A new father with a failing marriage joins a dating app and matches with a beautiful but mysterious woman, whose strange allure and manipulative powers of seduction entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
Director R.J. Daniel Hannah will present and Q&A.
Grimmfest Says: A masterfully slippery study of manipulation, deception, and the dangers of online relationships, SUCCUBUS is a film which catfishes the viewer’s expectations just as effectively as the film’s protagonist is catfished by the camgirl femme fatale. For the first half, it’s essentially a queasily uncomfortable cyber-noir about a weak man giving in to his sleazier impulses, and being led by the nose into ever increasing danger by a woman who is clearly not at all what she seems; a sharply observed fencing match between player and played, which carefully exposes toxic masculinity at its most insidious and self-serving and makes the viewer complicit in it.
And then the film pulls a truly jaw-dropping tonal and narrative swerve into pure WTF territory, as the true identity of the camgirl is revealed, and every misogynous male’s worst nightmare becomes a ravenous, rapacious reality. Beautifully played by a fine cast, who navigate the various stylistic shifts with grace and aplomb, this is truly a wild ride; by turns blackly comic, startlingly surreal, and genuinely squirm-inducing. We guarantee that you’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Part of our IN CAMERA strand.