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Siren (2016 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Siren' (stylized as 'SiREN') is a 2016 American horror film. It is a spin-off and feature-length adaptation of 'Amateur Night', David Bruckner's segment from the 2012 anthology horror film 'V/H/S'. It was released on December 2, 2016 in theatres, on DVD on December 6, 2016 and on Netflix January 1, 2020. It was directed by Gregg Bishop and produced by Gary Binkow, Jude S. Walko, Brad Miska, and David Bruckner. One week before his wedding day, Jonah and his groomsmen hit the town for a wild night of club hopping and debauchery. But the party becomes a savage fight for survival when they unwittingly unleash a fabled predator upon the festivities.
Plot
One week before his wedding day, Jonah and his groomsmen hit the town for his stag party, hosted by his irresponsible brother Mac. Attempting to be more original, Mac takes them to Garden City instead of a typical party location hoping for a wild night, and instead they wind up at a lackluster strip club. Visibly disappointed at his efforts, Mac attracts the attentions of a stranger who tells him about an underground moving club that promises to surpass all expectations.
Reluctantly, Jonah agrees to go, but the long drive to 50 north/40 west through a dark forest unnerves the group, as does the club when they finally arrive. The patrons and dancers almost convince the group to leave until the club owner, Mr. Nyx, comes out to personally welcome and see to their entertainment. Upon hearing that Jonah wants a non-cheating experience, Nyx takes him into another room and tells him to go to the window at the end while his groomsmen pay. He asks from each of the three men their favorite memories of their mothers. At the window, Jonah sees a nude young woman on the other side of the glass who begins singing. Jonah suddenly relives all the sexual encounters he has ever had at once. Meanwhile, at the main bar, one of the groomsmen, Elliot, has a custom drink with a leech in it and suddenly experiences the memory of murdering someone, after which both Mac and Rand realize they all have matching marks on the back of their necks.
After leaving the window, Jonah hears the girl ask him not to leave and sees that the door to the room is padlocked from the outside. Fearing that the girl is a sex slave, Jonah gets Rand, tells the others to get to the car, and the two break the lock and let her out using the swiss army knife that Jonah gave them as groomsmen gifts. While attempting to sneak out of the club, the three get waylaid by guards and hide in a bathroom. Once there, the girl uses the keys she stole from one of the guards to open a shackle around her ankle, then brutally kills the guard that followed them, revealing claws and a long tail. Jonah and Rand run for the car and the four drive away, only for the girl to suddenly land on the roof and cause them to crash.
While the girl grabs Elliot and drags him off, Nyx and his posse arrive and kidnap Rand as Jonah and Mac escape. Back at the club, Nyx questions Rand, asking why they released "Lilith" before allowing the brother of the murdered guard to torture him. Out in the woods, Jonah and Mac desperately try to find Elliot while arguing over who is to blame for the way the night has gone. Jonah realizes that the girl had sniffed him after being released, and had gone after Elliot because he has been wearing his jacket. The two attempt to cover their scent, managing to escape and find their way to a diner patroned by a pair of cops. They desperately try to describe the past few hours and the cops cuff them, Mac noticing in alarm that they have the same mark on the backs of their necks, realizing that they work for Nyx. The girl arrives at the diner and starts to sing, entrancing the cop with Jonah who quickly puts in his headphones to drown her out, watching as she murders both cops. Chasing him through the diner, the girl reveals a demonic face, announcing "I like you" before grabbing Jonah and flying away.
Back at the club, Nyx orders one of his minions, who appears to be some sort of Gorgon, to take a very injured Rand's memories of being tortured, hunt down Jonah, and give them to him. The minion does this by taking a medusa-like leech from her head and inserting into then removing it from the mark on the back of his neck, revealing what had happened earlier when paying for Jonah's session and what had happened with Elliot, implying that part of Nyx's business is selling people memories.
Back with Jonah, he and the girl land in a quarry, and after a few attempts to escape, she rapes him while singing, again creating a fantasy of him having sex with his fiance, Eva, and then forms her tail into a penile shape and inserts into his rectum to make him impregnate her. When he comes back to himself, Jonah runs from the now sleeping girl and makes it back to his hotel room where the minion is waiting for him. She forces him to drink the leech she took earlier and Jonah relives Rand's torture and the memory of Nyx speaking directly to him and offering a trade; the girl for Rand. All he has to do is go to a church and the girl will follow him. Jonah agrees and follows the minion to the church.
