Succubus: Hell Bent (2007)

This was the first film I watched on Netflix's instant viewing system. I must say I was only slightly impressed. It might have something to do with my computer's settings, but whenever I tried to view the movie in Full Screen, it would pop up in the corner for a second, make a funny noise, then Internet Explorer would close. I gave up and just watched it in the viewer mode, which was kind of annoying, because I had the light from the toolbar at the top of the window affecting my ability to see the picture. I guess I could've called them to fix it, but I didn't want to sit on the phone.

Succubus: Hell Bent is about a womanizer who's stalked by this succubus named Lilith. She wants him to pay for his womanizing ways, and he does, but not as badly as his girlfriend and best buddy do. Lorenzo Lamas and Gary Busey have cameos.



Wow, was I robbed. Gary Busey listed as first billed, Lorenzo Lamas listed as third, and the two of them are in it for a total of ten minutes. Busey's best stuff actually came in the outtakes during the credits. I guess even an old DTV vet like me can fall for the old bait-and-switch. That's why you need someone here to screen these things for you, so you don't have to waste your time and money.

Otherwise the movie wasn't that good. Sure, we all want to see a womanizer get his comeuppance, but as brutally as that? And you had Busey and Lamas at your disposal. Why not have them battle the succubus at the end? There was an aerial dogfight scene that was so-so, and nothing else after that that was that exciting. I was left with one question: why was this movie even made?



There's the women's empowerment angle. For me it didn't work. Most of the women the womanizer slept with were manizers at best, and they seemed to have no misconceptions of what they were in for. The succubus herself was a very unsympathetic character. She pretty much forces the guy to tell her he loves her, then holds him to that as some kind of reason to torture him. Paris Hilton's My New BFF on MTV is a better example of women's empowerment: at least she's in command.

This movie has an element of John Fowles' The Magus, which was a book I didn't really care for. As in Succubus: Hell Bent, I didn't see the main character's behavior as despicable enough to warrant his treatment, either at the hands of Conchis or Lilith. Maybe as a white male it's hard to understand what these figures stand for, and on some levels I'll accept that. If Lilith made the male in this fall in love with her, then break his heart, I think I could get behind it better than killing people around him and stalking him.



I skipped writing the seventh paragraph because I didn't feel this film was worthy of it. Waste of time. Even though it didn't really cost me anything, I lost 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Also, I feel the filmmaker in hopping on her soapbox and lecturing us on the ills of womanizing men, was probably more dishonest than any of the serial daters she's encountered when she told us Gary Busey and Lorenzo Lamas were in the movie, and then gave them barely any screen time.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775544/