rphaned at a very young age, Kate Davis (Contouri) has grown up to be a sweet young lady enjoying a love affair with a dull mustached hunk named Derek (Rod Mullinar). They live a quiet and idyllic life until the day Kate opens a carton of milk in her refrigerator, takes a swig and finds it filled with blood instead of milk.
Before she can complain to the dairy, she is kidnapped and brought to another kind of dairy entirely: One where drugged, blank-eyed victims in white are kept imprisoned for the convenience of vampire keepers. These vampires are not undead by the usual definition of such things: They walk about quite comfortably in daylight, seem to have normal human lifespans and share a reserved, middle-class bearing: They just drink blood, that's all, and they want Kate, the direct descendant of the infamous Countess Bathory, to join them in their unusual lifestyle choice.
Kate's a nice girl and is horrified by the very suggestion. But they insist the change in diet is her destiny, and set about reversing the inconvenient sense of morality that prevents her from taking this announcement with the suitable degree of equanimity. As a team of keepers led by Dr. Gauss (Silva), Mrs. Barker (Shirley Cameron) and Dr. Fraser (Hemmings) begins a conditioning program designed to overcome her revulsion, Kate struggles to resist the bloodlust beginning to awaken inside her.
A film as anemic as a vampire's victims
Thirst is an oddity: A vampire film with almost no nighttime scenes, with no mucking about with stakes and crucifixes and with bloodsuckers who behave like just a bunch of middle-class stiffs running a dairy. It has some fun with the casual nature of this endeavor. With the exception of Mrs. Barker, a vampiric matron whose demeanor resembles that of the nurse from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, none of the vampires act sinister at all. They're just doing what comes naturally, and don't see any particular reason why that requires melodrama.
There is some welcome humor there. There are also a couple of effectively chilling scenes, including one set during Kate's conditioning, which traps her inside a room with toppling furniture and undulating walls. But the overall effect is wearying and soporific. The film is so laid back it never achieves any energy. The suspense never materializes, and too many of the performances—including those by the most distinguished players in the cast—approach catatonia. As for the Gold Medal this film reportedly won for Best Special Effects at the Catalonian International Film Festival, all I can say is that the viewers of 1979 must have been impressed beyond all reason by eyes that glow red like stoplights.
The disk includes a Spanish-language track, a photo gallery, a commentary track with director Rod Hardy and producer Antony I. Ginmane, and an extensive filmography that covers the careers of just about everybody in the cast. This last feature is instructive in that it reminds us how many of the principals (most notably Silva and Hemmings) had long and distinguished film careers that included a substantial number of genuine classics. (This makes it easy to forgive their less-than-enthused performances here.) Just as notably, the resume of the screenwriter, John Pinkney, includes this one film. And no others. Thirst provides no special indication that he would have done a better job on his second try.
