THIRST (1979) **

Kate (Chantal Contouri) is kidnapped by a team of vampire scientists who claim she's a descendant of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.  She doesn't believe them, and tries to escape, but the scientists hold her prisoner.  Since Kate refuses to drink blood, they put her through elaborate mental torture in order to shock her system in the hopes of making her remember her vampire past.

Thirst gains points for an inventive mythology, but the unorthodox approach yields minimal results.  There are some good ideas here, yet it’s all put together with little finesse.  While the film adds interesting wrinkles to the usually accepted vampire lore, director Rod (Nick Fury:  Agent of SHIELD) Hardy’s delivery is much too stiff for any of this to be fun, let alone scary.  

I did like the scenes on the “Blood Farm” where innocent people in white pajamas mill around and are used as walking blood banks.  These sequences felt like they came out of Parts:  The Clonus Horror.  There’s also a dairy that packages blood in milk cartons.  Another nice touch revolves around how vampires shower.  The red faucet doesn’t stand for hot water; it stands for blood.  There were certainly enough of these little flourishes here to warrant a good movie.  It’s just a shame that Hardy’s pacing is much too slow, and the stuff with the scientists is so predictable.