I, Desire premeired on TV in the year 1982. The film was a joint production between the USA and Canada. The film stars David Naughton, Marilyn Jones, Dorian Harewood and Barbara Stock as the title character, who masquerades as a lady named Mona. It also features a pre-Child's Play Brad Dourif in a small supporting role.
One night while in the coroner's area, David Balsinger (Naughton) sees an unusual case of a man bitten on the neck and all his blood drained from him. In time, he becomes obsessed with finding out more, but winds up getting into trouble when he meets a mystery young lady named Mona (Stock), who unbeknown to him is the culprit who's being searched. Along the way, his obsession becomes stronger despite those in his life advising him to let go of it. He then meets a defrocked Roman Catholic priest named Paul (Dourif) who's also obsessed with the whole thing and advises David that her name is Desire, and that he's determined to try and stop her despite nobody taking him seriously. Pretty soon, David has to use his wits to try and avoid being her next victim.
Prior to it's USA premeire on the ABC TV network on November 15th, 1982 on "The ABC Monday Night Movie", the film premiered first on Canadian TV. After its success there, it was shown in the USA on ABC.
I, Desire is an above average TV film. The film is well written, well directed and the performances by the actors are terrific. Naughton is superb as David Balsinger. Brad Dourif is also great as Paul, and last but not least, Barbara Stock is very convincing in her right on performance as the title character. Each and every actor delivers top notch performances. The suspense keeps the viewer glued to the film until the end. I, Desire is a technically well made film for TV. The film is truly terrifying as it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. It truly carries the viewer over the edge until it ends.
The film was a part of the vampire film craze that started in 1979 when Frank Langella portrayed "Dracula" in the 1979 film readaption released by Universal Pictures, with Langella reprising his role of the title character after he portrayed him on stage. In its wake, numerous vampire themed films were made. Not only that, it also created the myth that Desire was the daughter of Count Dracula, which has never been confirmed nor denied by those who worked on this film, but IMHO, does make for some pretty interesting conversation.
I, Desire should be a part of every horror film lovers film library. No horror film fan should be without this above average TV film in their libraries.
