Movie Review: ‘THE THOMPSONS’

Many can recall the surge of films that came out under the “8 Films to Die For” imprint a few years back. While there were some that shall remain nameless, one of the surprises of the festival of films was The Hamiltons. The Hamiltons were a family of vampires that made a tragic mistake that almost cost them dearly. Enter The Thompsons, which is the sequel to The Hamiltons. Same family, different name,and different result.

The reason they are called the Thompsons now is because the clan of vampires is on the run. So much that they head to merry old England to unite with a clan known as the Stuarts. In a sense the Stuarts steal the first portion of the film as they show to have intentions of getting rid of the male Thompsons and taking the women for their brides. In a sense the Stuarts know the Thompsons are desperate and look to exploit it to the fullest. The film starts out with a huge amount of potential as the brothers go through the events that lead up to Francis being placed in a box. Of course it’s done by the Stuarts as they unravel a plan to get rid of the Hamiltons all together. They soon forget how strong a bond the Hamiltons have.

The caption for The Thompsons is “Twilight meets Tarantino!” I’d love to ask the creators of the caption to tell me which Tarantino film? For sure, there is more Twilight than anything as a few young romances ensue between the Stuarts and Hamiltons. The main problem with this film is it’s just plain boring. Most of the violent parts of the film were set up to move the story along but it really didn’t help. There is a ton of dialogue in the film and the acting is good but not stellar.  I think if they would have went through the story being shown instead of told, it would have killed some of the monotony. I was real surprised by the lack of blood and gore in this film. The Hamiltons are a bloody clan but there is hardly any gore in this film, which for a vampire film is pretty bad (see Twilight).

The look of The Thompsons is pretty good and I’m sure the Butcher Brothers will be busy in the next few years doing a fantastic job with the location scouting for future projects as it seems to be their strength. The setting in the film is well done and the look of the film will lead you to believe that there is a nice budget behind this. This maybe is the reason why there is not a lot of gore. Also, they may have been going for a more mainstream appeal with this film hence the Twilight caption. Overall, it didn’t work for them. There is a chance for a third movie here, but if it’s as stale as this one, they should just move on. The main questions is what would it be called? I hope if they do return with a third film they go back to the bloody mayhem that made the Hamiltons/Thompsons the family we expect them to be.

The Thompsons is directed  by The Butcher Brothers and stars Mackenzie Firgens, Elizabeth Henstridge, Cory Knauf and Ryan Hartwig and is available to rent and own now.