Blood Thirst

New York detective Adam Rourke (Robert Winston) is invited by a friend to help solve a string of murders that has young women killed and drained of their blood in Manila, capital of The Philippines. Filmed in black and white in 1965 this sat on the shelf before being released in 1971, playing the Grindhouse circuits. It must have looked dated even way back then. The barmy plot revolves around an hilarious but memorable man-monster who attacks lone women for their blood as part of a form of vampirism that is half occult and half scientific. The film is very talky, Winston's wisecracking cop quickly becomes tiresome, and there is more love story than horror, it's not until the final 20 minutes or so that this really lives up to its title. On the plus side the movie does have a film noir look about it, the jazzy musical score is pretty cool and we are treated to some very seductive female dancing. I had never heard of this title before despite being a horror fan for over 40 years, thank you to Talking Pictures TV (UK) for screening it. Bad movie yes but also worth a look if you like your horror a little less mainstream, AKA Blood Seekers.

This is one of those rare films that seems oddly out-of-date. Although this movie came out in 1971 the black and white film, along with the music played during the picture, made it seem like something out of the late 50's or early 60's. The reason for this was the fact that it was initially produced in 1965 by a developing film industry in the Phillipines and not shown to a world-wide audience until six years later. Even so, this wasn't a bad movie by any means. Essentially, attractive women are being killed and drained of blood on the outskirts of Manila. This has the detective in charge, "Inspector Miguel Ramos" (Vic Diaz) so baffled that he calls a friend of his in America named "Adam Rourke" (Robert Winston) to come and help him with the investigation. Things begin to happen very quickly upon his arrival which further convinces him that he is on the right track to solving the case. But time is of the essence as more and more women are being killed. Anyway, I liked the performance of Robert Winston who vaguely reminded me of George Lazenby in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I also appreciated some of the attractive actresses like Katherine Henryk (as "Sylvia Ramos"), Yvonne Nielson ("Serena") and several other uncredited ladies as well. On the other hand, other than possibly Robert Winston, the acting wasn't that great and the special effects for the "bubble-headed monster" were just plain laughable. But all things considered, I still liked it somewhat and therefore have given it an average rating.

This was made in 1965 but released in 1971 on the US grindhouse circuit - that is why the film "feels" like a 1960s film (some people don't seem to realize this).

Grindhouse? Well it's women missing and some found dead... so an American sex-crime specialist has been called in on the case by a detective friend in Manila. It's not overly bloody nor a gore-fest, it's just believed to be sex-crimes and the film was made in the Philippines.

It's better than it looks - yes it's a monster that looks like chewed bubblegum that appears at the latter part of the film (you can see that by the poster/video cover) but if you can look past that then you'll find an okay detective crime-horror film. But how does the the blood cult fit into all this? Are they Vampires? Witches? 4/10

BLOOD THIRST takes place in Manila, Philippines, where a series of grisly murders wreak havoc. The female victims are found in a signature way that's usually reserved for certain livestock. An expert from NYC named Rourke (Robert Winston) is brought in to assist the Manila police.

As Filipino films of this sort go, it's not bad. Of course, it's mostly about Rourke's investigation, and his digging ever deeper into what could be an occult conspiracy.

There are some interesting characters, like night club owner Calderon (Vic Silayan), and the beautiful, beguiling dancer, Serena (Yvonne Nielson). The killer is also of interest, since it's not clear just how human he / it is!

Almost derailed by a silly, romantic subplot, it still manages to be bizarre enough to satisfy...

Blood Thirst (1971)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Women are being found outside a nightclub with their blood drained. The police captain (Vic Diaz) has no clues and no idea of what the cause could be so he calls his detective friend (Adam Rourke) from New York to help him investigate.

BLOOD THIRST has a 1971 date on it but this B&W film was actually shot in 1965 but couldn't find anyone to release. After seeing the film it's easy to see why no one wanted to touch it because there's really not too much here to recommend. If you do happen to see the film then it's best to remember when it was made and not when it was released because the film certainly doesn't have much sexuality or violence.

The biggest problem with this film is the fact that they decided to try and milk the "mystery" surrounding the murders. There are countless scenes with the two friends sitting around trying to guess as to what's going on. All of these scenes are deadly boring and they made the 74-minute running time seem at least twice as long. What's worse is that we've got a weird looking creature that is doing the killing yet they keep him off the screen for the majority of the running time.

I mean, if you're going to have a great looking monster then why not show him off more? Surely seeing the monster attack more victims is more entertaining than watching a couple guys talk, right?