Siren (2016)

SiREN (2016)

SiREN is a horror film by Gregg Bishop not to be confused with Andrew Hull’s Siren (2010), although basically it doesn’t make much difference to me, as I found both films pretty dismal. This one is probably worse, I think!
Well, I’ve made it clear that I’m not dragging out the suspense this time!

The young man’s fiancée doesn’t like the idea of her man going on holiday with his friends and risks cheating on her. But worse is about to happen! A stag party turns into a fight for survival when the wedding witnesses accidentally release a dangerous predator during the festivities.

The film is an adaptation of one of the short films from ‘V/H/S’, released in 2012, which is called ‘Amateur Night’ which was by David Bruckner‘s. Gregg Bishop adapts his own short film featured in the anthology film. In this adaptation, we find a ‘Bachelor Party’ that goes downhill after the group agrees to follow a mysterious stranger who promises them an unforgettable night… which, somehow, wasn’t a lie.

The after-party takes place in a large castle, reminiscent of the bar in “From Dusk Till Dawn”, because you immediately notice that something is wrong, that it’s a world apart and that the people are different. An evening à la Eyes Wide Shut (1999)? Or more like Hostel (2005)?
After a few strange passages, the situation gets out of hand and the friends are pursued by a creature that has fallen for their saviour, but also by the dangerous owner who wants her back. In fact, the main character wanted to save a girl believing she was a victim of sex trafficking, but the reality was quite different.

The director saw things in a big way, he made something well-paced and with plenty of action, but forgot to develop his story, which is just as much a story as in the short film…

The film could have been decent! There’s a bit of gore and it can sometimes seem amusing, not least because the characters are unbearable, albeit rather likeable! Especially Chase Williamson and Hayes Mercure. The latter loses his glasses along the way, but still manages to see without any problems, apart from the first few minutes of the loss. They’re really trying to pull the wool over our eyes!
I was expecting so much better, especially in terms of the story, which is muddled and leads nowhere. Incidentally, my review is all over the place, just like the film!

All this is easy to understand: starting with a short film when you’re short of money or when you want to be seen is a good idea, but when you take the plunge and make a feature-length film, it should be just to conclude a project and not to do the same thing again, only less well!
So, no: I wasn’t pleasantly surprised by ‘Siren’!

The basic idea of developing the story of a creature from just one of the multiple sketches in the horror film V/H/S (which was already, in my opinion, one of those mediocre films despite a few good ideas, particularly in this sketch, which was probably the most successful) was very interesting, because a spin-off isn’t really usual, or even non-existent, for a film of this type. But here I see the temptation to make a real, more advanced project alongside this film – which isn’t incredible at all – that moves away from the found-footage style, deliberately giving it a pronounced amateur feel, and adopts a more classic, professional style.

It seems to me that it’s very rare to find perfect or exceptional horror anthologies.

The creature, named “Lily” (whom I found very interesting in V/H/S) can be endearing despite her annoying tendency to… well, to kill everyone!
Indeed, Hannah Fierman has a pretty incredible face! She’s another one of those with big eyes who can fascinate, hypnotise, attract and terrify at the same time. Extra in this role!
Yes, it’s rather pleasant to see the creature we loved so much in the first V/H/S again. However, it has to be said that the whole thing is unfortunately a little too conventional, despite the rather satisfactory acting, except at certain moments when the antagonist, in particular, is unbearably overacted! Not a very endearing character.

All that said, my curiosity will get the better of me…

I wanted to see if this first spin-off from the first film in the franchise, and more specifically from this ‘Amateur Night’ segment, was going to be better or simply good!

As a reminder, the anthology featured three friends who, following a drunken night out, took a girl back to their room to make an amateur porno. Unfortunately, the problem was that the girl in question turned out to be a mermaid (or a demon that came close). And that’s it! I know it’s pretty silly, but especially in the short, found-footage format, it was very effective. The characters were certainly walking clichés and you could see the problem coming a mile away, but, once again, the format was more permissive.

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