Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Thirst Blu-ray Movie Review

Drink up!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 6, 2014

Rosemary's Baby is often cited as among the most disturbing horror films of all time, and it’s perhaps instructive to examine why this film—which after all, has virtually no jump cuts, blood and gore, or other hoary horror tropes—should linger in the subconscious so effectively. If you come into the film cold, meaning you haven’t read the Ira Levin source novel or have other foreknowledge of what’s really going on, you’re confronted by a seemingly idyllic marriage that is capped by an almost fairy tale like ability for the pair to get a much wanted apartment in an iconic New York City landmark. Sure, the neighbors are a little creepy, but you can’t have everything. Slowly, though, Roman Polanski begins introducing subtle indications of a burgeoning paranoia, and the viewer is left to ferret out whether Rosemary is surrounded by a really scary conspiracy or is “simply” going off her pre-natal rocker. One way or the other, Rosemary becomes an isolated, fragile young woman, not knowing whom to trust and feeling herself captive in some sort of prison which no one else around her sees. Contrast that now with the rather inverted way Thirst, a 1979 Australian horror film, gets its chills. Instead of keeping the audience in suspense about what’s going on, it spills the beans (and/or blood, considering the film is about vampires) from virtually the first moment, depicting an ancient society of blood suckers known as The Brotherhood who are attempting to reclaim one of their own who was raised outside of their influence. That person is a young Australian woman named Kate Davis (Chantal Contouri), who finds herself taken captive by The Brotherhood and initiated (against her will) into what The Brotherhood insists is her genetic legacy. Once again we have a woman alone, fighting almost unimaginable forces, and this time there’s absolutely no question that there is indeed a conspiracy. It’s a risky gambit, and if Thirst never achieves the level of scariness that Rosemary’s Baby did (an admittedly high bar), it’s uniquely unsettling in its own way.

There’s a certain aspect to Thirst which may remind viewers of a certain age of the long ago short form series The Prisoner. In both instances, a kidnapped individual finds themselves in a supposedly utopian environment where most of the populace seems content to be sheep. In the case of Thirst, Kate at least knows why she’s been taken and help captive in a kind of bizarre farm that The Brotherhood uses to extract blood from a drugged populace. It turns out she is a direct descendant of Elizabeth Bathory, a real life character who has figured in a number of vampire dramas through the years. The Brotherhood wants to utilize Bathory’s bloodline (no pun intended) to create—well, what? That part of the story is never really fully explicated, though it’s implied that a new master race of vampires could be in the offing.

Two squabbling factions of The Brotherhood actually provide most of the conflict in Thirst, strangely more so than even Kate’s predicament. One group headed by the nasty Mrs. Barker (Shirley Cameron) feels that “breaking” Kate’s resilient persona is the way to inculcate her with the “thirst”. On the other hand, the kindly Dr. Fraser (David Hemmings) feels that a slower, more affable, persuasive approach would be preferable. Mrs. Barker ends up winning out, and Kate is force fed several hallucinogenic drugs, leading to the film’s central section, where neither Kate nor the audience is quite sure of what’s real and what isn’t.

It’s in this “drugged out state” that the Thirst really builds its most potent, oppressive atmosphere. There's an especially cool sequence where Kate is stuck in a room in a kind of Gothic castle that suddenly just starts dissolving around her. She tries to curl into a standing fetal position against a wall, which just crumbles behind her. It's a fun but disturbing effect that nicely details her fractious state of mind. Cameron makes a wonderfully slimy villainess and Hemmings is suitably dapper and serpentine as the apparently helpful “good” doctor. Contouri is a bit of an acquired taste. She plays several scenes very well, including a panicked scene where she attempts to escape. But too often she falls into either sullen glares or, more ludicrously, a weirdly distended grimace that is apparently supposed to depict stoned horror.

The film is ultimately a good piece of fun (it’s interesting to hear on the commentary how there was a debate over whether to play it as a parody or not). It’s actually kind of nifty to see “corporate” vampires with a mechanized blood farm populated by human “cows” that are regularly exsanguinated. Some of the “modern” touches like the jeweled fangs the vampires attach to their teeth to do “old school” blood sucking are nicely conceived as well. Thirst may not be in the same league as Rosemary’s Baby (few films are), but it just might quench a lot of horror fans’ desire for something a little bit different.

Thirst Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Thirst is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.43:1. According to the press materials Severin provided with this release, this transfer was sourced off the original camera negative. Detail and contrast are certainly commendable here, but there are some niggling concerns nonetheless. Color timing seems odd to me, especially since some of the film is kind of a sickly yellow (so much so that flesh tones make people seem jaundiced) and other sections look relatively accurate. There are occasional stability problems (watch how the image jitters just slightly when the camera pans across a chain link fence as Kate arrives at the blood farm). Also there are instances of what is either print through or density problems the show up in anomalies like a series of vertical lines that appear on the bright blue sky in one of Kate's hallucinations (see screenshot 17). All of these issues are relatively minor but deserve mention. Generally this is a nicely organic presentation. It may not rise to levels of contemporary "sharpness", but it certainly is the best Thirst has ever looked on home video (admittedly a pretty low bar), and arguably since its theatrical exhibition. There does not appear to have been any overt digital manipulation of the image.

Thirst Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Somewhat surprisingly given the care Severin afforded the rest of this release, the audio tracks (English, Spanish and isolate music) are all standard Dolby Digital Mono. While this isn't a deal killer per se, it's probably inarguable that at least Brian May's nice score would have benefited from a lossless format. Dialogue is very cleanly presented however. Some of the looped screams have a bit of a boxy sound, but otherwise this track, while not overly impressive, suffices decently enough.

Thirst Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Rod Hardy and Producer Antony I. Ginnane. This is a fairly interesting though increasingly sporadic commentary as the film goes on. There are some amusing tidbits imparted here, as in how the filmmakers created the "glowing eyes" effect when the vampires are about to feed. Suffice it to say it's an extremely lo-fi technique that may cause some listeners to laugh.


• Trailer (480p; 1:38)


• TV Spots (480p; 1:16)


• Isolated Score Track. Brian May's moody music is presented via Dolby Digital Mono.

Thirst Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Thirst wasn't very successful even in its native Australia, and it never seemed to gain much of a foothold here in the United States. Severin is to be commended for helping audiences rediscover some of these long forgotten gems. This is a nicely moody outing that does get a bit weird when the drugs kick in. Performances are generally quite good (save for a bit of hyperbolism on the part of Contouri) and the film is surprisingly well directed by Rod Hardy. Severin has offered a generally nice looking Blu-ray that oddly features lossy audio. Recommended.