There was once a time in our country’s history when Australian cinema played the genre game with a bare boob and a bloody meat cleaver. Post Picnic at Hanging Rock, local film funding bodies were pumping out exploitation films – horror, action, sexploitation and more – for overseas markets like there was no tomorrow. Varying from taut to tawdry, many of these films did not get much exposure at the time of their release (predominantly the 80s) and thus quickly became VHS oddities strictly for die-hard collectors to seek out and swallow up. One of the better horrors of the time, Thirst takes the conventional vampire mythos, removes its gothic elements and offers a uniquely modern allegory for power and immortality.
THE LOWDOWN: Kate Davis (Chantal Contouri) is a happy business woman living a calm, urban life with her lover Derek (Rod Mullinar) in a secluded home in the hills of Victoria. One morning during a bizarre incident involving a house cat and a milk carton, Kate is abducted from her home by two mysterious men in black and transported to a remote scientific facility in the bush where she is then met by a number of imposing doctors who insist she is of great importance to their medical research. When Kate is taken on a tour of the facility and shown schools of voiceless test subjects, vats of human blood and a book detailing her supposed linage to a family of vampires, her suspicions of her captors grow even more grim than initially thought. As her knowledge of the world around her is pulled into question, Kate is soon thrown into a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of a murderous higher society of bloodsuckers.
THE TERROR TALE & ITS TIMING: Throughout the history of the horror genre there have been countless vampire films made; some faithful to vampire lore and mythology and others insistent on defying it. Whether American, German, French or otherwise, vampire films have been a sub-genre filmmakers have returned to again and again and Thirst remains one of Australia’s only excursions into the nightwalker category - and an alternate one at that. Instead of simply recycling more traditional folklore and repositioning it in a contemporary setting, screenwriter John Pinkney opts to approach the vampire film as a metaphor for the upper class’s exploitation of those they consider ‘unworthy’ of sophisticated lifestyle as well as transposing the horror into a believable environment for its characters, namely Contouri’s heroine. Although not its main focus attention, the film also functions as an effective paranoid thriller as we follow Kate and her disturbing discoveries about the ‘family’ she never knew and is eventually forced to embrace.
When asking one to buy into an essentially preposterous scenario - such as the existence of vampires and their harvesting of the human blood supply in order to stay alive – a filmmaker runs the risk of misleading his/her audience by turning a fairly sincere script into a unintentional parody. Thankfully, director Rod Hardy and renegade producer Antony I. Ginnane play things straight by establishing a believable environment for both the characters and their actions, refusing to treat the story with any unwarranted camp. The film also takes its time in building a plausible emotional pace with regard to Kate’s initiation into the ‘brotherhood’ - in other words she never appears to jump the gun or become inexplicably convinced of her abductors’ shenanigans too early on in the proceedings. And even though it’s a vampire movie, the script rejects any superfluous violence for the sake of a cool effect at the expense of its story.
DOOMED CHARACTERS: The hierarchy of evil that exists within the family of bloodsuckers suggests a pecking order consistent with power and authority over those more young and defenseless, all the while still sharing the gift of eternal life amongst each other. They have neither sympathy nor remorse for the human population, instead treating them as if they were virtual cattle that exist only to be milked for their life blood. Shirley Cameron, who plays the villainous Mrs. Barker, gives a deliciously malicious performance as the motherly architect puppeteering the brotherhood’s sinister aristocracy while USA import Henry Silva provides a strong, menacing support act regardless of his limited role. As a heroine (or villain, depending on how you look at it) Contouri provides a credible emotional foundation for the horrors that are revealed, only occasionally missteping into moments of unfortunate overacting. Her European-like beauty is compelling to watch and she certainly manages to deliver moments of stirring drama as her mental state descends deeper and deeper into near insanity. And David Hemmings’ portrayal of a sympathetic doctor prone to Kate’s unwillingness to conform is perfectly understated.
THE LOOK OF FEAR: Even though the reinvention of Thirst’s premise is admirable, its faithfulness to the iconic themes and imagery of past vampire films (notably Hammer’s output) is also a commendable trait. Religious iconography, sexual overtones and other potent thematic elements help make the movie stylish as well as loyal to genre. Cinematographer Vincent Monton, whose credits also include Collin Eggleston’s brilliant shocker Long Weekend and Richard Franklin’s Roadgames, is arguably one of the film’s strongest creative assets, collaborating with Hardy to pull off some truly beautiful and horrific images. Dream sequences – such as one involving Kate’s lover and an all-too rare chicken drumstick – are fantastic examples of daring cinematic bravado and an eagerness to break linear storytelling tradition in favor of a more surreal narrative logic. The practical, prosthetic and in-camera special effects – highly impressive for a now insanely low-budget film by today’s standards – are largely convincing and well executed, especially during a period in Australian cinema when FX were not in high demand. And Jon Dowding’s set design (especially the induction ceremony’s chapel structure) lend a further hefty production value, making this one hell of a standout Aussie fright fare.
THE SOUND OF FRIGHT: The art (and it is an art!) of scoring horror movies and thrillers alike is no easy feat for any film composer. History has shown that over-scoring a horror movie can deaden (no pun intended, I assure you) the foreboding atmosphere created by the director and his/her creative partners, consequently making the resulting scares defunct. Veteran composer Brian May’s tonally rich score moves from light and dark with equal ease, mixing retro synthesizer beats to wonderfully gothic organs, showing his versatility as a musician. The music never feels out of place (a common factor in more generic horror scores) and adequately reflects Kate’s devolution.
FINAL THOUGHTS: As both a parable of upper class society’s sucking the defenseless dry and a contemporary vampire flick with an interesting central threat, Thirst delivers the goods in even measure. Most vampire films don’t tend to stray too far from the formula but this one at least makes a conscious decision to reutilize the familiar and opt for something a little different instead.
Dir: Rod Hardy
Writer: John Pinkney
Cast: Chantal Contouri, Shirley Cameron, Max Philips, Henry Silva, David Hemmings
Country: Australia
Run Time: 93min
Rated: M+
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