Siren

It's not easy pulling of a psychological terror movie. Probably even more difficult on a low budget. And Siren seems to be done on a bare-bones budget. There are a total or 6 actors or so in the entire movie and only a few locations. That said I'm glad it was filmed on location on an island and not in a studio.

The story involves a couple in lust, Ken and Rachel who take a trip on a boat around the Greek islands. For some reason, Rachel's ex comes along for the trip. As they get close to an island they encounter a skinny man bleeding out of his ears and who ends up dying shortly after that. They bury him on the island and run into a strange woman who doesn't speak much.

That's when the psychoterror begins as all the tourists start seeing and hearing things, although none of it is particularly scary or threatening. At first what keeps the movie going is the sexual tension between the attractive ladies Rachel and the woman. Once that fades away, the movie quickly goes downhill as the psychoterror ramps up and becomes more dull and pointless. Countless times we have one character wondering off into the woods and everyone else screaming his/her name over and over.

The title gives away what this movie is about and yet they try to present that as a surprise, it obviously isn't. They should have given this movie a different title. Also important is a little background mythology and explanation the strange woman gives- which ends up in the deleted scenes! There is a final twists in the movie which was very good and made things interesting.

Despite the low budget, this movie looks very good, the ladies are hot, but the story is too minimal. Even though Siren is fairly short it feels long because nothing serious goes on. A well made movie that is seriously hampered by a weak script and lack of ideas.

Samuel L. Jackson once said in the film Changing Lanes to Ben Affleck...."I Want My Time Back!!" That's how I feel after watching this mess of a horrid film.

Siren is a "horror" film in which three friends take a boat trip to get away from the city. They spot a man on an island and rescue him, he soon dies on their boat. The motor on their boat has been fried and they decide to stay on the island over night. While on the island they run into a woman, who seems frightened, disoriented and can't seemed to remember things. She is beautiful and her beauty grabs the attention of the three characters, even the female. She turns out to be a siren, of Greek mythology. A beautiful woman who would lure men to the island through song. Death was brought upon them.

Argh, this film has an interesting cover design. A woman holding a knife in a bikini. There were two other women on each side of her, also in bikinis. The back cover of the DVD has yet another woman in a bikini. The tagline read an exotic tale of lust and revenge. Sex and horror, two great elements that go together. With a little bit a Greek mythology sprinkled in, I expected this film to be at the very least tolerable. Boy, was I ever wrong.

First, if the poster excites you, don't. This is a classic case of never judge a book by it's cover. Siren will try to lure you in with the promise of sex, blood and horror. The film never has a moment of these things. The film starts off with two characters pretending to be strangers, to spice up their relationship apparently. It fails because the woman has visions of some blonde person, whom we later find out to be the siren. They have sex, successfully on the boat, never exciting during the scene though. The siren has many scenes where she kisses the woman, I have no idea why. Maybe it was a cheap attempt at luring in young boys?

The back of the cover on the DVD is also wrong with the description of the film. It says they spot a seductive sultry woman on an island, this is incorrect. They spot some bearded man ramblings on in gibberish. It isn't till they bury him on the island do they see the woman, whom is neither seductive or sultry. We are treated to a bunch of scenes where the characters see things that aren't really there. The question of what is real and what isn't is raised, but you'll never be interested enough to care.

I'm expected to believe that the one character was in love with the other, except that he's upset about a 'hot friend' not making the trip. He also tries to have a three way with this new woman, just more fuel to the aggravating fire. Please, even a fifth grader can come up with better characterization than that. The third character, Marco, was pointless. Just another person to fill up the 80 minutes running time. He likes the woman that is dating the guy, but it never leads anywhere.

How do people die? The siren sings and they bleed from their ears. That is it. Excitement level is at an all time low here. Don't even get me started on the obvious and completely inane ending. This is not a horror film, I would call it suspense if anything...it even fails at that though.

An excellent setup, nice idea but completely wasted in bad acting, bad directing and scripting.

You know, if you are going to make a sexy horror movie you have to go all the way. I mean, why selling sex with the cover, why select the players so obviously by their looks, if you are not going to show a thing.

On the other hand maybe you could have pull it off as a more serious horror movie with better actors. But not showing the sex scenes between the characters, specially the lesbian scene, is not having any sense of business at all.

In the end, be clear of what kind of movie you want to make and try to make the better movie you can of the genre...

Such a waste...

Do not get suckered in by the alluring movie cover, because it is really nothing that you see in the movie at all. And worst of all, that movie cover does send a wrong signal about what you will see in the movie.

The movie "Siren" is a story about 3 people getting stranded on a small island when their boat breaks down and runs ashore. Here they encounter the sensual and mysterious Silka. But something is not entirely right on the island...

"Siren" does have an interesting take on the whole siren mythology and it is interesting enough, just a shame that the rest of the movie was so bad. The story trots forward in a slow, dull pace with nothing much happening. And at times it is great, because you want to know what will happen next, but at other times it is frustrating, because you feel you are getting nowhere in way too long a time.

Having a small cast was working well for the movie though, because you get more involved with each character, but sadly there were very little character evolving throughout the movie. You never really fully did get into whom they were and why they acted the way they did.

One thing that did work for the movie, was the singing. When Silka was singing it did sound really interesting and chilling in a way. It sort of made you tinkle and the song went to your soul (if one does believe that we have souls). So thumbs up for the impressive sound here.

One thing that really ticked me off was the excessive display of semi-erotic scenes. Why did we see almost everyone making out with almost everyone? And why were there so many girl on girl scenes? It totally brought the movie down to a low-grade, low-ranked sleazy level. And this was what killed off the movie for me, the final death throe.

The genre is labeled as horror, but I wouldn't hardly call "Siren" a horror movie. It is more of a suspense movie, because nothing scary is happening throughout the entire movie.

I was disappointed with the overall movie experience, as I had expected at least something more than what it turned out to be; a sad excuse to show women kissing each other!

It's got Good Looking People, Good Looking Scenery, but the Movie is Not So Good. It takes a lot of Conceit to Offer so much and Deliver so little. It is a Tease right from the Box Art. Everything is Teasing in this Movie.

It Pretends to be a Sexy Thriller with many a Sex Scenes that start out Real Sexy and end up with Interruptus. The Nudity Stops with Back Shots and Cleavage, Tight Dresses and Loose Behavior. But there isn't much in this Thing that has Convincing Conviction.

There is a lot of Walking Around and Getting Lost. There is a lot of Name Calling and more Name Calling. Things Happen with Little Explanation and Even Less Suspense. There are Numerous Repetitive Scenes, for example, that have Something do with bending down to a Pool of Water and Scooping Up a Handful for some Unknown Reason.

There are some Individual Shots that Impress, like the Facial Distortion, and a Bloody Hallucination or Two, but the Story Meanders as much as the Characters and Nothing is Tightly Woven Together. It All just Happens and it is All suppose to be So Mysterious. But as a Completed Project there is Much to be Desired.

Overall, Looking Good is not Enough and the Film Fails more than it Succeeds and Genre Fans are most Likely to be Very Disappointed and Serious Story Types...Ditto.