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Writer-director Phil Messerer clearly wanted to hit it out the park with this one. And not just any park, one of the biggest, most legendary parks in the game. Messerer dares to take on the beloved vampire mythology. Coming back to the baseball metaphor, If Messerer’s “Thicker Than Water”, the first part of a planned Vampire Diaries trilogy, is not exactly a grand slam, it is definitely a solid three-run homer.
The story concerns the Baxter family, which, at least on the surface, is no more atypical than the average American dysfunctional family: catatonic absentee dad (Anthony Morelli), Eastern European immigrant mother (JoJo Hristova), a Gay scientist son (Michael Strelow) and twin teenage girls --- one a pure and wholesome cheerleader Helen (Devon Dionne) and the other, Lara (Eilis Cahill) a Goth, with a taste for all things dark, a shrine to Anne Rice in her bedroom.
Messerer Dramatically re-conceives vampire mythology as well as presenting a revisionist take on the vampire film – a bold new vision of what vampires are and what films about them can be, in this case really emphasizing characterization and family dynamics over spooks and gore – which is not to say that there is any lack of blood-sucking.
Rather than trot out a traditional, run of the mill vampire plot, Messerer’s film is actually character-driven and benefits immeasurably from the focus on the family dynamic at the heart of the film. And, in turn, that focus on interpersonal relationships is extremely well served by some extraordinarily fine performances --- especially by Dionne and Cahill, two actresses who should be going places.
It seems like it is so rare to see a low-budget film that is so well thought out, so well-conceived to work within the financial constraints of the producers so that the story retains it’s primacy, rather than focusing on production values and special effects. So, beyond being a very good story, Messerer’s film should be a lesson to all filmmakers who aspire to quality but suffer from lack of funding: if you have a really good story, you can get away with an average production.
Of course, this is not to say that “Thicker Than Water” suffers in any way for it’s presumably modest budget, it is a very handsome film and, I think, might signal the arrival of a real up-and-coming filmmaker.
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