Thirst

Trailer—Thirst

A modern, clinical approach to a vampire tale with a group of experts trying to ensure that a young woman willingly joins a vampire cult. By controlling her environment, playing psychological tricks and mind games on the unfortunate girl they hope that they will have succeeded in their task before her boyfriend returns home and finds her missing. There are those who will stop at nothing until she succumbs, regardless of the detriment to her state of mind, and those who are determined that she will embrace their lifestyle without coming to any mental harm. There are numbers of anaemic looking people wandering about, looking decidedly lethargic and boring, which the story was in danger of doing also. The plot, however, does have a number of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the final outcome. . Directed by Rod Hardy who has many film and TV series to his credit, including Battlestar Galactica, The X Files and JAG, to name a few. He uses his talent to good effect, but is helped by David Hemmings, whose acting ability lifted the film from what could otherwise have been a dreary outing. The majority of cast in this Australian film have been more familiar with appearing in a variety of TV series, and the outing onto the big screen was perhaps as much as an experience for them, as watching the film was to me. If your idea of a vampire movie is one with bats, capes, crucifixes and coffins, then this is not for you. But, it is still worth a look. Darnmay 9th September 2007

Great idea, poor execution. To begin with, the actress playing Kate Davis is so bad. Poor acting. Poor looks. Perhaps I should not be so harsh. But sorry not sorry. The woman looks ugly. And her acting is wooden and monotonous. How about the story? Well... The vampires went through all that trouble, just to convert the descendant of Bathory to their ways? For what purpose? Why do they need HER so badly? The backstory about the vampire society and their traditions remains to be told. Ugly actress. Poor storytelling that drags on and on. Dated graphics from 1979. Maybe a remake will realize the potential of the ideas such as "descendant" and "blood farm". But it's not a big deal if this piece of Aussie vampire crap is forgotten, collecting dust on a library shelf.

Kate Davis (Chantal Contouri) is abducted by a group that has been watching her every move. It seems that she's an descendant of Elizabeth 'the Blood Countess' Bathory, yes the Hungarian * herself. This secret cabal of wealthy individuals feed on peasants who live on a commune. It's not hard to find the ripe political symbolism there. It feels like it goes on to long, and the vampire 'effects' are incredible silly. One couldn't help but feel that the movie would have been better served by going to its approach to vampirism the same way as "Martin" did. My Grade: C- DVD Extras: Commantary track; Isolated film score; Filmographies; Photo Gallery Theatrical Trailer; and 3 TV spots Eye Candy: Chantal Contouri shows breasts

The horror genre often seems particularly apt to produce full length movies out of material that is really only suitable for half hour, or if we're being generous, one hour long episodes. What we end up with are movies as tedious as "Thirst", something that begins to recall the dreamlike vampire garbage of filmmaker Jean Rollin not due to style but somnambulance. The constant repetition of shots of blood being drawn from people and people being led around to have blood drawn from them almost puts you to sleep - not exactly a virtue in a horror film. There are a few more lively moments, such as b-movie king Henry Silva dying from a fall from a helicopter onto power lines, but that is far, far too little, far, far too late. The shots of people actually drinking blood are nowhere near as shocking as the movie seems to think. We know it's about vampires - that's established during the opening moments. What's shocking is that it takes so long for the movie to depict that, as if we hadn't caught on by then. "Inn of the Damned" was also a blown up episode, but at least it was a great episode. Nothing happens in "Thirst" for over an hour of its run-time. Its ending is also trite and predictable, and basically nothing the movie hasn't already shown us or told us. Yeah, so one girl is now a vampire too. Is that supposed to be surprising? It is obvious right from the beginning that they are trying to turn her into one. And David Hemmings' inclusion - who cares? He rushes through this movie like an uncomfortable, ageing Rik Mayall (RIP), but without his sense of purpose. He looks inconvenienced about being in the movie. I felt his frustration. Even today there does seem something original and frightening about the concept of vampires owning and running a hospital like facility for their prey. It's just a shame that this movie does absolutely nothing interesting with the idea.

In this late 70's Australian horror, Kate Davis is abducted by a strange Brotherhood, a secret society of vampires, and is taken to their farm where humans are kept as cattle to feed upon. There Kate learns that she is a direct descendant of Elizabeth Bathory, but refuses to accept her birthright as a vampire that the Brotherhood are determined she will inherit. Good, atmospheric horror has good acting, direction and score, and the modern day vampire farm theme is certainly interesting. Not much character development or plot, but great production, special effects (for the time) and direction means this film is well worth watching. 8 out of 10.

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!

Interesting, ambitious take on vampire horror stories is good - if you get past the 70's music and *-style hair+moustache!! Chantal Contouri is a wealthy young woman who is told she comes from a strong family of vampires...enter a BRAVE NEW WORLD-type scenario in which subjects "donate" blood, which is packaged in milk cartons and delivered to all the vampires living in the outside world. It's overlong, and overdramatic for such a story, but it's worth a look all the same - genre fans should enjoy it, as should fans of Australian film: this was definitely a landmark, as most films released by this country during the late 1970s were either "ocker" (BARRY McKENZIE, ALVIN PURPLE) or "quality" (PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, BACKROADS, DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND). Of course, MAD MAX was released in the same year. Rating: 6/10.

Generally the movie is slow, but memorable. I remember watching this when I was a teenager. It was shown on Channel 50's "Creature Feature" sometime in the mid-80's. The plot is as mentioned in the other comments here, but I remember most the vampire Candid Camera moment when the main actress is undergoing forced "vampirization" therapy which consists of a the fake vampire cult sneaking human blood into everything. Initially shocking, when carried to multiple instances it all becomes hilarious. The scenes that stick in my mind. The lady goes to the fridge, opens up a milk carton, drinks from it and (SURPRISE!) you see blood streaming down from the edges of her mouth. She reacts as if nearly vomiting and the shock diminishes as these instances are repeated like a series of bloody pranks. It seems like she cannot eat or drink anything without it having blood previously injected into it. She goes on a picnic with her cute mustached boyfriend, bites into a deep fried chicken leg and golly gee, it also is squirting out blood like some weird prank. The one uplifting star of wannabe "Vampire Candid Camera" is that there is a fellow that I mistook for Patrick Macnee (one of the stars of the 1966 British TV series "The Avengers"), but he only plays a minor role.

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.