Blood Thirst

Plot synopsis:
Adam Rourke [Robert Winston], a wise-cracking sex-crime specialist from New York, who
talks to himself and carries an old, lifesize dummy named Harvey in his
suitcase, is called to Manila by old friend and chief inspector of
homicide, Captain Miguel Ramos [Vic Diaz]. Girls have been turning up dead, found
hanging upside down from trees with their wrists cut and their bodies
drained of blood. The only lead is that the latest victim (Maria Cortez)
was working at the Barrio Club. Adam suggests that a good way to approach
the investigation would be for him to go undercover, posing as an American
writer. Miguel agrees, but only on the condition that he and Adam have no
contact with each other while Adam is undercover. Miguel's London-educated
sister Sylvia [Katherine Henryk], however, takes an instant dislike to Adam's cavalier
attitude, particularly his poohpoohing the "unsophisticated" rumors that the
killings might have something to do with voodoo or vampirism.The next night, Adam visits the Barrio, asking to see the club's
owner, Mr Calderon [Vic Silayan]. He doesn't get very far with his cover about wanting
to write a story about Maria's murder. Calderon agrees only to think about
it. While discussing his article with Calderon, Adam's attention is drawn
to the bellydancer Serena Brioso [Yvonne Nielson]. Later that night, as Adam prepares to sleep, he is attacked
by a man with a machete. Hehehe. The man didn't know it, but the machete
just killed Harvey the dummy. Adam was standing in the shadows with his
loaded gun and killed the killer. A bit later, Adam goes for a walk and is
confronted by a one-legged beggar named Herrera [Eddie Infante] who turns out to be
Miguel's contact (and also the guy who took care of the machete-wielder's
body). Herrera will be watching Adam and will never be too far away, he
says. On his way back into the hotel, Adam sees Sylvia drive up. She tells
him to get into her car and drives him several miles outside of the city,
where she kisses him, then slaps his face and drives off, leaving Adam to
walk back to his hotel. [This is payback for Adam stealing a kiss the
night before.] On his walk back, Adam notices Theresa, a girl from the
Barrio Club, being dropped off.The next morning, Theresa turns up dead. [Clue: Both Teresa and Maria
were attacked by the same person, whose face looks like an advanced case
of neurofibromatosis.] That evening, Adam returns to the Barrio Club to
get an answer from Calderon regarding the article he wants to write. While
they chat, Serena does her bellydance again. In the middle of the dance,
however, she stumbles, feels her face, and runs out. [Clue: Serena is
using the blood of the murdered girls to sustain her beauty.] Adam
attempts to follow Serena but the club's bouncers toss him out.The next time Adam goes to the Barrio Club, Serena takes him aside
and asks him to meet her at the club the following evening when Calderon
is planning to be away on business. Calderon is charming, Serena warns,
but he can be strange and violent. While walking back to his hotel, Adam
meets up with Herrera who informs him that another waitress (Elena Munoz)
from the Barrio Club has disappeared. Adam informs Herrera about his
planned meeting with Serena and tells him to relay the message to Miguel
that he should be ready to move when he gets a telephone call. When Adam
returns to his hotel room, he is immediately aware that he's not alone. In
the dark, he tackles the intruder. It turns out to be Sylvia bringing news
from Miguel, who has been checking on Calderon's background. It seems that
Calderon and Serena fled to Manila from Peru where Calderon was involved
in the murder of a wealthy plantation owner. Calderon and Serena have been
together for about three years. Now aware that she's in love with Adam,
Sylvia boldly solicits a kiss.The next evening, Adam meets Serena as planned. She tells him that
Calderon is a maniac and is planning to kill both her and Adam. She asks
Adam to meet her later that night, one hour after the club closes. In the
meantime, she orders him a drink, which is served to him by none other
than their newest waitress -- Sylvia. I wanted to help, Sylvia explains to
Adam. Adam berates her for getting involved, not knowing that Serena is
listening to their conversation. Sylvia calls Adam's attention to the
armbands that Serena always wears. I saw them once in a London museum,
Sylvia says. They're Aztec or Incan and very expensive.Cut to Elena Munoz. She is currently tied to a table down in a cellar
somewhere, and neurofibroma man is wielding a knife. He slits Elena's arms
and collects the blood in a big cauldron. The cauldron then rotates in a
circle, stopping at a chair where Serena is seated. Her face has turned
haggard. She opens a locket, takes out a pinch of magical herbs, and
tosses it in the blood. Immediately, a lot of fog covers her. When it
clears, her face is young again.An hour after the Barrio Club closes, Adam shows up as planned.
