The horror genre always 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 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 runtime. It's ending is also trite and predictable, and basically nothing the movie hasn't already shown us or told us. Yeah, so the girl trying to get away 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 - 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 a part of this debacle.I felt his pain.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.

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.

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.

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.