Wonderfully offbeat film!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Blistering performances.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The Thirsty Dead (1974) * (out of 4)Women are being abducted in the streets and forced to a strange cult that needs their blood in order to stay young. One of the kidnapped women, Laura (Jennifer Billingsley), is offered a chance to join the cult but she is horrified to think someone would kill another human for their own gain. Pretty soon she decides to fight back against this cult and their evil ways.The Philippines made some really crazy movies back during the drive-in era and this here is without question one of the strangest. Those looking for some sort of zombie movie or a blood-soaked horror picture are going to be disappointed because there's really not too much bite to this picture no matter how much the advertising wants to make you believe. In fact, this here was really one of the tamest and lamest films I've seen from them, which is too bad because the story here isn't all that bad.The idea of a cult kidnapping women for their blood could have been exploitation heaven but sadly very little is done with it. There's no major nudity. There's no major gore. There's really nothing here too exploitative except for the idea brought up in the story but like I said there's nothing graphic done with it. That would be okay if the drama of the story was compelling but it isn't. The story is bland the movie is told in such a slow and dry way that I'm sure most viewers will be turning it off well before the final credits.The scenery was terrific and some of the actors were fun including Billingsley. Still, when you're dealing with a film like this you certainly expect much more and as it stands there's just nothing in THE THIRSTY DEAD that will hold your interest.

Four lovely young ladies are kidnapped off the streets of Manila, and are taken to a remote jungle location. Here they find out that they're supposed to supply a primitive tribe with the all-important blood that the tribe needs to maintain their youthful appearance. They fixate on one of the quartet, a stewardess named Laura (Jennifer Billingsley), who resembles a portrait in their possession, and intend to make her one of their own. Only, a tribe member named Baru (John Considine) falls in love with her and takes sympathy on her and her fellow abductees. While not altogether terrible, this is incredibly silly stuff, with dialogue spoken by Baru and tribe leader Ranu (Tani Guthrie) that may strike the viewer as being hilariously ridiculous. The principal problem with this thing is that it lacks humour, and is also a PG rated exploitation / schlock genre piece, meaning there is not going to be enough depravity, profanity, violence, and nudity to satisfy most trash lovers. Also, the direction by Terry Becker lacks any sense of style. The pacing is much too sluggish; it could have been sped up, to make the movie more fun, and there really should have been more action and not just talk. In any event, it's worth it to see the level of 1970s era cheese on display ("The Thirsty Dead" does have an adequate "late show" sort of appeal), right down to some absurd costumes. Get a load of those collars! A climactic ageing scene, using the old fashioned time lapse technique, is a mild highlight. Billingsley is much too stiff in the lead role, but she is a looker, as are her three co-stars - Judith McConnell as Claire, Fredricka Meyers as Ann, and Chiqui da Rosa as Bonnie. They make for fine scenery attractions in their skimpy outfits. McConnell delivers the standout performance in this thing as the go-go dancer who would be perfectly happy to change places with Laura, although Considine is remarkably sincere, giving his role lots of gravitas for such a silly movie. Frequent Filipino cinema performers Ken Metcalfe and Vic Diaz appear fleetingly, and the story really would have been better off had Diaz had more scenes. "The Thirsty Dead" is immediately forgettable in the end, but if one is a forgiving and easy enough to please fan of Filipino made schlock, they might find this modestly entertaining. Five out of 10.

Lovely white women are caught in the city of Manila by members of a blood eternal youth cult that worships a head in a red box and bleed these kidnapped victims for the properties that mix well with a potion. Jennifer Billingsley gets top billing as one of the kidnapped, Laura, her face found portraited by cult member, Baru (John Considine, who deserves better than this; I can't imagine how it must have felt chanting a religious song to a severed head in a box, and not question where your career went awry), taken as a sign from their worshipped god, Raum, that she is special. Tani Guthrie is Ranu, the wife of Raum who benefits from the blood of the captured girls whose throats her jungle minions cut with a knife during ceremonies. We witness the drinking of the blood after the collections (a leaf is applied to the wounds of the women, healing them for the time being), with Ranu relishing her eternal youth, completely unencumbered by any form of moral guilt in what her people are doing to the victims taken against their will and imprisoned on her jungle mountain fortress. Baru must confront all he has ever known and believed when he falls in love with Laura, her inability to drink the blood of other kidnapped girls she has befriended throwing everything he holds dear out of whack. Will Baru choose love for Laura or the cult he has been an active member of his whole life? Will you really care? I didn't and this movie really should be more exciting than it is. It is just plain safe and tame. I imagine a good cannibal movie, demented and warped, could've been derived from this, but the serious nature of the material (it is played so straight, that I just couldn't have fun with it) and lack of anything interesting considering the twisted idea presented before us (I mean, this is a cult that worships a head in a box and yet it never can capitalize on such a schlocky idea) just kind of dulled me into a boredom I never could recover from. I guess the actors hired and the uneventful direction (the cast cannot summon a lick of charisma and enthusiasm considering the bonkers plot, and the sluggish pace doesn't help matters) couldn't wring out any fun from the storyline. There is one great scene where Laura is punished, for not agreeing to drink, by being thrown in a prison with victims, whose beauty and youth had been drained, leaving them wrinkled and hideous, tearing away at her with their overgrown fingernails (the way the prison is dark and how they engulf her is pretty effective). Considine has a fascinating face and gives a rather decent performance, understated and soft, but Billingsley is really a boring heroine. Judith McConnell runs away with her scenes as club dancer, Claire, one of the whites kidnapped, who seems perfectly fine with her current predicament; she's really an uninhibited tramp, but because the film is so tame, her character never really can flower as a seductive trollop, which is too bad. The real star is the Philippines jungle, a setting which could have been far more sinister but at least has enough sweaty atmosphere to convey to us that civilized man/woman doesn't want to wind up here. The ending, after an escape, with Vic Diaz and the police getting involved in a hunt, winds up quite ludicrous.

If Plan 9 From Outer Space had not already captured the title of worst film ever made, this movie would have won hands down! I have to admit that I watched this move not once, but twice in the course of a few days. It is so bad, it's good! It has more cheese than Wisconsin. I wonder if Mystery Science Theatre 3000 has done this movie. If it hasn't now is the time! The acting reminds me of a sweaty sophomore on the opening night of a high school play -- only much much worse (and, once upon a time, I was that high school sophomore so I know what I'm talking about). And the musical score! HAHAHAHAHAH! This is a movie to rent and gather your friends around -- with some popcorn, plenty of booze, and some dynamite weed -- and watch the magic happen!