Serena picks him up and drives him to her house. Adam pours himself a
drink, but the liquor is drugged and he passes out, but not before Serena
spins a tale of how Calderon killed his wife, killed Maria and Theresa,
and threatened to kill her, too, should she ever leave him. When Adam
comes to, Serena haughtily explains that she is a Golden Goddess, chosen by
her people to be immortal, existing on the blood of young women. As she
raises a knife to kill Adam, Elena Munoz's father steps out from behind
the tree. Serena runs, and Munoz cuts Adam free. Unfortunately, as Adam
and Munoz make their getaway, Serena runs down Munoz and kills him. Adam
is forced to make his way back to the club on foot, but not before he
stops at a roadside stand and telephones Miguel.Meanwhile, Sylvia was snooping around the club. She made her way down
into the cellar where she was seen and caught by neurofibroma man. As he
now prepares to slit her arms and collect her blood, Adam and Miguel break
open the door. They shoot neurofibroma man, but he keeps coming. He tries
to strangle both Adam and Miquel, but Herrera knocks him out with his
wooden leg. Adam and Miguel cut Sylvia free. Serena, who has been sitting
in her chair waiting for blood, tosses the magical herbs into the cauldron
of blood, but something goes wrong. First, she turns into an old Filippino
woman, then she disintegrates into dust.Epilogue: Miguel and Sylvia are saying goodbye to Adam at the airport. As
a gift, Miguel presents Adam with a nicely-dressed and freshly-painted
Harvey. Sylvia asks Adam whether he'll come back to Manila, and Adam
answers by kissing her. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
Made in the Philippines (around '62 or '63, I would guess, despite its official release date of 1971) on an obviously limited budget, the picture is wonderfully well photographed in black and white with some moody, noir touches.
The lead, Robert Winston, is quite good-looking, albeit modestly talented.
The usual, grinding expository dialogue is graced with some humor, I LIKE the monster, the scenery is interesting and, on the whole, it moves along quite nicely.
I really wanted to see the other film ('Castle of Blood' -USA title) on the DVD and only watched 'Blood Thirst' out of curiosity and because my wife said, "lets give it a chance".
We figured how can you go wrong buying two films on a DVD for one dollar especially when one of the films('Castle of Blood') is rated highly.
The earlier comments here lead me to believe 'Blood Thirst' was going to be a bomb.
As opposed to scenes that are unintentionally funny in some truly bad films.
The film had a great early 60s feel to it and the B/W only made it better.
I also found it hard to believe this was released in 1971 because of the early 60s look and feel.Anyway, I wouldn't let the other comments here keep you from seeing this, it's an enjoyable/offbeat little film with some good acting in it and surprisingly funny scenes.
It's worth your time for a fun detective /horror film with a few chills and romance thrown in for good measure.
There's barely enough horror in this film to call it such, and what there is, is extremely cheesy, but I found myself loving it nonetheless.
Use the dialog that is rich with ominous one-liners and full of household clichés and heavily sexual innuendos that are from the bottom of the lowest barrel; be sure the action is full of tough and cool wannabes slapping each other in uncontrollable sexual frenzy; add the soundtrack that suffocates the viewer with loads of sexually sizzling cool jazz and exotic (equally sexually loaded) Latino mambo music.
A few exotic dances by a blond sex goddess wouldn't harm, even when the lady is only capable of waving her arms a little - as long as she is oozing sexual promiscuity.
Great for studying what film noir is all about - there's much to learn about why the ingredients don't always sum up to what one might expect..
Great Monster, Poor Film.
Blood Thirst (1971) * 1/2 (out of 4) Women are being found outside a nightclub with their blood drained.
The police captain (Vic Diaz) has no clues and no idea of what the cause could be so he calls his detective friend (Adam Rourke) from New York to help him investigate.BLOOD THIRST has a 1971 date on it but this B&W film was actually shot in 1965 but couldn't find anyone to release.
