Blutdurst

Greetings and salutations; welcome to my review of Thirst 1979

The story gets a 1.25 out of 2: The Direction and Pace receive a 2.5 out of 4: The Performances get a 1 out of 2: And my Enjoyment level hits a 1.25 out of 2:

Giving Thirst a 6 out of 10:

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this picture, and I recently came across the title. Admittedly, I dislike it when writers begin messing around with a monsters mythos: in this case, the Vampyre. I was surprised to find myself being drawn deeper into the progressing tale. John Pinkney carries out a splendid job of constructing a modern Vampyre fable. These are not your night-stalking blood drinkers. No! These creatures can walk by day and have developed an ominous way of farming their beverage of necessity. These thieves of life discover Kate Davis to be the only surviving descendant of the notorious Elizabeth Bathory, and they undertake anything to usher her into their fold. So will the industrial and corporate side of vampirism defeat the older Monarchy's rule? Though this modern take is a breath of fresh air to the sub-genre, there is more to keep your attention. Pinkney adds nightmare scenes and elaborate operatic rituals, which adds to the strength of the story.

The strength of the film comes from Rod Hardy as he directs with a deft hand. On the whole, he keeps the direction pretty standard, which helps to build a feeling of normalcy into the telling. When something shocking happens, it's not overemphasised, and you're left temporarily believing it could happen. But when we get to the nightmare sections, the lights are lowered, and the shadows grow deep and ominous. It's subtle but represents such a contrast to the norm it works to heighten the tension.

I will furthermore say Thirst possesses one of the best opening sequences of any horror film. I loved it. It's the ideal way to hook the viewer. That said, there were times when the film could have upped the tempo a tad. A few overly long scenes begin tapping at dullness's door. But they are few.

One irk I did have with the film is that, even though it's not a special effects showcase, the effects they did show were poor: The double exposure red-eyes made me sigh with disgrace. Granted, at the time, they couldn't have done it any other way. But still, it would have looked dated then as it does today.

Next, there's the acting. I am sure Hardy asked them to be as utterly every day as they could be. Because of this, there's little spark in their personalities. Dr Fraser (David Hemmings) furthers his agenda for helping Kate (Chantel Contouri), but you don't feel he's that driven. And, the characters in the movie suffer from the same malady: Everyone needed a bit more oomph to them. It helps to create the normalcy of the happenings on the farm; everyone is going about their ordinary lives. However, in one scene, a walking blood bottle asks Kate to be kind to his friend because she would be frightened. After all, Kate had chosen her to be the one. This mundanity at knowing you're nothing more than a walking supply of blood is annoying. Nobody in the herd is rising against their suckers. It's merely life Jim, but not as we know it. Hence, when there should be conflict, no matter how small, there's just this plodding normality.

This downside could be due to the writing or the direction. But my point is the actors and actresses are so good at being ordinary that it hurts the film. I can't believe I'm saying this, but a smidgen of wooden or ham acting would have been nice. Not everybody is this mundane.

It's a minor issue though, and I would recommend all horror and macabre lovers to give Thirst a viewing, at least once. Who knows, you may enjoy it so much you may even take a second or third look.

Come on over to my Killer Thriller Chiller and Absolute Horror lists to see where Thirst resides in my charts.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Thinly-plotted but fun vampire tale.

Chantal Contouri plays a businesswoman kidnapped by a league of vampires who run a remote farm where mindless humans are routinely harvested for their blood, which is then packaged in milk cartons.

Shirley Cameron wonderfully high-camp performance as a sinister sect insider. Henry Silva and David Hemmings were likely included to help assure the film's box office success but make less of an impression.

This murky oddity is great fun and well made on eerie locations in Victoria Australia at a real scary place that actually exists called MontSalvat 'castle' by 70s drive in auteur Antony Ginnane. He also made a very strong Carrie like thriller called Patrick. Other Aussie thrillers of the time include Summerfield and The Chain Reaction.

THIRST should be a cult film but lacks the 35mm availability for cinemas to make it exactly that. Like Rocky Horror, Legend Of Hell House or Phantom Of The Paradise, all part of a mad parochial horror cycle of the 70s. Find it and have a great time. You will love the, er, milking scenes.........Antony..your films are languishing! get em out there again!

An Aussie vampire film? Never would have thought. Not to denigrate my country's film industry, but ... well, it's not known for producing bloodsucker flicks. The exception is this little oddity, released in 1979 and now hidden away in the 'horror' section of video stores across the country.

Having heard of the film for several yrs, and seen the cover at my local video store (Chantal Contouri drenched in gore), I decided to check it out. The result: one of the most genuinely horrifying films to emerge from Australia in recent decades. Not horrifying in the sense of 'The Delinquents', where it's horrifyingly bad and let's just sit back and have a good laugh. I am talking, this film is a recorded bad dream. Reality and nightmare blur, blood spurts, and Amanda Muggleton sneers as one of our screen's most genuinely evil villains. Contouri was fantastic, too, as the hapless young woman abducted and brought to a blood farm and made to honour her ancestor, Elisabeth Bathory - bloodsucker extraordinaire, and the figure at the heart of those other 70s horror films 'Countess Dracula' and 'Daughters of Darkness'. The scene where she sprouted fangs and kills a colleague really jolted this horror movie afficionado.

Visually, the film has dated: the hairstyles are tres out-of-date, and the colour cinematography was reminisce of those chocolate commercials I grew up watching on TV as a young boy in Melbourne. Problems also lay in the script's lack of depth. There was no psychological make-up to the characters, they had no history - and this made it very hard to relate to them on an emotional level (Contouri's character in particular). Nevertheless, this is an intriguing and eerie film that will appeal to fans of Australian cinema and horror films alike.

The descendant of Elizabeth Bathory is abducted by a cult of self-proclaimed supermen who achieve this state of superiority by drinking from the "blood cows" kept at the "dairy farm", and they try to get her to join them.

This Ozploitation film has nice gore effects, plenty of blood, and a plot that can only be seen as a reversal of other Bathory tales, where now the usual monster is the persecuted one. We even get a sweet, pseudo-Catholic ceremony in Latin.

The film did not do well at the local box office. Nevertheless, it was highly regarded by influential American film critic Leonard Maltin, who gave it three stars out of four. Although Maltin is often wrong, he might have been right this time -- this one went under the radar, but probably never should have.