This film was Australia's first serious vampire movie of the modern Australian cinema. However, it should be noted that vampire characters did actually appear in Bruce Beresford's Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974) where Donald Pleasence starred as Count Erich von Plasma. Moreover, Thirst (1979) is not the only ever modern Australian vampire movie as The Wicked (1987) was later made and released.
Lead actress Chantal Contouri who plays this movie's central character and protagonist Kate Davis, starred in producer Antony I. Ginnane's previous film, One More Minute (1979). Thirst (1979) was their second and final collaboration together.
The estate premises of the headquarters of the secret vampire cult the Hyma Brotherhood was portrayed by an artists colony north of Melbourne in Victoria known as Montsalvat.