Absolutely the worst movie.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The Thirsty Dead is a film I searched for years to give warning when I started doing movie reviews. The search was hard because I could not remember the title nor anyone who was in it.I saw this item when it first came out in 1974 and at the time I was doing my weekend warrior bit for Army Reserves. Not by choice did I see this film but only because it was all that was offered that time on the small post I was on. I did see better films during the military service I did have normally. With all the scantily clad and bosomy females in the cast led by Jennifer Billingsley and Judith McConnell the troops were more than satisfied with this concoction. Anyway I was not as easily satisfied with the film as the rest were.The Thirsty Dead was shot on location in The Phillipines and it concerns some beautiful women who are kidnapped by this devil cult. A select few stay eternally young by drinking the blood of others. But the blood supply is running thin so they have to kidnap fresh women from Manila and it seems as though the preference is for American women.Billingsley and McConnell are two of the victims and at least Billingsley wants out. I'll say no more except that this turgid mess has elements of She and The Lost Horizon in it. But seeing the reaction at the army post I saw it shows that the young men were starved for entertainment and knew what they wanted.I doubt The Thirsty Dead ever made it to New York where I lived at the time. Films like these were strictly for red state consumption. As it is it is one of the most excruciatingly bad films I've ever seen.

Several young women are abducted by a mysterious cult located deep in the jungle. Said cult needs the blood of healthy young gals in order to sustain their immortality. While the offbeat premise has promise, alas Terry Becker's lifeless by-the-numbers direction fails to effectively realize the potential of said premise: The pace is sluggish, the tone too serious, there's precious little tension or spooky atmosphere, and the PG rating puts a damper on any tasty gratuitous female nudity and graphic gore. The competent cast do their best with the blah material: Jennifer Billingsley makes for an appealing heroine as the perky Laura, John Considine acquits himself well as charming cult member Baru, Judith McDonnell adds some much needed (and appreciated) humor and energy as brash and cynical go-go dancer Claire, and Tani Guthrie projects a perfectly ruthless quality as lovely, but evil high priestess Ranu. Moreover, the dungeon of withered old crones is reasonably creepy, Nonong Rasca's fairly polished cinematography provides plenty of pretty shots of the lush tropical scenery, and Richard LaSalle's shivery score hits the spirited shuddery spot. Unfortunately, the always welcome presence of the ubiquitous Vic Diaz is wasted in a regrettably minor part as a police lieutenant. In addition, this picture quite simply lacks the necessary spark to qualify as a fun Grade B fright flick. A merely passable time-waster.

**SPOILERS** Almost Incomprehensible horror movie that can't seem to make up its mind to what it's all about involving these four kidnapped beauties who are needed to supply the heads of this cult of wackos with their blood to keep them alive. The actual head man, someone or something called Raul, of this cult is seen in more or less a cameo role with only his disembodied head seen in what looks like a red dyed water filled fish-tank giving orders to his under-links. What was even more amazing then Raul's head in its being able to stay alive without a body attached to it was its unique ability to both breath and talk, without gargling, while it was submerged underwater!Raul's second and third in command is a couple of crackpots, Baru & Ranu, who've survived the ravages of both time and the aging process living to be almost 500 years old. It's because of the blood of the young woman who they had kidnapped by their hulking servants, a bunch of shaved headed mutes, that the two drink that's been keeping them alive and kicking all these years.The kidnapped girls-Laura Clair Ann & Bonnie-being of sound mind and body, and free of venereal disease, are to be used to supply Baru & Ranu with their youthful and healthy blood for their survive. It turns that Laura is given a free pass in not donating to the Red Cross in that she's actually an old flame of Baru who passed away some 500 years ago. Baru came to that amazing conclusion by his uses of automatic writing that had his hand,totally independent from his both brain and body, sketch an image of her before he even met Laura.Despite being offered the miracle of eternal life Laura is anything but impressed by spending the rest of her life, which would be eternal, with the creepy looking Baru who's anything but a Cary Grant or Tyrone Powers. Baru comes across more like an up to date, as well as better dressed, and modern version of the butterfingered Fritz! Dr. Frankenstein's bumbling assistant in the horror classic "Frankenstein"!After thinking things over Baru himself decides to join the girls with the exception of Claire, who stayed behind and ended up being eaten alive by a hoard of hungry rats, to make a break and escape from Raul, the head in the fish tank, and his partner Ranu's compound. It's later that Baru falls by the wayside, in the Philippine jungles, when his age catches up with him leaving him looking like a dried up and decomposed mango that even the ants and roaches in the jungle would avoid eating.The girls-Laura Bonnie & Ann- making good their escape from Ranu's hulking and diaper wearing thugs and reaching civilization are now in danger of being committed for the crazy and unbelievable stories they tell, the Philippine police, about their incredible adventures in the wild. This in effect gives Ranu and her boss-the head-Raul much needed breathing room to continue and conduct their criminal actions! Of them having kidnapped and then sucking the blood out of young girls, like the one's who just escaped, to keep them alive forever.

This movie's main flaw seems to be that it takes itself too seriously. Its skirting around camp, taken in consideration with some moments that seem quite earnestly acted and scripted (however poorly it worked out), becomes an unintentional side-effect. This negates 90% of the reason to watch this movie. It is cheaply made on top of this which detracts even further in that rather than go for a more natural look, they tried for some sort of sci-fi exotica kind of thing and ended up with a office dress party.The plot works fair enough, though it probably would have worked more had they dropped the horror pretenses and moved straight into action/adventure style territory. There is no new ground here.The acting is not always wooden, and has some okay moments, but is largely inconsistent. Signs of grief or panic are often achieved by a far off look or a hand biting scene.All in all, the biggest flaw here (besides a low budget, which they could have worked around, I have seen too many good low budget movies) is that they are tapping into a 1950's era schlock flick flavor, and somehow trying to keep it fresh and end up with a poor mix altogether.