The Seductress From Hell (2025)
(This review contains spoilers.)
The opening scene of The Seductress from Hell gives us a great deal before the first line is spoken: we see a couple in bed, the wife Zara (Rocio Scotto) smiling up at her sleeping husband, Robert (Jason Faunt), before he unceremoniously rolls away. Her smile melts, and Zara sneaks out of bed and into a downstairs room where she flips through some obviously Satanic literature, and we get the first subtle clues that things aren’t quite right: she’s wearing earrings, makeup, and sexy sleepwear, but is clearly distressed. The audience recognizes this as a woman beset by troubles but aiming very hard to please, lest more of them come to her door.
Garaj Pictures/Sacred Ember Films
“Don’t ever mention that we’ll leave California again”
Jump to the next morning’s breakfast and the rest of the picture snaps into view: across a kitchen table we see salesbro Robert repeatedly berate Zara, an aspiring actress, who demurely apologies half a dozen times for her inability to crack one of toughest industries a person can tilt at. Fortunately, she has a call-back later that day and offers up a rose-tinted assessment of her chances–anything to keep Robert at bay. Sure enough, she misses the call and finds herself at Robert’s non-existent mercy, thus beginning her descent into becoming a Satanic murder puppet.
The lines and vibe of this scene are a bit wooden, driving home the oppressive nature of this relationship in a way that is effective, but oddly impersonal. It could have readily be two actors ad-libbing the details about the conflict, and this is an issue which plagues other scenes in the movie: a lack of personal detail and depth of history between characters.
Garaj Pictures/Sacred Ember Films
Later, we see a dinner party where Robert and Zara host some purportedly close friends, but throughout the scene they speak in the vaguest generalities and seemingly have no substantive history with each other. Now, horror is not exactly a genre which demands whip-smart dialogue and fecund character development, but these seemingly under-baked scenes have a way of deflating expectations and put the horror elements on weak footing when they do arrive. Later, when Zara turns into a blithering murderess and starts butchering everyone, the only eulogy we could offer for some characters is “she curiously liked to drink juice at dinner parties.” Not a big deal, but I think the second half of the film deserves a better setup.
Overall, the script could have used a bit more time to incubate and develop the peripheral elements. There are also some arguable plot holes once the story gets rolling–where did Zara develop an interest in heavy metal Satanism? If she’s selling the organs of the people she kills, how did that shape up? The secondary plot components feel a bit unloved, letting placeholder or imagination fill in where some additional attention would have considerably improved the film as a whole. There are some genuinely awkward dialogue exchanges and I could never quite tell if the film was in on the resulting joke.
“What brings you to this overpriced bar tonight?”
Now, setting all of those criticisms to one side, scintillating character work isn’t a critical part of a horror movies, especially ones like this. It helps with immersion and making films more memorable, but when it comes down to it, doing the fundamentals and providing some creepy and/or gory fun is (largely) what the this kind of film is about, and I think Seductress largely delivers in this regard.
Once Zara puts on her big girl Satan dress (it’s pink, and comes with a matching machete), the film is rather fun, and strikes a good note of indulgent violence and feminine rage while never taking itself too seriously. Zara embraces Satan’s gifts and becomes a sultry starlet who stalks upscale Los Angeles bars looking for men to take home so she can murder them and sell their organs. The violence features some creative no-frills practical effects that are better experienced than described, and Zara’s new character contrasts satisfyingly with who she was at the start of the film. While it takes a moment to become a horror movie, being an entertaining and well-paced horror film is definitely an element where The Seductress from Hell succeeds.
Garaj Pictures/Sacred Ember Films
Another bright spot is the acting, which is all-around solid, and score, which really stood out in setting and shaping the mood of the film. While Scotto and Fauna have a decided lack of chemistry and I couldn't fathom how they ended up married to each other, all of the actors put in solid, if solitary, performances. Scotto in particular carries some significant weight, performing as both the wilting flower and wanton Satanic butcher exceptionally well. Her performance strikes me as that of a actress looking to be noticed, and she succeeds.
Garaj Pictures/Sacred Ember Films
Final Thoughts
The Seductress From Hell delivers a worthwhile watch for those seeking a solid, if limited, horror film. You’ll have to get past some awkward dialogue and meandering character work, but it's worth the journey. Coupled with an excellent score and some eye-catching set and costume design, there’s a lot here to indicate that what comes next both from Rocio Scotto and young director Andrew de Burgh may be worth paying attention to.
All in all, The Seductress from Hell is a solid, if uneven and slightly wasteful indie horror film where the sum of its parts show a quality that isn’t always visible in the project as a whole. Perhaps with a bit more breaks, budget, or time to develop it could have been exceptional, but the ultimate state of the project is one of passable quality and I think it’s well worth a watch if the plot appeals to you and you have appropriately-calibrated expectations.
Score: 6.5
Strengths
Solid acting, costume and set design, and sound
Nice practical effects
Zara’s descent into murderess is smooth and believable
Does the horror part right
Weaknesses
Some distracting plot holes
Build-up scenes feel under-baked
Scotto and Fauna have a distinct lack on-screen chemistry
The Seductress from Hell will hit theaters in May 2025.
You may also like: Starry Eyes(2014), May (2002), Double Blind (2024)
