Vamp or Not? Thirst (2015)

I suppose it’s natural that the name Thirst, for a film, summons up the concept of vampire movies. Indeed, the name has already been used a few times. There was the unusual Australian film, Thirst {1979}, with an added “the” there was the less than stellar the Thirst {2007} and, of course the magnificent Korean film, Thirst {2009}.

This 2015 film directed by Greg Kiefer is a sci-fi film and action vehicle that is pretty much by the numbers and you pretty much know what will happen to each cast member's character telegraphed way in advance. But hey, sometimes a “take your brain out” flick is what you need to pass the time. However, is it Vamp?

the sphere

The film starts with a sphere passing through space and entering Earth atmosphere. It burns across the night sky and is seen by good ol’ boy type Lenny (Jay Pease). He investigates the crash site and sees the sphere open and something egg like suspended – he takes a picture of it but something is there. Dropping his camera, he runs to his truck but the alien from the sphere jumps on the hood, a tentacle like appendage smashing through the window, latching to his chest and sucking the fluids out of Lenny, draining him to a husk.

the kids

Actually I needn’t really go much further – we have draining fluids and that is our big evidence piece. The film progresses with a group of troubled teens handed over to a programme aimed to straighten them out by force marching them through the countryside. The owner is Claire (Jes Macallan) but her business partner Burt (Karl Makinen) is being sued for assault of one of the previous kids (which he denies, saying he was restraining him). As the business is failing their normal guide has been sacked and so Burt’s young nephew Roth (John Redlinger, the Originals) reluctantly takes on that role.

the creature

Roth is, of course, the hero of the piece, which sees them attacked and harassed by the alien. The alien is 6 limbed (with four legs and two arms) big teeth and, strangely, seems to be cybernetic. The metal causes it to freak out electrical equipment (giving the humans a warning of proximity). It does beg the question of intelligence (it would appear it is more animalistic than sentient) or who created it? The fluid sucker is a tentacle like appendage that is produced from its chest. The V word is used once, when they find Lenny’s corpse but haven’t encountered the alien. The line, “Yeah, and it could have been a vampire too, but that’s not reality.” was almost using denial to draw our attention to the word.

feeding

It seems to readily know what its prey might be on this planet and does, also, capture one of the humans (and Roth’s love interest) as food for the baby, which latches onto the chest and nurses on her blood. This, of course, leads to a daring rescue. So, we have sucking of fluids – which is reminiscent of It! The Terror from Beyond Space – though the baby does seem to be extracting blood only. The film’s name is suggestive of the genre and there is an earnestly enunciated line suggesting “she is feeding from us” as if we missed it. As much as “It” was an example of an alien vampire, I think we could class this too – especially as the primary motivation for the visit is to feed by sucking humanity dry.

The imdb page is here.