Thirst (2015)

When a group of wayward teens arrive at a desert boot camp, with no communication, and nowhere to run to, they realize their only chance for survival is to fight for their lives.

Review

PG-13 horror abounds with Thirst. As pretty stock horror goes, you have the checklist - Unlikable characters to play the victims, adults who die early to let the teens save the day, handsome teen (he's 30) to ride a motorbike, damsel in distress, comedy sidekick...

And CGI monsters.

It is better than some, though. Directed by Greg Kiefer (Stalking Santa) the film has a reasonable feel to it, and a good flow. The acting is pretty solid. John Redlinger (The Ice Cream Truck) our hero named *coughs* Roth, does the heavy lifting in the film with relative ease. He's offhanded as the character demands and charismatic enough. There is little weight or gravitas on display in the cast, so such a newcomer can pull it off. To be honest, I would happily see him in other things. I won't go into the rest of the cast - but they are all sufficient at worst, so that's something.

The CGI aliens are pretty bleh. I've seen far worse, but also so, so much better. From an FX point of view, the film is a shade off the Sy Fy garbage that the Horror Channel shows in the afternoon, but The Thing it is not.

It does pass the time with ease, and could have been a lot worse. It very much runs the gamit of The Bye Bye Man or Slender Man, except in the desert, in the daytime, with aliens. But as with so many PG-13 horror films, it's not scary on any level. It does have some good writing in it - and gives characters arcs and a means of development, but even horror for children should be scary for children. Otherwise it's just a soap opera with aliens in it.