He swiped right on the wrong profile. In “Succubus” (2024), a sleepless new father, separated from his wife and talked into a dating app by his best friend, matches with a woman too perfect to be real — because she isn’t. What begins as late-night flirting turns into a slow, screen-lit descent into obsession, as the woman on the other side of the chat reveals herself to be something ancient, patient and very hungry.
The story
Chris (Brendan Bradley) is a new father running on fumes: a baby who won’t sleep, a marriage on a trial separation, and a loneliness he won’t say out loud. His best friend Eddie (Derek Smith) pushes him onto a dating app called StarCrossed “just to see what’s out there.” Among the matches, one stands out — Adra (Rachel Cook), beautiful, mysterious, her face in her profile photo conveniently hidden behind her phone. Chris swipes right. The messages turn into video calls, the video calls turn into something that follows him off the screen, and a physics professor, Dr. Orion Zephyr (Ron Perlman), starts warning him that the woman he is falling for is not a woman at all, but a shapeshifting succubus that feeds on the men it seduces.
Horror for the screen age
Writer-director R.J. Daniel Hanna tells much of the story the way modern loneliness actually happens — through texts, chats, apps and video calls, in the screenlife style of films like “Searching.” It’s a smart fit: the succubus is folklore’s oldest predator of lonely men, and the dating app is simply her newest hunting ground. The film leans on mood and digital paranoia rather than jump scares — the glow of a phone at 3 a.m. has rarely looked this menacing — before its chaotic third act lets the demon fully out of the device.
The cast
Brendan Bradley grounds the film as a decent man making indecent decisions, and Rachel Cook is perfectly cast as Adra — hypnotic, playful, and wrong in ways you can’t quite name. Two veterans lend the indie production real weight in smaller roles: Ron Perlman as the researcher hunting the entity, and Rosanna Arquette. Olivia Grace Applegate plays Sharon, the wife whose absence sets everything in motion.
Where to watch
“Succubus” was released by Shout! Studios on digital and DVD on September 24, 2024 (103 minutes, not rated). It has since become a word-of-mouth hit with horror audiences — a 93% audience score — and it is now streaming free on Shout! Studios’ official YouTube channel, as well as on major ad-supported platforms. For the premium version, Apple TV offers the film to rent or buy, and its page plays the trailer as a preview:
Watch on Apple TV:
The swipe was worth it — for viewers, at least. For Chris, less so.
Credits: Written and directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna. Starring Brendan Bradley, Rachel Cook, Olivia Grace Applegate, Derek Smith and Emily Kincaid, with Rosanna Arquette and Ron Perlman. Shout! Studios, 2024.
