Session: Australian Horror/Sci-Fi, week 2
Movie: Thirst (1979)
Plot:
Single professional, Kate, has been kidnapped by "The Brotherhood." Modern day vampires, they have turned vampirism into an industrial machine, and they will stop at nothing to get Kate to join their ranks. Hilarity ensues.
Class Reaction:
For the most part, this class thought this was very well done. Joe, for example, gave it a 9.8. But, while the class liked it and were glad to have seen it, there was near unanimity that they don't need to ever see it again -- it was that disturbingly gross. There were also numerous comments about how they'll never eat chicken legs again.
My Thoughts:
If I were a vegetarian or (better yet) a vegan, and a PETA type, I would try to turn this movie into some grand statement against the meat industry. Or maybe I'd see it as an updated version of Sinclair's The Jungle. But I'm not vegetarian or vegan and I'm not a PETA person, so...so much for those observations. Instead, I saw the vats of human blood (with one unfortunate person falling in) and the scenes of people having the life sucked out of them by machine (while they're still conscious) as gross horror. This was definitely the bloodiest film Keith has showed us.
Some in the class disputed that assertion. I Drink Your Blood was trotted out. But as disturbing as that film was, it didn't have the same volume of blood as this did. I mean, the shower scene? It reminded me of both Carrie and Psycho. The chicken wing scene, the vat...Over and over again we knew there was gonna be more blood.
There were some really well done riveting scenes in this movie, but there were also some slow stretches that failed to hold my attention. As a result I gave it a much lower score than the rest of the class (except Ethan who found it very disturbing). I didn't find it as appetite suppressingly gross as the rest of the guys -- I'd be fine eating rare roast beef with this playing. But I also didn't think it was as good a movie as the rest did. That said, I acknowledge that this was a reasonably original idea.
Thirst does pass the Bechdel Test. Easily.
Boingo!
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