If you do happen to see the film then it's best to remember when it was made and not when it was released because the film certainly doesn't have much sexuality or violence.The biggest problem with this film is the fact that they decided to try and milk the "mystery" surrounding the murders.
What's worse is that we've got a weird looking creature that is doing the killing yet they keep him off the screen for the majority of the running time.I mean, if you're going to have a great looking monster then why not show him off more?
Surely seeing the monster attack more victims is more entertaining than watching a couple guys talk, right?.
A hideous monster is on the prowl in Manila, draining the blood of its victims, all young, female employees at the Barrio nightclub.
Local police inspector Miguel Ramos (Filipino regular Vic Diaz) calls in his old friend Adam Rourke (Robert Winston), a smarmy, smart-ass sex crimes expert from the U.S., to help him on the case.With a title like Blood Thirst, one might reasonably expect a gory piece of exploitation schlock, but sadly this is not the case.
What we get is more like a noir-ish detective flick (complete with shadowy black and white photography and a sleazy jazz soundtrack), albeit with slight horror elements.
This means that for much of the time the film is content to follow Rourke as he investigates the mysterious murders, romances Miguel's sister Sylvia (Katherine Henryk), and gets in a few fist fights, all of which proves very dull.The silly climax sees Serena, a dancer at the Barrio, revealed to be a South American Golden Goddess who possesses the secret to everlasting youth.
As Miguel and Adam battle Serena's disfigured helper, they interrupt her ritual—which involves human blood, special herbs, and a chair that harnesses the energy of the sun—causing her to rapidly grow old and disintegrate..
This was made in 1965 but released in 1971 on the US grindhouse circuit - that is why the film "feels" like a 1960s film (some people don't seem to realize this).Grindhouse?
so an American sex-crime specialist has been called in on the case by a detective friend in Manila.
It's not overly bloody nor a gore-fest, it's just believed to be sex-crimes and the film was made in the Philippines.It's better than it looks - yes it's a monster that looks like chewed bubblegum that appears at the latter part of the film (you can see that by the poster/video cover) but if you can look past that then you'll find an okay detective crime-horror film.
Vic Diaz vs the Bubblegum Monster.
From the clothes, hairstyles and black and white film grain it looks like Blood Thirst was filmed in the Philippines by an American production company around the mid Sixties, but wasn't released until 1971 on the bottom of a double bill with British vampire movie Bloodsuckers (1970).
Even in 1971 Blood Thirst would have seemed like an anachronistic curio  quaint, and for the most part uneventful, until the ludicrous ending's payoff where we see the film's chewed bubblegum-faced monster.
Then, and only then, can I say: baby, all is forgiven.Chubby Vic Diaz (and let's face it, it's not a Philippines B film without the seedily lovable Vic) plays Inspector Ramos, a Makati policeman on the trail of missing hostesses from the Barrio Club, a downbeat tourist trap run by the suspicious Senor Calderon.
When the girls turn up hanging upside down and drained of blood from cuts on their arms, he sends for his old friend from the States, a cop named Adam Rourke who, as a New Yorker, is obviously used to seeing ritual murders.
Posing as an "Ugly American" on a writing assignment, he goes undercover at the Barrio Club, asks one too many questions, cracks jokes like a proto-Arnie while shooting a would-be assassin, and turns out to be an ill-tempered ladies man with his eye on every Caucasian-looking woman in Manila.
Just like every sleazy Hawaiian shirted white guy on a Philippines hayride.His eyes settle on both Inspector Ramos' adopted sister Sylvia, who resists Rourke's questionable charms until she can no longer stand it, and on the Barrio Club's featured attraction, the exotic dancer and blond Peruvian bombshell named Serena.
It seems her beauty is more than skin-deep: it's vein-deep, and may be the still-beating heart of a blood cult of Mayan or Incan origin  or older, we're never quite sure  in which Golden Goddesses are kept eternally youthful with the blood of club hostesses.
The Golden Goddess theory may explain, though not fully, why Serena looks more Swedish than Peruvian, but definitely won't point to where she's stashed her stewardess uniform for Scandinavian Airlines.And so to the "horror" element: a blood cult, a bubblegum faced monster waving a knife at a young girl strapped to an altar.
It's an odd film reminiscent of an undercooked episode of Hawaii Five-O minus the pineapple, that's more interested in its mystery angle than the gore or supernatural elements.
