Siren (stylized as SiREN) is a 2016 horror film directed by Gregg Bishop. It's a feature-length adaptation of Amateur Night, a segment from the anthology film VHS, which was originally directed by David Bruckner.
One week before his wedding, Jonah, along with his groomsmen, hits the road for his Stag Party. Ending up in a dull, Family Friendly Strip Club, Jonah and his friends are instead invited to a private club on the edge of town. Once there, the group are increasingly unnerved by the weird and downright creepy things on display... and then Lily escapes.
And she happens to "like" Jonah.
Watch the trailer here
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This movie provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Lily is in love with Jonah, who is not only marrying the woman he loves, but finds out the girl he set free is a demon. It's not played for laughs. At all.
- Ass Shove: Lily uses her tail to do this while she's raping Jonah.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Lily falls in love with Jonah because he freed her from Nyx, who was using her as a Sex Slave.
- Betty and Veronica: Jonah is Archie, Eve is Betty, his sweet and ordinary fiancée, and Lily is definitely Veronica, a dangerous succubus who is always naked and even kills anyone who tries to separate her from Jonah.
- Big Bad: Mr. Nyx, a Sinister Minister who's running a hedonistic business that uses demons like Lily as slaves, with Lily herself serving as The Heavy.
- Brown Note: Lily's singing can have various effects on people, from causing them to relive their previous sexual experiences to freezing them so she can kill them.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Mr. Nyx subjects Rand to this via Knee-capping.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. The film plays it for all the tension and creepiness it's worth, and when Lily finally catches Jonah and rapes him, the scene is downright eerie. Furthermore, when Lily comes back for him in the end, it's depicted as a massive Downer Ending.
- Downer Ending: Mac and Elliot are dead, the only people that could have contained Lily are all dead, but hey, Lily promises to leave Jonah alone, and Jonah and Eva eventually get married... oh, and then Lily comes to take him for her own anyway.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Once Jonah manages to get out of the club, he tries to explain to his friends what Lily is. Him being in a panic and Elliot being Laughing Mad results in the others not understanding what he tries to tell them until it is too late.Jonah: That was no woman!Rand: What, was she a transexual?*cue Lily pulling Elliot out of the driving car*
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: The moment they crash, Elliot is immediately dragged out of the car by Lily.
- Epic Fail: Mac decides to take Jonah to Garden City instead of anywhere popular, reasoning that it would be a unique experience... all they end up being able to find is a Family Friendly Strip Club.
- Fan Disservice: Lily is a beautiful woman, but not when she is in her demonic form. And it is precisely in the demonic form that Lily gets when she rapes Jonah.
- Fake Memories: The drink Elliot orders gives the drinker this... unfortunately for Elliot, his drink gives him Crazy Memories.
- Faux Affably Evil: Mr. Nyx is a darkly charismatic man who carries himself with an aura of sophistication and class, but is a sadistic sexual deviant who had Lily raped and tortured and will torture and kill to get her back.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Mac, who Jonah only selected as his Best Man because he'd throw a shit-fit if his brother didn't pick him, while Rand is understanding about the conflict.
- Fright Beside Them: Jonah, after reflecting on his harrowing adventure, celebrates the first anniversary of his wedding to Eva with a round of passionate sex before falling asleep. After waking up in the middle of the night, he heads downstairs to the fridge, and discovers, to his horror, that Eva had passed out fully clothed in the living room earlier that evening, and had never come up to bed at all.
- From Bad to Worse: Lily is free, Jonah and his friends are being hunted throughout the club... and then Lily manages to take of the bracelet that's binding her powers.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: Mr. Nyx's assistant has leeches for hair.
- I Lied: Jonah makes his deal with Lily that he won't put back on the tunic binding to her leg if she lets him go. She seems to agree... but eventually steals him away anyway later in life.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Was Mr. Nyx binding Lily and using her as a prostitute a terrible thing to do? Yes. Did it keep her from finding a "mate" and killing anyone who got in her way? Also yes.
- Karmic Death: Mr. Nyx is killed by Lily when Jonah brings her back to him.
- Laughing Mad: Elliot, after his Fake Memories drive him insane.
- Lost in the Maize: After crashing their car, Jonah and Mac try to hide from Lily in an overgrown field, although Jonah being Covered in Mud is what actually fools her.
- Love Triangle: A rather disturbing one. Jonah is going to marry Eva and they both clearly love each other. However, Lily falls in love with Jonah, despite his feelings for her being, at their best, pity and, at their worst, disgust and dread (since she is a succubus with a face horrible to look at).
- Meaningful Name: Lily's apparent true name, Lilith, an infamous biblical seductress. Jonah's new wife is named Eve. Jonah is an interesting case since he's named for a guy who was swallowed by a sea-creature... yet he was freed. note
- Missing Time: A comedic example. Mac, Rand and Elliot are asked to pay for their night out with a memory of their mother, they close their eyes, the music swells... and Mr. Nyx cheerfully tells them
it's been done. Later on, we find out they were really out for a couple of minutes, while leeches transferred said memories. - Mook Horror Show: Mr. Nyx arrives at the church with two police officers. Only one of them leaves the church alive. Guess who.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jonah and Mr. Nyx almost have Lily contained with a magic seal in the church, Jonah just needs to put her Power Limiter back on... and then he decides to let her Pay Evil unto Evil.
- Nightmare Face: Lily's "split face" in this film looks even creepier than it did in Amateur Night.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Everything that happens is the result of Jonah trying to free Lily from the club.
- Outside Ride: Lily climbs onto Jonah's car before they can escape, they end up crashing it soon after.
- Power Limiter: Mr. Nyx gets close enough to shackle Lily with one at the start. Unfortunately for everyone, it eventually comes off.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The bartender who has leeches for hair is perfectly fine with holding Jonah at gunpoint, but really just wants to get home because she should have been off the clock already.
- Restraining Bolt: The shackle on Lily's ankle is made with runes inside that limit her powers.
- Scary Teeth: Lily. Bordering on More Teeth than the Osmond Family.
- Sinister Minister: Mr. Nyx is an exorcist of some description at the start of the film, once he finds Lily, however, he becomes a Collector of the Strange.
- Succubi and Incubi: Lily, or rather Lilith, is directly identified as a succubus from Hell who was summoned years earlier.
- Succubus in Love: The eponymous "Siren" is actually Lilith, a Succubus summoned from Hell to be a Sex Slave and prostitute for a greedy businessman. When she meets the protagonist, Jonah, who is in the middle of his bachelor party, she takes an immediate liking to him and chooses him to be her mate. Despite how it sounds, this is NOT a good thing. For one, her demonic form is ghastly and hideous and for two, succubi mate for life, meaning that she will always claim him for as long as he lives and possibly even after that. At the end of the film, he tries to strike a bargain with her: he frees her from her enslavement on the condition that she leave him and his friends alone. She agrees...for a time. Some time later, after having a night of passionate sex with his wife, Jonah find his wife actually asleep on the couch and has to beg Lilith not to kill her. So he agrees to go with her wherever she wants and be hers on the condition that she doesn't harm his wife.
- Transferable Memory: Mr. Nyx's assistant transfers Rand's memories of being tortured to Jonah via the leeches in her head.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had it not been for Mac, Jonah would never have met Lily.
