[Film Review] Lure (2026)

Finding the perfect match is a hellscape in today's modern dating world. Let alone finding the perfect partner and the perfect parent for your future child, which almost feels as though we need to jump through hoops and put ourselves through endless games that, for the most part, lead us to nowhere.  

Oliver Cox’s Lure dives into the dating world, where we meet Islay (Silvia Presente) a young and beautiful heiress who has invited six bachelors to her home under the guise of a birthday party. The men are tied up and put through their paces in high-stakes games to show how worthy they are of being the father of Islay’s future child, and to continue her family's high-class legacy.

Whilst the film is an interesting take on the “dating meets horror” sub-genre, it fails to hit the mark fully. It jumps between subgenres without finding its feet to hit the ground running. Opening with elements of folk horror, surrounded in mystery, with a large bonfire burning in a field. Then moving quickly on, we dip our toes into some horror comedy as we meet the six victims, each one a stereotype you would find on a dating app – gym bros, a doctor, an artist. Then it finally takes a stab at torture porn with a few sequences taking almost direct influence from the Saw franchise - not just in terms of content but also in the way that it was shot, quick cuts as the men are gruellingly put through their paces during one ‘game’ in particular. Individually these would all work great, but throwing them all together into one movie gives it an overall feeling of confusion and messiness.

However, what Lure does excel at is creating an excellent level of tension – particularly during the torture sequences. It doesn’t hold back in showing the audience the levels of violence the bachelors are put through, and in one scene, put themselves through in order to survive – you will find yourself wincing at all the correct moments. Not only this, but there is also a simple game of blackjack that builds tension so well it leaves the audience on the edge of their seat.Whilst the acting isn’t outstanding on everyone’s part, Silvia Presente seems like she is having the best time playing her role, she manages to balance a fantastic level of batshit crazy with a sprinkling of comedy to get the audience to feel as uncomfortable as possible.

On many levels, Lure delivers what it was set out to do, creating tension in all the right places with fun and interesting games to put the desirables through their paces. The violence is high, and equally, the special effects are exceptional for a relatively low-budget movie. However, it’s odd pacing and mostly flimsy acting does not sit quite right. The overall message feels a bit lost and the hopping between sub-genres doesn’t flow as well as it was possibly intended. Perhaps with a better script for the audience to work with we could have had something really golden here to rival some of the higher budget takes on this subgenre like Ready Or Not.

Lure is available to stream digitally from Reel2Reel Films!

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