Killing Ariel (DVD)

Within just a few minutes, Killing Ariel's opening scenes feature a murder/suicide, the extreme emotional scarring of a child, and the appearance of a wicked, demonic incubus. It turns out that this incubus (Joseph Gatt, pictured) and his partner in crime, a sinister, soul-sapping succubus named Ariel (Axelle Grelet), have been haunting the above-noted ill-fated family for centuries. (Incubus and Succubus are fabled sex-demons.)

Why is this family the target for terrorization? I guess it really doesn't matter, once the blood really starts flowing and suspense continues to tighten.

The little boy who witnessed his parents' deaths and met the sexy specter who drove his dad mad, eventually grows up and starts a family of his own. Rick (Michael Brainard) is not entirely satisfied with his life, but he's moved on and he doesn't even remember the ghosts of the past… until one of them comes to visit him.

The succubus comes across at first as just a normal, if super-charged in the lovemaking department, flesh and blood woman. Rick is captivated, ditching his spouse and house for sex and solitude with dusky Ariel up in a remote cabin in the woods.

As Ariel's demands grow, and things spiral out of control, Rick decides it's time to end things once and for all. But no matter how many times he kills Ariel, she keeps coming back for more. She's murdered, dismembered, crushed and cleaved in a variety of diabolical and inventive methods, as the well-made but obviously low-budget dark comedy goes into high gear.

There's not a whole lot of story to be told, but the actors perform their parts well (especially Brainard who does a not overly-obvious, but definite The Shining homage to Jack Nicholson), and the death scenes are quite gruesome and often hysterically amusing.

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