Once there, a few things become clearer. The girl, Lily, is actually a demon from hell (a succubus to be exact) that was summoned years ago, imprisoned by Nyx, and forced to become a sex slave. Lily had become infatuated with Jonah because he was kind and helped her escape. Succubi mate for life and Lily wants him to stay with her, killing anyone who gets in her way. The church is the location where she was originally summoned and Nyx needs Jonah to lure her into a rune circle and reattach the shackle around her ankle to bind her to his will again, as he is the only person she will not kill.
Lily arrives and hesitantly steps into the circle. Jonah apologizes to Lily he made a mistake when he released her, letting her know he was not aware it was a trap. To Nyx's anger, Jonah makes a new deal with Lily; he will not put the shackle on if she will let Jonah go. Lily agrees, and proceeds to slaughter Nyx and his henchmen, while Jonah grabs a seriously injured Rand. Mac arrives and sacrifices himself saving his brother from a vengeful Nyx. Lily kisses Jonah goodbye, and watches from above the church doors while Jonah and Rand leave.
A year later, Jonah and Eva are married. Eva states that she wants to start their special evening soon because she is getting sleepy as she takes a drink of her wine. They make love on their anniversary. Jonah goes to get a glass of water afterwards and sees Eva asleep on the couch, realizing that he had made love to Lily and not Eva. Jonah attempts to get Lily to leave and almost succeeds, until Eva notices Lily and starts to scream, whereupon Lily starts to attack her. Jonah begs her to stop and says he will go with her. Lily grabs Jonah and they fly off into the night, Eva hysterically screaming after them.
Cast
Production
In May 2015, Chiller Films slated 'Siren', a 'V/H/S' spinoff of the segment 'Amateur Night', written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, would premiere in 2016. In August 2015, 'Ain't it Cool News' reported that production was underway in Savannah, Georgia, with Hannah Fierman reprising her role and Gregg Bishop serving as director. David Bruckner, creator of the original segment, was initially slated to direct, but would ultimately pass on the offer due to his involvement on an unmade 'Friday the 13th' reboot. Producer Brad Miska then offered the film to Bishop, who both previously collaborated on 'V/H/S: Viral'. Bruckner was heavily involved with the project, serving as an executive producer, second unit director, and oversaw the development of the screenplay with Collins and Piotrowski. The filmmakers opted not to use the found footage format to differentiate the feature from the short film.
Even though the studio was pushing for other actresses for the role of Lily, director Gregg Bishop insisted that Hannah Fierman reprise her role as Lily, stating that she was the primary reason that the character was so iconic in the short. Fierman was initially hesitant to return to the role of Lily, but would ultimately sign on to the project after being drawn in by Bruckner's pitch. The actress also partook in auditioning for the role during casting.
For the parts of the movie where Lily sings, the filmmakers decided in pre-production to utilize Hannah Fierman's singing voice. She would lip sync to a guide track for the first take to just get the melody and timing of the song (the filmmakers never intending to use that take), then in the following takes she would sing it for real. Justin Welborn was cast as Mr. Nyx, who also starred in Bruckner's film 'The Signal' and Bishop's 'Dance of the Dead'.
The film was scheduled for 18 days and budgeted under a half million dollars. Post production was rushed and as a result several final visual FX shots were not approved by the director because the post house had to cut them in and deliver the movie.
Release
'Siren' was released on December 2, 2016 by Chiller Films. and then released on DVD on December 6, 2016 by Universal Home Video. The film was subsequently released on Netflix on January 1, 2020.
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 'Siren' holds a 65% approval rating based on 20 critics, with an average rating of 5.30/10. On Metacritic, the film holds a 54 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
According to We Got This Covered and FlixPatrol, 'SiREN' reached the Top 10 in eight different countries on Netflix.
'Ain't It Cool News' called 'SiREN' a "rock solid monster movie with a strong ensemble cast", the 'Los Angeles Times' hailed it a "clever and confident expansion of a terrific short." 'We Are Indie Horror' called it a "phenomenal and intense adaptation of Amateur Night that far surpasses the short in tone and action. 'SiREN' stands on its own and is a must-see". 'Horror Freak News' named 'SiREN' as one of the "top horror movies of 2016".
References
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