Lilin’s Brood – Review

Directors: P.W. Simon & Artii Smith

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

The Lilin were a form of Jewish demon that became tied into the Lilith myth and are known as the offspring of Lilith and Samael, they are more often called Lilim. So, having said that it is clear that, with this film, we are looking at the Lilith mythology as a basis for the story.

We are also in the world of found footage again. Though, as the main characters are a group of camera wearing Investigative journalists called “W.H.I.S.T.L.E.”, an anacronym for the cumbersome “We Hear In Silence The Lies Everywhere”, the pov style feels more natural than in some films.

interview

The film starts with interviews with various women who have had a man vanish (be it boyfriend, husband, son etc.) They are all being interviewed by de facto leader of the crew Vanessa (Maxine Goynes) and little breadcrumb clues start to emerge, be it sexual websites (on a son’s computer) or finding a strange business card. It also seems that the police are uninterested in the disappearances. Wolf (Martin Sensmeier) goes to see someone about the card and discovers the symbol on it is tied to a brothel (or perhaps a chain of them). Vanessa also suggests that the symbol is tied to organ trafficking.

Brent King as Danny

Vanessa contacts their boss, Ron, through a secure link via laptop. Just to stop here a moment, the professional image developed by them having corporate logoed laptops and state of the art camera equipment is then undermined by the actions of the crew who seem more your standard horror frat boys than serious investigators. Nevertheless Ron gives the green light on the next stage of the investigation after ascertaining that Vanessa is ok to go ahead, given what happened to her father and brother – this is not returned to and later Vanessa says she has no siblings but wishes she had (rather than suggest she lost one). Given the primary role Vanessa plays one would have wanted more exploration of this and clear consistency in the dialogue…

fitting the pendant camera

So the rest of the crew are made up of tech guy Danny (Brent King) and new hire Art (Artii Smith), who Danny seems to be giving a hard time to, Thomas (Alberto Barros Jr.), and the driver of their mobile HQ RV Nate (Stephen Heard). They intend to infiltrate the brothel with Wolf (wearing glasses with a camera built in) and Thomas (with a chest mounted hidden camera) posing as customers and Vanessa gaining entrance as a distraught woman (and wearing a pendant with a camera). However, Nate’s GPS keeps dropping – then he hits something.

meeting Madam Plu

They exit the RV (which is apparently disabled in the crash) and a man, Cabal (James Wellington, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), is stood there. He suggests he thought they were stopping to pick him up, there is blood and fur (they hope, rather than hair) on the front grill of the RV but no sign of what they hit and no phone signal to phone roadside assistance. Cabal offers to take them to a nearby building with a land line (if they then give him a ride). Thomas and Art go with him (and soon Thomas’ camera is out of signal range) and when they don’t return the rest (bar Nate) go after them. They find the building, the brothel they were looking for, and Thomas has a couple of ladies with him and a drink, whilst Art is with another lady. They meet the mistress Madam Plu (Melinda Miamor).

bite marks on neck

So, we then get a mix of voodoo – Plu is from New Orleans and Vanessa Baton Rouge and, on hearing that Vanessa’s surname is Laveau, suggests she knew a Marie Laveau, which if she means *the* Marie Laveau puts Plu at a remarkable age (the historic Laveau died in 1881) – including zombified men, immaculate conception of Lilith and Samael’s children, and general peril for the crew. We get a couple of bites by women (who are the Lilin presumably) and on Wolf we see such a bite leaving two punctures in his neck. So, this is off into vampire territory. We also get some of the women there in bandages during a birthing ritual and they are named mummies in the credits. There is no clear lore offered though the line, “Wherever man hungers for flesh, there too Lilith shall repose.” is repeated.

split mouth

Indeed, later, we get to see briefly one of them split her mouth open in a computer-generated moment that actually looked quite good. Unfortunately, the found footage style – whilst logical as three are wearing cameras and Thomas has planted cameras in key locations – conspires with poor characterisation to hamstring the film. It also means that much is done off-camera, great for budget not so great for the viewer, and even when events happen on camera the frenetic nature of the filming tends to confuse the action. This would have been better properly filmed in third person and supplemented with point of view camera footage, but then again I’m not particularly a found footage fan.

blooded mouth

I’m not saying that this would have been the only thing they needed to do to improve the film, we needed more characterisation, more background and a clear view of what was happening (we can put the rough chops together but a clearer exposition would have been welcomed). None of the acting is necessarily poor, but nothing sparkles particularly (bar perhaps Melinda Miamor as Plu, who she infuses with a neat over-the-top style). This could have been so much better than it was and it is a shame. 4 out of 10 is generous, I think, but anything less feels churlish.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK