The Thirsty Dead (1974)

Expected more

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

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

"The Thirsty Dead" tells the story of several young women kidnapped in Manila and brought into the jungle to become victims of an immortality cult. When one of its leaders falls in love with his victim, he beguns to question his actions and regrets.This is probably one of the movies that was designed to be scandalous by depicting semi-dressed girls. Nowadays, you can barely say that a lot of sexuality plays a role here, which offers the chance to focus more on the storyline. There are some logical errors and I wouldn't call the plot a whole lot creative but to be fair it delivers a stringent story that is not worse than many other low-budget action/adventure movies. I even liked some elements of the production and I think with a little more focus on those this could have been a decent film.All in all you shouldn't expect too much from this piece, however if you are looking for distortion and are willing to accept a rather fantastic plot, you can still have some fun with this film.

Shot in the Philippines, Z-grade horror The Thirsty Dead opens with voluptuous go-go dancer Claire (Judith McConnell) gyrating wildly in a cage as drunken sailors ogle admiringly. Shortly after her entertaining routine, the woman is abducted by hooded assailants, and the film goes rapidly downhill from thereon in.Together with three other women—blonde beauty Ann (Fredricka Meyers), Filipino cutie Bonnie (Chiqui da Rosa), and Laura (Jennifer Billingsley), who ain't so attractive—Claire is transported to the remote jungle headquarters of a strange cult who drink a potion consisting of human blood and leaves that keeps them eternally young. Imprisoned in a papier-mâché cave, the girls are forced to wear sexy bikinis and are drugged for the bleeding ritual, all except for Laura, who is given the opportunity to enjoy immortality thanks to her resemblance to a painting by cult member Baru (John Considine). However, Laura isn't wild on the idea of eternity in a cave and refuses to drink the potion; together with the other three girls, she makes a bid for freedom.As attractive as Claire, Ann and Bonnie are in their skimpy get-ups, The Thirsty Dead is still extremely hard going, a dreadfully sluggish pace, boring dialogue, a distinct lack of action, wooden performances, and lousy production values all taking their toll on the viewer. Not-so-special effects include the slicing of one of the girl's neck with a knife and the subsequent healing of the wound using a special leaf, a disembodied living head in a glass box (around which bucktoothed cult priestess Ranu, played by Tani Guthrie, does a tribal dance), and the rapid ageing of Baru as he goes beyond the cult's 'Ring of Age' in a bid to help the women escape (after a surprising change of heart).

Now this is a strange one! I'm not sure what thought process would lead to the making of such a film, and I'm pretty sure, despite the American leads, that this must be a Fillipino production. It's a strange mix of cult, vampire, jungle adventure with some hilarious fashions and grooviness chucked in for a laugh. Sure, it's all very tame and slow moving, but when the cheese in the mix is a strong Gorgonzola, you can forgive such shortcomings.Chicks are being kidnapped from the streets of Manila, including Laura (who's just refused a marriage proposal from her boyfriend) and Claire, who dances in a cage and actually seems quite excited about being made a white slave, plus two others, and are transported through the jungle by some guys to an underground cave system, where everyone worships a disembodied head that lives in a red glass box (and talks!). Seems like Laura might be the chosen one, as the high priest drew a picture of her (check out this guy's high collared get-up!), and the others have been selected to be milked for blood for the cult to extend their lives indefinitely, as long as they don't leave the compound. Somehow, Laura doesn't quite take to the idea of being kidnapped and then offered her friend's blood to drink, and with the help of a wizened old woman (which is the end result of being milked for blood), she tries to escape. Complication matters further is her blossoming love with the high priest (and vice versa) and the demented Claire's attempts to be the chosen one. The High Priestess isn't too happy with proceedings, and a chase through the jungle ensues. It's all a bit tame, but then again I didn't fall asleep and kept in there until the seventies style ending. Recommended for those curious about obscure films, and those with low expectations.

2 beauty queens, a stewardess and a stripper, are taken hostage to a remote jungle, where they are held by a group of blood drinking immortals.Oddly enough none of our captives seem too worried about it in the first half of the film, blindly following their captors with giggly enthusiasm usually seem in infatuated schoolgirls. Perhaps this is because these mutton dressed as lamb (with the exception of the token Filipino girl, whom actually looks like the young girl she's supposed to be playing)are desperate for attention from any shirtless men they can find, blood drinkers or not.Only after our heroine (who has a face like a badly used cart horse)is anointed as the prophesied queen and begins falling in love with the high priest of the cult and discovers their love for the red stuff does anyone panic.She refuses to join her lover (the living embodiment of Disco Stu, complete with man perm, leisure suit and medallion) in the sanguined feast, pissing off the high priestess in the process. (The priestess' overbite was so severe she could eat corn on the cob through a picket fence, so her being angry and not smiling was a plus) The girls mount a daring escape, with the help of disco stu and one of the drained dry zombies the cult uses as slaves. Stu dies (not so) tragically, the most irritatingly sex starved of our quartet of ladies meets her death in a rat pit, and the remaining 3 escape the jungle and fade back into the (deserved)obscurity they came from.I'm giving this a two for the sheer bravery blended with idiocy of the filmmakers for thinking that a rated PG horror flick was somehow going to become even a mild success.