Succubus

Chris is in a strained marriage. His friend Eddie is divorced. The two of them chance upon an online dating site where they become helplessly enamored of an irresistibly seductive young woman who nurtures their deepest desires.

Unfortunately, appearances are terribly deceiving....

A professor knows the gruesome truth and tries desperately to intervene before it's too late.

Let's stipulate that this movie would go nowhere without a spectacularly beautiful siren to addle the minds of its principal characters. Her acting isn't exactly Shakespearean, but, really, who cares? The rest of the cast steps up reasonably well to backstop the homewrecker; hence, the movie's still an entertaining take on demonically induced, all too palpable mirages and their effect on stressed out family men.

All that's missing is a public service announcement.

Written and directed by R. J. Daniel Hanna, the movie follows Chris (Brendan Bradley), a separated new father, creating an account on a dating app and finding himself lured by a mysterious girl he matched with named Adra (Rachel Cook).

Succubus is a movie that has a decent beginning where what is seen is mostly through the screen as the protagonist is video calling with his best friend while swiping right on the dating app. You can feel where the story is heading as he comes across Rachel Cook's profile. A profile that screams scam in every single way where to proceed would require a suspension of logic and sense, but nonetheless she is real, and from then on strange things start to happen. Brendan Bradley is good playing the struggling father, and Ron Perlman as Dr. Orion Zephyr is definitely a strong presence on the film. However, the story loses its steam in the second half where the turn of events departs from what came before and goes for the paranormal. It is one of those cases where it probably would have worked better if the story never left the initial setting and the realm of the real.

It could be said the movie is an allegory for monogamy since many times the decisions the protagonist takes, ultimately putting himself in danger, are always related to finding the fulfillment of desire outside matrimony. It would seem Succubus is preaching that pleasure should only be sought between monogamous normative relationships, and everything outside its realms is deemed a one-way path to doomland. In any case, it is a movie with a good idea that sadly was not translated to the screen.

This film is a dark jewel, a shimmering exploration of loneliness, desire, and the seductive pull of the digital void. It's a story of psychological unease that unfolds not in darkened basements or fog-shrouded graveyards, but in the sterile glow of a laptop screen, the echo of a disembodied voice on a video call, the relentless ping of a dating app.

Brendan Bradley gives a performance of remarkable sensitivity as Chris, a man teetering on the precipice of a breakdown. This is not the tired trope of the pathetic, emasculated male; this is a raw, unflinching portrait of a father, a husband, a person grappling with the crushing weight of modern life. The scene where he sits catatonic, tears silently streaming down his face as Ron Perlman's Dr. Zephyr delivers a chilling warning, is both heartbreaking and terrifying. Some might call Bradley's acting in these moments "droll" or "listless," or even a "phoned-in" performance, but they clearly weren't paying attention. The quiet intensity he gives, his nuanced portrayal, embodies what other actors and reviewers fail to grasp.

Rachel Cook's Adra is incandescent, enigmatic, everything a succubus should be. Cook gives us a creature of mesmerizing allure and primal magic, a haunting blend of innocence and danger, hope and despair, vulnerability and power. Her transformation in the movie's brutal, practical-effects-driven finale, from dream-lover to demonic power, is a feast for the eyes and captivates the viewer completely.

Director R. J. Daniel Hanna creates an atmosphere of creeping unease, using technology itself as a tool of terror. The intrusive buzzing of notifications, the pixelated glow of screens, the hushed intimacy of video chats: all become instruments in a symphony of dread and disturbance. The electronic score pulses, mirroring Chris's unraveling mental state.

What some have criticized as excessive dialogue is, in fact, another layer in the film's complex tapestry. Ron Perlman as the disgraced scientist adds another dimension to the film's exploration of loneliness and longing. His limited online interactions and detached performance make him a poignant, modern trope. The disjointed conversations emphasize social anxieties. Through masterful editing and darkly comedic moments, like Eddie receiving maternal guidance mid-flirtation (unaware his mother is on camera), the film skewers the absurdities of our digital world.

This is a film that will stay with you, a visceral experience not for the faint of heart. Is it excessive? Perhaps. But that is precisely where its power lies. Do we, seduced by the promise of connection and trapped by our screens, truly know the nature of the darkness lurking just beyond the screen, in ourselves, or those digital whispers promising a fulfillment that isn't remotely there?

If you thought this movie will be full of sexy demon scenes, you are dead wrong. Half of the movie is this guy going to Tinder while getting a separation from his wife and feeling guilty about it. There are some funny interactions there, but that's not the subject of the movie. Instead it's this demon lady who has an obsession with him, and which also influences people through screens. Meanwhile, the one who knows most about the demon is Ron Perlman, who mostly talks to our hero... you guessed it... via video chat. Yes, people on screens making films about people on screens which you watch on a screen. Human experience in a nutshell.

Trust me, stay away from this.

I liked this movie quite a bit. I know nothing about dating apps - but the use if a dating app and the uses of chat and the computer/social media in general was very effective. My guess is that no dating app has women as young and attractive as most of those in whatever app Chris was using. And probably that not many women that young and attractive are very interested in going out with a father in the middle of a separation with a very young child, but what do I know?

If you get past that - and suspend belief that said father would not be suspicious about a woman who looked like Rachel Cook oozing over him - the movie is very much fun. Ron Perlman is not going to win an Academy Award for his performance, but the character was fun - I spent a lot of the movies trying to figure out whose side he was really on.

The succubus mythology was interesting and the final ending both surprising and foreshadowed.

An altogether competent bit of fun.