Let’s try to make this a little more work-safe, shall we?

Oh, dear, that’s really not much better.  Let’s just get on with things.

I quite liked “Man, Woman, and the Wall” when I watched it a couple of weeks ago, so when Netflix recommended that I should check out “Siren” as a related move, I figured I’d give it a go.

I have to admit, I didn’t have very high expectations.

The description on the Netflix site made me think that it was going to be a standard direct-to-video horror movie with some gratuitous nudity thrown in rather than what it turned out to be, which was a, oh, let’s call it an “homage” to Reservoir Dogs with some light supernatural elements, much less violencel, 100% less 70s rock music, and, yes, some gratuitous nudity.

On the other hand, a quick browse through wikipedia taught me that the lead actress – who was also in Man, Woman, and the Wall, explaining the Netflix recommendation – actually spends a good bit of her career making straight-up adult videos, so doing a movie where she’s actually dressed 90% of the time is probably a bit of a change of pace.

Anyway, to get back to the movie: I quite liked it.

The description on the Netflix site rather gives away the setup – you have these five bank robbers, they realize that an innocent bystander has seen their faces, they kidnap her so they can kill her somewhere else, she turns out to be more than she seems, insert ominous music and so on and so forth – but it’s well-executed.  It never bogs down ( it’s barely over 70 minutes ), it doesn’t crowd the screen with unnecessary characters, there’s just enough character development to give the bank robbers a bit of individual personality but not enough that you ever really feel bad for them…

It also gets points for picking an unconventional supernatural beastie; zombie and werewolf movies are a dime a dozen but it’s rare that screenwriters go browsing the “S” section of the Monster Manual.

Finally, it wins points with me for being very low key on the gore & violence. There’s some blood, a few gunshots, a couple of brawls, that sort of thing… but for the most part there’s nothing to make you wince.

I’ve not an expert on J-horror by any means, but I have watched a fair amount of it and I’ve found it to be a genre that is, bluntly, VERY hit-or-miss. Siren is one of the hits.

It’s just bloody hard to find safe-for-work artwork to lead off a post about.  🙂