It also feels empty, and not just plot-wise  Blood Thirst is the only film I can recall that makes a city of over 10 million people seem uninhabited.
Still, it's an interesting 73 minutes, more for what it is than what it does: a cheapo spook-show which predates the John Ashley/Roger Corman deluge of Philippine horrors by several years.
For those connoisseurs of foreign horror films who are desirous of seeing the 1965 Filipino obscurity entitled "Blood Thirst," their only recourse, it would seem, is the DVD currently available from those maniacs at Something Weird.
The picture in question shares the disc with another relatively unknown film, the similarly titled "Bloodsuckers," and it was to see this British product of 1970 that I initially rented out this DVD.
But "Bloodsuckers" turns out to be a terrible mess of a film, despite the participation of Peter Cushing and Patrick Macnee; an ineptly put-together head scratcher that suffers even more in comparison to "Blood Thirst," a surprisingly good, well-made little chiller that manages to satisfy on all levels.
Released in America six years after its Filipino debut, the film features gorgeous B&W cinematography by DOP Hermo Santos and comes off like a film noir crossed with a cheesy horror flick...and with winning results!In the picture, we learn that a serial killer has been slaying young girls on the streets of Manila.
Their bodies are always found hung upside down and completely drained of blood, their forearms slit exactly the same length every time.
At a loss as to how to proceed, police inspector Miguel Ramos (played by the great Filipino mainstay Vic Diaz, who seems to pop up in just about every Filipino movie that I watch) calls in his American friend Adam Rourke (Robert Winston), a homicide lieutenant who is an expert in sex crimes.
Hunky dude Rourke centers his investigations on the Barrio Club, an upscale nightspot where several of the murdered girls had worked.
He thus encounters the club's suave owner, Calderon (Vic Silayan, who comes off like a Filipino Cesar Romero), as well as its featured exotic dancer, the blonde hottie Serena (Yvonne Nielson), while being aided by Ramos' sister, the emotionally conflicted Sylvia (Katherine Henryk).
As the film proceeds, the viewer learns that the killer is quite a sight indeed; a lumbering mess of a man (?) with a face composed of innumerable lumps and hideous nodules.
And as Rourke evades numerous attempts on his life while getting closer to Sylvia, he learns that the solution to this murder mystery might be even stranger than he had guessed....Tightly directed by Newt Arnold, "Blood Thirst" was filmed at the height of the secret-agent craze, the same year that the 007 vehicle "Thunderball" broke box-office records, and its debt to this international spy mania is very pronounced.
(For example, the last time I encountered Diaz, it was in the 1971 Eddie Romero film "Beast of the Yellow Night," in which Vic plays the Devil himself!) Rourke's love interest in the film, Sylvia, has been cast most unusually, as Henryk is not pretty in the conventional sense, and yet, because of her appealing nature and spunky disposition, she is a woman who grows more and more attractive as the picture proceeds.
I was also happy to spot Bruno Punzalan in this film, here playing the thuggish bartender at the Barrio Club; Punzalan, like Diaz, also seems to pop up regularly in these Filipino outings of the period, and he has a doozy of a dustup with Rourke about halfway through this picture.
"Blood Thirst" is well acted by every one of its players and is overall a surprisingly intelligent affair; a film whose noirish elements gradually blend into pure horror by its exciting conclusion, in which blood, "solar electrical energy," and the powder of roots of trees hundreds of years old are all combined in one mind-boggling melange.
The film tends to drag a bit in its central 1/3, but it never grows dull, and the stunning-looking B&W photography, artfully employing light and shadow, is always a feast for the eyes.
Simply put, the film looks great, and is nicely captured here on this Something Weird DVD.
For this viewer, the film comes as something like serendipity; an unexpected treat that I had previously never heard of before.
To my great surprise, I must warn viewers AWAY from "Bloodsuckers" and urge them to see "Blood Thirst" instead, a film that is truly ripe for rediscovery.....
I actually like Filipino horror films - they tend to be fantastic, have pretty good production values (other than the monster costumes and mad-scientist sets), and have some fine actors in them.
Filipino horror films, like Mexican ones, also have different religious undertones that add something to them.The acting is usually solid, although the dialogue probably would flow better if the Filipinos spoke Spanish.
Vic Diaz, who is in this one, is great.
