A Siren in the Dark (2009)

Memorable, crazy movie

How sad is this?

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Another day, another dreadful no-budget indie effort. This one posits itself as a mystery/horror/thriller but it ultimately fails as a proper movie in all of those genres. Instead it seems to promote itself as some kind of gay agenda movie, although the sexual content is surprisingly low and the film instead is happy to offer teasing nudity and not much else. Otherwise it's terribly amateurish, very cheap looking, with murders that are staged badly and stilted acting to boot. The incomprehensible storyline is the final nail in the coffin.

I must admit I didn't lose interest in watching this film. However, I did lose interest in the plot. If soft porn is a genre then this film is the poster child. There was plenty of male full frontal, and staged sex, but no erections or insertions, thus keeping it out of the realm of complete porn. The story had something to do with a semi-psychic detective finding missing men who may or may not have been seduced by the devil, or at least a demon with a ravenous appetite. Most stories are boy meets girl(boy), boy loses girl(boy), boy gets girl(boy) back. This story is boy meets boy, boy screws boy, boy gets screwed back. Then boy is just screwed. Somehow this becomes a police mystery which in itself is a mystery. I somehow found myself wishing I could be one of the actors in this flick. It has to be fun spending most of the work day naked, pretending to have sex with hot guys. So if you want to see some hot guys having simulated hot sex then this is the film for you. Just don't worry about following the plot. If you want to follow the plot, watch it again. You still might not figure it out, but watching the sex scenes again are their own reward.

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, unlike a lot of films in the horror genre it stayed away from telegraphing what was going to happen next while giving plenty of clues: "they satisfy your desires and cater to your weaknesses"; my interest was sustained right to the end.Although clearly semi-professional, even if enthusiastically so, there were touches that lifted it out of the ordinary- despite lackluster performances from the majority of the caste. Orion Cross (Joshua) is outstanding: combing the projection of sweet innocence, to match his looks, with pure evil in contradiction to the meaning of his character's name- "Salvation", with a bit more development this boy could go far. The same cannot be said for co-producer and actor James Townsend (Kevin) whose performance remains wooden- and, oh! so, what am I supposed to do here- throughout (as it does in everything else I have seen him in) even though he has numerous credits, mostly for bit parts but some leading roles: "Revenge in Olympia", "Sideline Secrets', and "The Windy City Incident".Also worthy of a mention is Christin Pertel (Janice Gunderson) performance as Joshua's senior partner.Hopefully the multi-talented and overworked, Writer/Producer/Director/Cinemtographer/Editor, Steven Vasquez will be given the opportunity to create something with proper backing and a professional caste and crew, he certainly has the ideas and if not spread too thin could come up with something that will gain him a cult following. This film is a definite improvement on "Sideline Secrets" and "Darker Secrets: Sideline Secrets II"- both still worth watching.It may have helped if some of the tangential story lines had been cut, no matter how entertaining. Its not as if we needed some relief from the action and there is still plenty of eye-candy germane to the plot.I have to agree with the other two reviewers that this is well worth watching and look forward to the next offering from this production team.

This is soft core porn with touches of horror. You may call it what you want, but it is still a "porn film". It's also mostly gay. So who cares about the plot? Will anyone notice? The creators of this direct-to-DVD movie made an effort to produce something mysterious and spooky. The story takes place over the course of one long evening, as a witness ("Danny", played by David Beutler) has a detailed conversation with Police Officer Ibanez (played by Todd Tetreault). The time line jumps back and forth through flashbacks, though the overall idea makes sense.The backdrop for this story is an area of misty mountains hovering over Los Angeles County. Some young men have recently disappeared, and possible foul play is suspected. Officer Ibanez is working on the case. Curiously, he also has psychic abilities. He learns that the young men vanished after picking up a stranded motorist ("Joshua", played by Orion Cross) on a little-used stretch of highway. To solve this mystery, Officer Ibanez must learn the identity of this lost motorist, this intriguing "siren", who lures passing travelers away... But how will he find him? Meanwhile, as the investigation moves along, everyone is sleeping with everyone else. But of course, what would we otherwise expect? That's the point behind the movie, after all! For a low-budget effort, this was quite well done. Not to be taken too seriously.