Genre Character of the Week: Father Sang-Hyeon

During my month exiled to the world of Twilight, I made a few excursions into mainstream horror to keep my spirits up. One of the most surprising of these was the Korean horror film Thirst (I’m not sure why I was surprised, it was made by the guy who directed Oldboy and starred the guy from my favourite giant monster film of the decade, The Host). The film focuses on a good man (a priest) who after volunteering for an experimental drug, is transformed into a vampire. This week we’ll look at at this priest, Father Sang-Hyeon.

The genius of the film comes from the first half hour, in which we are shown just how good a guy our protagonist is, we follow him through his duties of ministering to the sick in a hospital, taking confessions and basically being a decent human being who is becoming overwhelmed by all the real-life horror and death in the world. After volunteering for an experimental drug study, he is infected by a terrible disease (he writes comforting letters to his parishioners so they won’t worry about him), and dies. Then, due to a tainted blood donation he receives, he comes back as a vampire.

The rest of the film follows this simple man as his moral compass is spun, twisted and virtually destroyed by his new-found condition. He falls in love with a girl being abused by her family and their relationship starts sweetly, then becomes incredibly intense and eventually turns very dark.

As I said in one of my posts on the Twilight Saga, this film has, in my opinion one of the more logical outcomes of a romance between a human and a vampire, it is intriguing, amazing, frightening, and ultimately tragic, as the best stories about vampires are.

Twilight of Bookmonkey: Day 28 – The End

And after twenty eight days and thirteen posts my month of Twilight is drawing to a close. What amazes me is how little of the world of Twilight I have actually explored; there are still websites, cookbooks, contests, magazines, documentaries and dozens of spoof videos that I was hoping to get around to blogging about.

What have I learned from my experience in the world of Bella, Edward and Jacob? Basically the following five things.

5) Do not read the Twilight Saga if you like fight scenes – try reading R.A. Salvatore instead.

4) Do not declare yourself part of Team Edward in my hometown (which is decidedly Team Jacob) – My BFF Mike got me a Team Edward Backpack (it even has a picture of Robert Pattinson on it!) and I got nothing but dirty looks on my various outings throughout town.

3) My wife is a saint – she sat through half of New Moon and a bunch of Twilight while I watched and put up with the books as dinner conversation for the last month. Even I would have made me sleep on the couch by the second week.

2) The first and third books are the strongest. If you are interested in reading any of these books, I would honestly stick with the first one – they kind of go downhill from there.

1) If you would like to read some great Supernatural Romance fiction featuring a vampire, try the works of Tanya Huff or Charlaine Harris before you read these (the books are a lot more fun). If you would like to watch some great Supernatural Romance movies, check out Near Dark, The 1992 Dracula (yes the one with Keanu Reeves), or the Swedish movie Let the Right One In – all these films are darker in tone, but quite rewarding - and for the most honest look I have ever seen at how a Supernatural Romance with a vampire would actually end up, see Thirst (but not with any kids, or people who get squeamish around blood, or... well anyone who doesn't like horror, actually.) Which was such a surprisingly good horror flick it will definitely get a review next month.

This last month has been in turns, intriguing, revolting, disturbing, boring, frustrating, horrifying (in the good way – seriously by the time the scary scene happens in New Moon I was getting fearful for my sanity and that brief glimpse of horror did help me get through), and I suppose rewarding. Now when I complain about the series I can do it as someone who has put in the work.

Happy Halloween Everyone!