Dull dull dull.A bunch of women in the Phillipines have been found drained of blood completely.
An American detective named Adam Rourke (Robert Winston) comes to investigate.
END SPOILER!!!!They also have this "monster" (a guy in hilarious makeup with gives him a lumpy face) helping drain the girls of blood.
This is being passed off as a horror film--don't let that fool you.
I'm giving this a 3 for two reasons: 1) Robert Winston--he sure can't act but he's pretty nice-looking and has a lengthy shirtless sequence showing a nice body and 2) there is some beautiful black & white cinematography--MUCH better than this film deserves.But it's basically a dull, stupid, forgettable movie.
This is one of those rare films that seems oddly out-of-date.
Although this movie came out in 1971 the black and white film, along with the music played during the picture, made it seem like something out of the late 50's or early 60's.
The reason for this was the fact that it was initially produced in 1965 by a developing film industry in the Phillipines and not shown to a world-wide audience until six years later.
Essentially, attractive women are being killed and drained of blood on the outskirts of Manila.
This has the detective in charge, "Inspector Miguel Ramos" (Vic Diaz) so baffled that he calls a friend of his in America named "Adam Rourke" (Robert Winston) to come and help him with the investigation.
Anyway, I liked the performance of Robert Winston who vaguely reminded me of George Lazenby in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".
I also appreciated some of the attractive actresses like Katherine Henryk (as "Sylvia Ramos"), Yvonne Nielson ("Serena") and several other uncredited ladies as well.
On the other hand, other than possibly Robert Winston, the acting wasn't that great and the special effects for the "bubble-headed monster" were just plain laughable.
Macho wisecracking playboy American sex crime expert Adam Rourke (decently played by Robert Winston) is summoned to the Phillippines by jolly and affable police captain Miguel (a typically fine and engaging performance by ubiquitous Filipino exploitation cinema mainstay Vic Diaz) to investigate a baffling series of brutal murders.
Fortunately, this film is beautifully shot in gorgeous sepia-tinged black and white by cinematographer Hermos Santos; the various blue, green, and red hues give this picture an exquisitely moody and stylish film noirish look.
In addition, the mellow jazzy score hits the groovy spot, there are a few cool secondary characters (my favorite is the crippled, but still highly capable undercover cop who helps Rourke out), the climax is reasonably lively and exciting, and fetching blonde Yvonne Nielson as a sexy exotic nightclub dancer adds a little sizzle to the otherwise pretty drab proceedings.
A surprisingly well-made Filipino horror flick.
BLOOD THIRST is an interesting and engaging little horror effort shot in the Philippines by a US crew.
It was made in 1965 so it's short and in black and white, although it wasn't given a US release until six years later.
I immediately lumped it in with the trashy shockers that Eddie Romero was shooting during the period (like the infamous MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND) but it's a much classier affair.
Surprisingly, it has decent production values too, perhaps the best I've seen in a Filipino horror film.The plot is simple enough, yet fun with it.
Robert Winston is the imported American, a detective who goes undercover as a writer for reasons that remained obscure to me.
He hangs out a lot at a nightclub full of dancing women while at the same time investigating a series of bizarre murders in which lone women are killed on the streets at night, their bodies found strung up and drained of blood.
It turns out that a rubber-faced monster with links to the nightclub is responsible.
The monster is cheap but cheerful and I personally loved the look of it.BLOOD THIRST is well-shot and quite stylishly directed in places with a good sense of location.
One of the most engaging things about the production is the inimitable Vic Diaz, that stalwart actor of Filipino cinema, getting a chance to play something other than a bad guy for once.
In the Philippines, a strange series of murders have occurred to pretty young ladies.
When their bodies were found, they were completely drained of blood and someone or some 'thing' is obviously running amok.
For some odd reason, a local police official thinks it's important to contact his American friend and ask for his undercover help.
Why this was necessary is beyond me—as was the extremely hostile reaction the policeman's step-sister has towards the American.The look and especially the soundtrack has a strong film noir feel to it.
The leading man also, at times, talks like a typical noir character—very cool and self-confident.
I especially liked the slapping scene—what a tough guy!
However, the movie goes off in a weird direction in the end—one that is very, very unlike noir—and more like a typical cheesy 1950s horror film.
Despite some decent acting and a nice style, a film that only masochists need see.