THIRST

Heiress Kate (Chantal Contouri), is young and attractive. She enjoys a successful working life and is happy with her handsome boyfriend Derek (Rod Mullinar). What they don't realise while making love one evening, is that they are being spied upon by a member of a secret order known as the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood is led by a mysterious group of doctors, among which are Gauss (Henry Silva) and Fraser (David Hemmings). Following a couple of weird episodes at home where Kate suffers visions of blood (a carton of milk spills onto her kitchen floor and it turns into blood as her cat laps it up), she's taken in by the doctors and driven to a special farm where she can convalesce.

Once there, Gauss informs Kate that she is an ancestor of Countess Elizabeth Bathory. The visions of blood, she's told, are products of Kate resisting the vampiric instincts inside her.

Kate's dressed in white inmate clothes and placed into the Brotherhood's care home with many others. She learns that the Brotherhood is a worldwide network of modern bloodsuckers intent on keeping their legacy alive.

Vampires, Kate asks? Not as such as they're not supernatural, just "superior beings" ... who feed on blood. As she becomes their patient, the doctors of the Brotherhood attempt to develop a thirst for blood in her (serving it to her in coffee mugs, hypnotising her with drugs etc).

But when Kate's mental health deteriorates, the doctors become divided about what's best for her. Fraser is particularly unhappy about how Kate's been treated. He befriends Kate and promises to protect her from any undue harm.

But Kate is distraught when she later finds out where the blood supply for the convalescence farm is coming from and tries to escape. However, it seems the Brotherhood really is everywhere and it's not long before Kate is escorted back by her smiling captors.

Here, Kate witnesses a bizarre communal blood-drinking ceremony which drives her closer to madness. The doctors tell her she should accept this way of life, but Fraser remains protective of her, arguing that in time she will adjust of her own accord.

But will Kate adjust, or continue to resist what the doctors tell her are her natural instincts? Will she escape? Or go insane first, provoked by the increasingly creepy nightmares she faces as she attempts to confront her childhood memories?

In addition to the above, Kate must wonder what Fraser's true intentions are. And, where the heck is Derek?

THIRST must have seemed quite modern in it's day (1979), what with a commune of stylish, friendly 'vampires' who hold medical degrees and can traverse in broad daylight. But it's extremely old-fashioned when viewed now.

This doesn't harm the film. On the contrary, the hammy performances of Silva and Contouri are perversely pleasurable to witness. The cheap and unconvincing set-pieces (particularly the nightmare scenes in the latter half) have a low-rent value to them that echoes Bava's SHOCK. It's cheap, but weirdly creepy at times.

The FX are very dated indeed, quite primitive in fact. In the couple of scenes where characters' eyes glow red, it's tempting to titter. But there's an undeniable charm to even these ropily executed scenes. The most striking effect in the film is also the most basic: Kate takes a shower and it pours red blood over her. The device was also used in DEATH SHIP, but has a greater impact here.

Brian May's music is ludicrously excitable, being very reminiscent of the melodramatic scores he penned for the MAD MAX films. While they were comic strip-style sci-fi action movies that suited the style, here it feels more than a tad excessive. But, as the film unfolds like a bizarre amalgamation of MARTIN and THE HOWLING, it seems to fit more and more.

By the final third of THIRST, it's odd atmosphere and excessive style have overpowered the viewer and what results is an strangely compelling whole.

Often referred to as the best contemporary Australian horror film, THIRST does have its flaws (some lousy supporting acting; an overwrought approach; workmanlike direction from Rod Hardy) but overcomes these to emerge as a thoroughly entertaining piece of nonsense.

The film is presented uncut in an exceptionally clean anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer. Images are sharp without noticeable enhancement, and clarity is generally bright. Colours and blacks hold up well throughout. The film looks superb overall, despite some minor specks at the start.

Audio is provided in English 2.0, and is a perfectly serviceable proposition.

The disc is graced with an attractive main menu page. In turn, the scene-selection menu is also nicely animated and contains 12 chapters.

Extras begin with an excellent 13-minute featurette entitled "Thirst: A Contemporary Blend". This finds producer Antony L Ginnane in candid mode, explaining how he felt the film was very much "his", and how he saw himself as a fledgling Roger Corman at the time. Interspersed with clips from this film and PATRICK (including major spoilers for both), he goes on to speak about casting and how tough Contouri had it on set. Amusingly, at one point he says he thought Mullinar could have been Australia's answer to Cary Grant. What?! To Simon McCorkindale, maybe, but Grant ... er, no.

Informative and engaging, this featurette is fun: it's just a shame it passes by so quickly.

The original theatrical trailer is a nicely po-faced affair, while three archive TV spots do their job in brief but entertaining fashion. Unsurprisingly, these are a little worn and dark in comparison to the main feature, but it doesn't harm their allure any.

There are also trailers here for THE SURVIVOR, STORM BOY, MALCOLM and DOING TIME FOR PATSY CLINE.

It's a shame the commentary track from the Region 4 and Region 1 releases hasn't made it onto this disc.

With the exchange rate being as it is at present, it's great to see Britfilms are offering UK consumers a nicely priced alternative to the import discs. Stylish, melodramatic and really rather grisly at times, THIRST remains one of the more interesting vampire films of the last thirty years. The film's ripe for rediscovery, and the disc offered is very nice indeed.

Review by Stuart Willis