Vampire Diaries: Part one” is a very gothic horror film that is very effective with its direction and storytelling. Phil Messerer’s direction was very good. He does a great job capturing the dark scenery and mood of the family. It helps makes the film, very gothic and quirky. Messerer also does a great job shooting this film, by using various angles. There are also a couple of scenes, where get to see the action through the eyes of the vampires. It gave it a perspective from their point of view, which makes you interested in the vampire characters. But what really makes this film very watchable, the performances. There was not one bad performance in the film. Messerer does a great job making the performances very quirky and very subdued. It added to the darkness that this film has.

Speaking of the performances, there are great performances here from the two leads, Devon Dionne and Eilis Cahill. They both did a great job with their performances. I liked how each of them, brought a lot of emotion to their characters, as each of them has their own set of problems that they deal with through the course of the film. The performances helps make the dramatic aspects more appealing to those horror fans that want more story, instead of needless violence.

Messerer’s screenplay relies on more story and atmosphere, than mindless action and gore. He does a great job covering the aspects of everything that takes place. He does that, by fully developing each of the film’s characters, its mythology and back story. It helps you become very interest with everything going on and makes wrapped up in the story.. Messerer does a great job going into each of the family members individually, as they all had an odd and interesting quirk that makes you invested in a favorable manner. But what I liked best about the screenplay, the way he explores the relationship of between each member of the family. Messerer does that, so it allows you the viewer to follow this family through this horrifying ordeal and makes you invested in the story, not the next bloody death scene, which some of these genre films do. It helps make you get caught up in the story of the film, which really makes this a must see.

I really urge to check this film out, when playing at your local film festival, because this a very good vampire film. “Thicker than Water: The Vampire Diaries: Part One” is a very quirky and powerful horror film

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Review Rating: Five Stars