Horror Movie Review: SiREN (2016)

SiREN is a horror movie that was directed by Gregg Bishop, releasing in 2016. It is a spin-off and feature-length adaptation of Amateur Night from the 2012 anthology horror film V/H/S.

One week before his wedding day, Jonah and his groomsmen hit the town for his stag party. His brother Mac is hoping for a wild night and instead they wind up at a lacklustre strip club. Mac attracts the attentions of a stranger who tells him about an underground moving club that promises to surpass all expectations.

Reluctantly, Jonah and the group agrees to go. Once there, they encounter strange dancers and unwelcoming patrons. They are about to leave when the club owner, Mr Nyx greets them. 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 favourite 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’s ever had at once.

One of the groomsmen, Elliot, has a custom drink with a leech in it and suddenly experiences the memory of murdering someone. Then, both Mac and Rand realize they all have matching marks on the back of their necks. 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 and tells the others to get to the car. They break the lock and let her out. The girl uses the keys she steals from one of the guards to open a shackle around her ankle, then brutally kills a guard. At this point, she reveals 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.

It becomes apparent that the creature has developed an extreme infatuation with Jonah and will stop at nothing to have him. What will he do? Nyx won’t be allowing his prized possession to get away so easily either. Check out SiREN to find out what happens next.

Firstly, I recall watching the “Amateur Night” segment from VHS and thinking that it would be cool to see an expanded story based on it. Well, here it is. The characters in VHS were unlikeable and hard to sympathise with. On the other hand, in SiREN it’s quite different. No one character does anything wrong at all, they are victims and I did feel bad for them. They put their lives at risk to rescue what they think is a human being and are punished for it.

It’s pretty evident that this is a film with a budget that is on the lower side of things. The filming could be better and there are some cheesy effects. Also, the soundtrack and certain sound effects have a B movie feel. At the same time, the main attraction looks as good as she did in VHS. Her split face and mouth full of sharp teeth are creepy to look, the effects are great.

The story and setup is pretty generic. I liked the idea of Nyx being a collector of these weird creatures but it isn’t really fleshed out too well. The acting is average on the whole with some unintentionally funny moments. One scene that may shock is seeing Jonah get sexually assaulted by the monster. It’s rare to see this type of thing happen to a man in a horror film.

Talking of Jonah, he makes some dumb choices. The Siren known as “Lilith” is evil to him almost the entire time. He has a chance to be rid of her and doesn’t, a decision he will regret by the end.

Overall, SiREN is decent considering the obvious limitations. Unfortunately, it’s held back in a number of areas due to this. Still, I wouldn’t change the channel if I were to catch it on TV in the future.