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.

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...

It's hard to believe that any film can get so much so wrong all at once.

Siren has no major stars in it and is a self-confessed horror film. Therefore, the best the film-makers were probably hoping for was that it attained a cult following on DVD. I doubt it will.

For a start the cover is misleading. It shows three bikini-clad women's bodies on the front. There are only two women in the whole movie (and only one ever wears a bikini slightly near the end of the film). Secondly, the tagline describes the film as 'The best supernatural thriller since Dead Calm.' First of all Dead Calm was released over twenty years ago and it wasn't supernatural. The only similarity is that both films have boats in them.

Then we have the film itself: three of the most unlikeable people in the world take a boat trip and end up getting stuck on an island with - you guessed it - a siren. Despite not heeding the obligatory warning from the clichéd old geezer at the boating station about sailing too close to the rock and getting caught by supernatural beings, they do it anyway. Do we care? Probably not by now as we're so sick of watching these people.

Anyone hoping for vague titillation will be disappointed. You see two women naked from the back and they kiss a couple of times. No nudity. Not even lots of bikini-clad women.

The horror. There isn't much. There's hardly any in the film at all. When it tries to be scary about three quarters of the way through, it just feels confusing.

It's one plus point - it was short. However, the 1 hr 16 minutes felt a lot longer than it actually way! Just don't bother with this one.

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.

Siren had the potential to be a great film. Unfortunately due to poor scripting and what seems like a very rushed denouement, the film never really lives up to it's potentially very interesting premise.

The director certainly shows some flair for gorgeous scenics and there is definitely an ambiance of sexy creepiness but all of this amounts to very little.

Even the expected exploitative aspects of this film seem somewhat tame in terms of what they could've been.

A really interesting first half amounts to a barely sustainable 76 odd minute somewhat interesting erotic horror film, but nothing you should go out of your way to make a point of seeing.