Vamp or Not? Deep Freeze

Regular visitor Zombiepunk asked me if I would do a Vamp or Not? feature about this movie and was good enough to get the DVD to me so that I could, which, given the quality of the movie, might make him a sadist! Seriously, however, I always appreciate the opportunity to watch a movie I haven’t seen, especially one that might be vampiric in nature, even if the movie turns out to be a turkey.

This film concerns something being awakened at a deep core drilling facility in the Antarctic and, therefore, I immediately made connections with The Thing, which this film does rip off shamelessly, as well as films such as Alien (monster stalks tunnels) and Ticks.

So why the Vamp or Not? Firstly the DVD box does say that they have “imported a vampire-like prehistoric menace that thrives on death and destruction on it’s quest for human blood.” Secondly because, if you shop on e-bay and do a search for vampire DVDs, ticking both title and description, you can find this film listed on your search. At that point it becomes worth an investigation, if for no other reason than to see if buyers should beware.

Essentially, below the ice, are giant trilobites, about the size of Labradors, which are attacking people. The DVD box says that they go for human blood, though that is not clear in the film, they certainly seem to eat people and we could hazard a guess that it is the blood they are going for. I’m going to refer to them in the plural as, though the film indicates only one is running about, it really isn’t that clear as you watch.

They are described as a worm/mosquito cross, though they look like big beetles and are further described as parasites. There is no evidence of intelligence, these things seem to run on instinct. Okay the lights get cut by one chewing through cables but there is no indication that the act is deliberate.

One wonders if they have been awakened, from a frozen hibernation, or if they live below the ice. The film doesn’t bother to tell us. If they lived below the ice then what did they feed on? As they are prehistoric in nature then why do they go for human blood, we were not around when they evolved?

To continue with the Alien movie theme, there is a giant one, which is reminiscent of the finding of the Alien Queen.

There is no reason why this should be classed as a vampire movie. The main evidence for blood drinking is from the DVD box and such blurbs are notoriously unreliable, let’s face it the box mentions the creatures being imported but they are not removed from the location they are found, all the ‘action’ takes place in the Antarctic. They are not intelligent and there is no supernatural element. This is a badly scripted, poorly executed movie with awful effects and worse acting… luckily this is one that will not sully the vampire genre. Not Vamp.

The imdb page is here.