Siren

It's surprisingly great, fun movie! The actors were okay, but that "I like you." girl is always creepy, and she does a fine job. I love how they made this movie based on Greek mythology. I think it's a fine horror/fantasy movie. I was a fan of Hannah Fierman's character from segment 'Amateur Night', but after watching SiREN makes me love her even more.

I'd give it a solid 7/10.

As a fan of the first V/H/S, particularly the segment upon which this film is based, Amateur Night, this prequel-sequel does not do the series justice. What made the first film great was the romantic element, you just couldn't help but fall in love with Lily. She was the cute, quiet, shy girl who "likes you." (Of course, with quite the dark secret, but that's part of the appeal to us sick ones.) This film rushes every encounter with Lily, and does next to nothing when it comes to expanding any sort of story surrounding her. Not to mention, she seemed to change from a succubus to a siren somewhere in between these two films.

I will concede, however, that SiREN does add some interesting details. Take Mr. Nyx, for example. A "man" that appears not to age and owns a supernatural strip club? Again, my gripe is that the film did not expand much on the details. You're just expected to run with it, "A supernatural strip club with cult-like outfits and memory leech drinks? Of coooouuurrrse!"

In summation, if the film had focused just a tad more on the details, fleshed out the story a bit, amped up or added more romance/sexy demon scenes, this movie would've been exactly what the fans wanted. Damn shame it wasn't.

Let's get the bad out of the way first, in part because the movie did exactly that. The writing, especially in the first part of the movie, could be pretty bad. Whoever wrote the banter needs a lot more practice at that particular art. That plus some pretty bad acting was almost enough to make me turn the movie off. Luckily, just as I was deciding not to throw good time after bad, they reached the supernatural strip club (brothel? general sin palace? hard to tell) and that idea was itself intriguing enough to keep me watching. From there, with the exception of a bit of hammy acting (and persistently bad acting from the bachelor party guys), things improved a bit, not in the least bit because the opportunities for "banter" grew more infrequent.

But the central conceit -- the Lily figure from V/H/S -- was a good one to choose. It had potential, and provided a complexity to the standard slice-n-dice that most killer films don't have the room to explore. Mind you, this isn't a deep engrossing character study or anything -- we never learn much about the backgrounds of most of the characters (and Mr. Nyx absolutely could use a movie of his very own) -- but the basic premise and the complications provided by the nature of the titular Siren are solid enough to carry the film. The low budget shows (not in the least in the aforementioned poor writing and acting as much as the more visible products of low budgets) but the film is absolutely solid for the budget it does have. Since this is a standard film rather than found footage, the filmmakers couldn't operate on a microbudget but did manage to get their money's worth from the $300k IMDb says they had. I bumped my rating up a solid point in acknowledgement of managing to do so.

As with the V/H/S segment this movie came from, Hannah Fierman does the most with what little personalization is allowed to a character like hers. She certainly commits, and presents a compelling dichotomy between the Beauty and the Beast aspects of her character.

I am a horror fan but have been disappointed lately with all the retold stories out there. When I saw this movie on redbox I checked IMD and read the first review. When I read demon girl from VHS I was sold. I really enjoyed that episode so I headed off to the box and I am glad I did. Really I think this is a prequel to the VHS story. I thought the acting was good and special effects. I like how it brought out a sense of endless nightmare, like those dreams you can't wake up from. These folks have stepped in it and there's no going home for you Dorothy. But seriously, I would recommend this movie to anyone, horror buff or not. Good times to the end.

The plot has no obvious continuity issues, and the scenes are carefully thought out, if a bit naive - but in a positive, honest way. It could even be called a spiritual sequel to the 'episode' with the demon girl in V/H/S, the influences are clearly there but the story is constructed separately, in a neat narrative. The actors are refreshingly on par, nice chemistry between the cast shows through which is always good. The movie is not a huge production, and it does not try to be. This is a good thing because it shows focus on what can work. And it is not lazy or jaded, nor does it look 'poor'. The few downsides it does have come naturally from a lack of budget, but they are not distracting. Other than that, it manages to feel like a properly engaging movie.

I am certainly not sorry for spending the time to watch it.