The Seductress from Hell

Film: The Seductress from Hell

Year: 2024

Director: Andrew de Burgh

Writer: Andrew de Burgh

Starring: Rocio Scotto, Jason Faunt and Raj Jawa

Review:

This is a movie that I got the chance to check out when the writer/director, Andrew de Burgh, asked if I would like to check out the screener. This film is doing its festival rounds now and slated to be released in mid-2025. What I also knew was that this was a horror film, so that was enough to check this out for me.

Synopsis: a Hollywood actor undergoes a horrific transformation after being pushed to the edge by her psychopathic husband.

We start this with a couple in bed. Robert Pereira (Jason Faunt) is asleep where his wife, Zara (Rocio Scotto), confirms that he is. She then gets up, goes to the garage where she opens a trunk. Inside is a journal that has occult symbols in it. What we’ll learn is that she is a Satanist.

The next morning that we see this couple is troubled. Zara is a struggling actor. She learns her lines. Creates backstories for the characters she is auditioning for. She can get callbacks, but for whatever reason, she cannot secure parts that pay well. This is putting a strain on her husband, who has a commission job. He must make sales for them to support the lifestyle they have. He in turn puts pressure on his wife to help. She hears what he is saying and does her best, but that doesn’t change their situation.

We then get a tough scene after this where Robert confirms that his best friend and his partner are coming for dinner. Zara asks if Robert can help with the preparations and he laughs at her. He then demands that they make love and when she says no, he is forceful in getting what he wants. The friend is Derek Patel (Raj Jawa) and he’s with Maya Valentina (Kylie Rohrer). She likes Zara and knows that she isn’t treated well. I’d go as far to say that Maya worries that Robert is abusive. This is confirmed and goes dark when Zara forgets to set a timer and burns dinner.

This was the last straw for her. We see how far she will go and discovers she’s stronger than she realizes. She also figures out that with this new temperament, she is sitting on a potential career that will pay for everything that she needs. She also might be turning to a dark, new religion in the process.

That is where I want to leave my recap and introduction to the characters, especially since this isn’t released wide yet. Where I want to start is that we have good elements to this story. Now I’m an atheist, but I have friends who follow the Church of Satan. This is taking liberties with that religion. What I’ll say though, since this is a movie, I can roll with what they’re doing. This is more about potentially doing a dark ritual. Something that I wanted to preface here.

Now that I’ve set that up, this doesn’t have the deepest story. It also doesn’t necessarily need it since it is a character study of Zara. She is a struggling actor, which is a concept that we’ve seen. What is interesting there is that she is beat down by her husband verbally, which then turns physical. Zara does have it easier than others, in the idea that he is able to afford a nice condo and provide financially. I get that strain. This is wearing on him so I can see why he is angry with her. It is a good touch that Derek points out that this city and capitalism have changed him. We don’t see it, but his friend claims that he was a good guy so I can believe that. What we build here is a good set up as to why Zara snaps. I’ll credit Scotto performance because it made me cringe with how bad I felt for her, especially seeing Robert get mad.

Before I move away from this character, let me go over to the supernatural things that we get here. I’ll avoid spoilers as well. What I’ll say is that I don’t know if this meshes as well with the grounded things that we see. I do like Zara getting her revenge on Robert as well as other men. That worked for me, even more so that we don’t normally see a woman doing this as much. Getting to the point that I presented is that I don’t know if the version of Zara we see in the dreams makes sense. Personally, it seems a jump in logic and the Satanist stuff needed something more to connect it. It doesn’t ruin this by any stretch. What I’ll say is that running around 100 minutes, there are aspects that could be trimmed then connecting what is needed here to flow better.

Where I’ll then shift to would be the commentary that I noticed here. To warn those that don’t like this type of stuff in their movies, it isn’t as in face as it could be. There is this idea that Los Angeles eats people up. We see that with Robert being frustrated with his rich bosses and the amount of work he’s doing. Zara wants to be an actor and she’s struggling. There’s also a concept here of the men that Zara meets being misogynistic in different ways. This isn’t as vailed, I’ll say that. You can make an argument that Maya is only with Derek because he’s successful. I’m sure outsiders would think that with Zara. I do get the idea that Robert is doing what he can to get by and it is eating away at him. Zara wants to help people by becoming an actor. There is a Jeffrey Delap (James Hyde) character who is a producer. Zara believes he’s used this to his advantage. We also have a jerk police officer with Gerrard (Andy Lauer).

Let me then go over to the acting. Now there is stiff dialogue and not all the performances are great. I do think part of that could be what was being asked to say. No one is bad though. I do like the timid woman we start with in Scotto to where she ends up. That was good. Faunt works as this abusive husband. Hyde and Isaac Levi Anthony are similar characters to Zara. I liked Jawa and Rohrer. They help to frame this couple as well as push them to where they end up. I do think that Lauer overacted a bit. Regardless, the cast was solid and worked for what was needed.

I’m going to then finish with filmmaking. This was well-made in my opinion. I thought that the cinematography was solid and how things were framed. We do go creepy with dreams and things that happen later. My only issue there is that there is something missing to connect these two concepts better. It feels like a Saw film that is bringing in possession elements, but they run concurrently without necessarily mixing. The effects were good though. I liked the look of Zara and they do creepy things with her voice. Other than that, I did enjoy what they did with the musical selections as well.

In conclusion, this is a solid independent horror film. I like the undercurrent message that we have here that allows viewers to lean into or ignore, depending on your sensibilities. The acting was solid here. Scotto does well as our lead and I think everyone she meets push her to where she ends up. This was made well enough with the cinematography, framing, effects and sound design. No glaring issues there. My only issue is that a couple things needed tightened up with the story elements to work together better. I’d still recommend giving this a watch if you enjoy independent, lower budget outings. This looks better and hides that well in my opinion, so credit to that.

My Rating: 7 out of 10