Thirst (1979)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kate (Chantal Contouri) is abducted by a group called The Brotherhood. She is informed that she is a direct descendant of Elizabeth Bathory as she is destined to be the baroness and part of their group. She is reluctant as the group maintains its power by drinking well tested untainted human blood from human drones they keep on a farm.Kate has a boyfriend with Hasselhoff hair and a 70's porno mustache (Rod Mullinar). He shows off his muscular butt during the love scenes. At some point in time when people like drinking blood, their eyes glow red as they insert fake metal teeth in order to bite people. That's right. The teeth do not miraculously grow, but they use dentures.Outside of the flashback to the 70's the film offers nothing in horror or to the vampire genre.Parental Guide: Sex and nudity. Chantal Contouri takes a shower, and Rod Mullinar' butt.

I can't believe I finally found some information on the movie "Thirst"! My friend tonight suggested looking it up on the internet something I hadn't even thought of! I was telling her about this fantastic vampire horror movie I saw when I was young, in my home town in country NSW . I've always wondered what happened to it & a few years ago went to video stores trying to find out any information.(no-one had heard of it). Then I read in a magazine a few years later a very brief article that mentioned the Australian movie Thirst, & though delighted that I didn't imagine seeing the movie, was shocked that it was Australian.(I don't know how I didn't remember that.) Then I gave up finding anything else on it. Though young, at the time I thought the storyline was so unique and different, though scared out of my wits thought it was a brilliant movie. I was surprised later on that no-one I knew had ever heard of it! I didn't know why! So I'm so glad I found this site. I would love to see the movie again to see if it's as good as I remember, so if anyone knows how I can get hold of it please let me know. Thanks. Kylie.

Below is the first paragraph of my review of another genre-breaking film, Robin Campillo's Les Revenants (2004): My memory of the 1979 Australian film Thirst turns on a single misleading image: blood in milk cartons on supermarket shelves. Well-heeled shoppers push carts to and fro down spic-and-span aisles. Though the film's creators hadn't the nerve, or perhaps the imagination, to carry through -- their vampires are conventionally dangerous since the blood in the cartons is human -- that image broke genre. It suggested a maligned, maybe ghettoized yet worldwide minority not just making do but thriving. To analogize any of several possible real world minorities would be wrong, considering where the film goes. But if Thirst were newer, we'd wonder, is the blood in the cartons artificial, created humanely in a lab? Is it vampire "soy milk"? Are these vegan vampires? Whatever the answer, in that supermarket image Thirst's vampires are us. They're no more horrific than we are. The genre collapses.

I'm a big fan of ingenuity in movies, and if a film offers something different from what has gone before it; it's bound to be liked by me. Thirst offers a new take on the classic vampire legend, and it works to fairly good effect. While it retains some aspects of the classic vampire story (fangs for example), it adds enough in to make it unique and the whole idea of vampires farming humans for blood is both ingenious and fascinating, while leaving lots of room for the film to create something fresh and exciting out of it. The plot harks back to the beginnings of the vampire legend with a descendant of one of it's founding figures; Elizabeth Bathory. This descendant is tracked down by a vampiric cult that wants to induct her into their ways. This cult owns a place called "the farm", in which they effectively farm humans for their blood, in much the same way as we farm cows for milk. The descendant, as you might expect doesn't want to be a part of this cult but they persevere and what follows is a psychological horror film, as she gradually makes her decent into madness.Thirst is extremely surreal, and it capitalises on the strange idea of humans being farmed very effectively. The cleanness of the operation clashes well with the macabre element of the film, and the result is a setting that is totally unique to this movie. The psychological element of the story is very well done, which is lucky as it makes up the backbone of the film. It's constantly invigorating as we watch our heroine descend into madness, and through the way that the story is told we are never really sure of what's going on; much like our central character. The music helps to emphasise this confusion, as it's pounding tones continually bewilder the viewer. The film's problems are mainly in the beginning as it's relatively slow to start, which may annoy some viewers (including me, somewhat) and also the plot can get a little too confusing at certain points. Still, in spite of that; this is a more than admirable take on the classic legend and it all boils down to an exciting climax, which ensures that the film ends on a high.