Adam Rourke (Robert Winston) has just arrived in Manila to help his friend Miguel Ramos (Victor Diaz). Rourke is a New York City detective who works sex crimes. Miguel is an Inspector with the Manila police. The Manila police have a big problem. Several women have been found murdered in a ritualistic way. Their blood has been drained from their bodies from cuts on their arms. Specific cuts. Miguel is convinced that it is one person doing the killing since the manner of death is exactly the same for each woman. One cut on each forearm and each cut is ten centimeters in length. All the women killed were young. The local rumors are a cult or a homicidal maniac.
Rourke meets Miguel’s adopted sister Sylvia Ramos (Katherine Henryk). Sylvia is not impressed with the smart mouthed New York detective. He, of course, begins pushing her buttons which annoys her more. When Miguel has her drive Rourke to his hotel he kisses her which really pisses her off.
The last young woman killed was Maria Cortez, a hostess who worked at a local night spot called “Barrio Club”. Rourke goes undercover as a writer looking to write a story on the latest victim to sell to the papers or magazines. He starts his investigation at the club. The owner of the establishment is Mr. Calderon (Vic Silayan). He has a relationship with a blond dancer at the club, Serena (Yvonne Nielson).
When Rourke approaches Calderon’s office he can hear him and Serena arguing. At first Calderon is short tempered and rude to Rourke. Not surprising. He brings that out in people. Eventually they sit down at a table in the club and Rourke goes into his spiel about being a writer. He wants to interview people to get the human-interest side of the story. Calderon is lukewarm about the proposition but is willing to seriously think about.
That night Rourke is attacked in his hotel room but ends up shooting the assailant. Later he is stopped by a one-legged homeless man looking for money. The man turns out to be Herrera (Eddie Infante). He is an undercover officer that Miguel assigned to keep an eye on him and watch his back. Sylvia shows up and tells him she is supposed to take him somewhere. She ends up leaving him in the middle of nowhere forcing him to walk back to the city. It appears he pushed one too many buttons.
On the way back he sees one of the girls that works at the club. Later he finds out she was killed. The next day another girl goes missing. She also worked at the club. Everything is beginning to revolve around Calderon and Serena. Miguel learns that when they were living in Peru there were some mysterious murders there as well. Rourke finds himself in the middle of some serious trouble when Calderon and Serena suspect that he is not who he says he is. But Miguel’s sister also ends up on their radar as well.
“Blood Thirst” AKA “Blood Seekers” AKA “The Horror from Beyond” was released in 1971 and was directed by Newt Arnold. It is a low budget American horror film. The movie is a black and white film shot in 1965 but not released in the U.S. until 1971. The movie was filmed in the Philippines.
There isn’t much to hype about this movie. The acting is less than marginal, and the lead actor is annoying. There isn’t even a lot of horror. But still there is something about it that made it interesting to watch. The setting was probably part of it. Most of it was night shots but you still had that exotic flavor throughout the film. Plus there were some noir touches that were enhanced by the exotic location and some nice cinematography. Throw in a silly looking monster with a severe case of boils and you have an entertaining film that felt like a throwback to a campy fifties monster movie.