Drained

“Welcome to the horror show, lad!” are John’s (Craig Conway) prophetic words to Thomas (Ruaridh Aldington), in a fitting prelude to a story about the search for love and mercy, which culminates with misery and darkness in Peter Stylianou and Sean Cronin’s inventive take on a vampire romance gone rotten, Drained. Indeed, the line resonates from the film’s opening frames, which bookend perfectly with its final shots in this indie gem entry into the bloodsucking genre, taking vampire tropes of melancholy and loneliness and partnering them with dashes of dark humor in a twisted coming-of-age story.

Thomas is not as worldly as he imagines. An artist with talent but burdened by limited drive, he spends his days confined to his room drawing. Whilst he longs to be a commercial artist…he is often engaged in the five-knuckle-shuffle with his penciled sirens as stimulus.

That is until his Mum (Angela Dixon) hooks up with John, an exterminator, who pushes his way into the family and seeks to force Thomas out. His Mum, to his chagrin, sides with John, and Thomas is out on his arse. Life couldn’t be shittier until he meets the siren who seems to have stepped out of fantasy illustrations, the mysterious and provocative Rhea, played with vicious intensity by Madalina Bellariu Ion. She has the body of a Goddess and the eyes of a serpent…soon having Thomas fixated on her with a stupid, lobotomized stare.

“…a vampire romance gone rotten…”

After their initial encounter, the young man can’t believe such a creature exists and waits and hopes to see her again. Following a cruel reality check from his bar-tending buddy, who lets Thomas think Rhea is unattached, Thomas heads dejectedly out into the night…only to be surprised by Rhea, who agrees to come home with him. He inquires as to why she is so willing, having seen her earlier with another man earlier. Rhea smiles and answers, “he didn’t taste very good.”

If you know your vampire lore, you are only in peril at the hands of the vein-drainer if you invite them into your home. This is where Thomas’s true woes commence. Not merely inviting Rhea into his home but into his life. Soon, he learns that the lust he harbors for her is only equal to the lust she has for his blood. His loneliness is abated as he transforms into a willing victim who becomes addicted to being drained by his new squeeze. Of course, the honeymoon period is fleeting, and he descends into tears when he learns Rhea only sees him as an easy meal and has no real feelings for him.

Thomas’s eagerness to be with Rhea fades further when he can no longer regain his strength following her constant need to feed. He finds himself hospitalized and then returned to the care of his mother. Yet, Rhea is not done with him. She is a vampire growing in strength and as the climax arrives, shows little regard for human connection. Rhea’s rampage is terrifying, leaving Thomas seeking revenge. The climax of this vampire romance delivers the expected level of carnage and lots of the red stuff.