To feel bloodthirsty is to feel the urge to commit or witness acts of violence, not for the sake of some larger purpose, but for the sake of the violence itself. Bloodthirsty people are thought to crave opportunities to hurt other people, to take pleasure in causing pain and destruction.
The obvious model of bloodthirsty feelings is the vampire, an undead creature that is motivated by an irresistible desire to drink human blood. Vampires aren’t real, of course. They’re imaginary monsters. Werewolves are also often described as bloodthirsty, as in the upcoming werewolf movie soon to be released under the title Bloodthirsty. Werewolves are fictional, though, like vampires.
What about actual human beings? Does anyone ever actually feel bloodthirsty?
Pirates have often been described as bloodthirsty, but Blackbeard, supposedly the most terrifying pirate of all time, never actually killed anyone until he was cornered in a battle in which he himself was killed. Blackbeard used tactics of intimidation in order to avoid having to commit acts of violence.
Bloodthirsty feelings exist on rare occasions, in mentally ill people or in abnormal situations such as war, but bloodthirstiness is mostly an emotion we accuse other people of having. Depictions of bloodthirsty emotions in other people are much more common than bloodthirsty feelings themselves. Stories about vicious criminals, pro-war propaganda, and horror movies are all compelling because people get a thrill out of the idea of bloodthirst. We feel stimulated by the fear of bloodthirsty villains, and by shadows of bloodthirsty impulses within ourselves.
