Lillith

When a college woman (Nell Kessler) in the New Jersey/Brooklyn area discovers her boyfriend cheating she accepts her Wicca friend's offer to call on a succubus for succor. Havoc ensues.

"Lillith" (2019) is micro-budget horror with limited camera angles, dubious cinematography and, occasionally, lousy sound, but the story is compelling and the acting/dialogue good; some of the music's not bad either. Speaking of the acting, Laurence Fishburne's son, Langston Fishburne, is on hand for the small role of the professor. But it's Savannah Whitten who steals the show as the lust demon made flesh. People call this a horror comedy, but it's really only Whitten's succubus that's amusing (in a good way). It's a refreshing way to approach the material. After all, why wouldn't an immortal demon relish 'her' work with a diabolical sense of humor?

The setting and tone are reminiscent of "Decoys" (2004) and "Decoys 2" (2007) mixed with a little "Jennifer's Body" (2009), albeit without the budget. If you don't mind technical deficiencies, "Lillith" delivers the goods despite a muted palette. For comparison, check out "The Devil's Nightmare," aka "The Devil Walks at Midnight" (1971), which is an entertaining classic flick involving a succubus, taking place in a castle in Belgium (on the border of France).

The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot in the region of Cranford, NJ, and Brooklyn, NY.

GRADE: B-

It was fun, but a flawed effort. It is definitely a low budget horror, but the acting in it was overall pretty decent, and it was actually better than I expected. No one seemed cheesy or bad.

I thought the make up effects for Lillith were pretty nice. I think they really benefited from what looked like practical/make up effects rather than CGI effects.

Although overall I thought it had some nice touches, I don't think it quite hit the horror comedy mark. It was enjoyable watch, but I didn't really see the comedy aspect, I didn't really feel like it was a waste of time to watch. But I don't think it was good enough for a 2nd viewing in the future.

As low-budget B-movies go, this one was a lot better than anticipated.

The story itself isn't groundbreaking (invoking a succubus to take revenge on a cheating boyfriend), we've seen it before in some form or another, but then again the very first episode of Star Wars was about knights saving a princess, so originality is not always necessary.

Ok, so the production values were minimal. Lighting and sound could have used some TLC, the special effects weren't so special, and some of the acting was amateurish. However, Savannah Whitten was impressive in her role of the demon, invigorating the character with joyful abandon.

Without her, the movie doesn't work as a horror-comedy. But she makes the difference, if only because she has the most interesting lines to deliver, and she delivers them well, with rapid-fire precision.

For his first full feature as a director and writer, Lee Esposito shows promise. I haven't seen any of his other stuff, but it would be interesting to see what he could do with an actual budget.

In this instance, a rating of 6 is definitely a positive grade, as opposed to some highly-anticipated movies that can sometimes be a disappointing 7.

I stumbled upon the 2019 horror comedy "Lillith" here in 2021, without ever having heard about the movie. Needless to say that I opted to sit down to watch the movie, given the synopsis, it being a horror comedy movie that I hadn't already seen, plus I had the chance to do so.

While "Lillith" was entertaining enough for what it was, this was by no means a milestone in horror comedy. Writers Lee Esposito and Luke Stannard sadly opted to play it safe and bet on formulas that have been seen and done in other similar movies before. So "Lillith" didn't really offer all that much of anything new or innovative.

The movie had a fair enough cast of actors and actresses, all of which I weren't previously familiar with, and that is something I like in movies. So that was a definitely plus in favor of "Lillith". And I will say that the actors and actresses put on good performances, though they were somewhat restricted by a somewhat inferior script and not overly-well-written characters.

"Lillith" was watchable, but the storyline was suffering from being somewhat inferior and generic. And the movie was just rather predictable, which makes for a movie that you watch once and never return to watch a second time.

All in all, then this was a rather bland attempt at a horror comedy, one that came and went without leaving much of a dent on the scene. I am rating "Lillith" a five out of ten stars.

No pun intended - and a succubus being summoned definitely is not the greatest idea ever. That being said, the movie may be on this side of horror - but your suspension of disbelief has to be there.

A love for B-movie horror is also quite helpful. The succubus of the movie is quite fun too. Well unless you are her target - you may find her less funny. There are some love stories and romances ... and there is an either satisfying end to this or one that almost is ridiculous ... not sure if you should read something into it. Best if you don't - you are not entitled to anything and no one owes you anything either. You'll understand with the ending, if you dare to watch that is.