Demonlover
Diane de Monx (Nielsen) is an executive trying to negotiate a deal to acquire the rights to the productions of a Japanese anime studio, which will soon include three-dimensional hentai, for the Volf Corporation. To facilitate the acquisition, she eliminates her superior, Karen (Dominique Reymond), and assumes control of her portfolio, her business partner Hervé (Berling), and her assistant Elise (Sevigny). Elise, however, despises Diane and works to frustrate her negotiations at every opportunity. Diane and Hervé travel to Japan to close the deal, and they enjoy a sexual flirtation which is unfulfilled at that time and seem to grow to like one another.
Having acquired the rights, the Volf Corporation attempts to enter into a deal for distribution with an American Internet company called Demonlover, represented by Elaine Si Gibril (Gershon). Diane, however, has actually been a spy all along for Demonlover's main competition, Mangatronics, meeting with a mysterious handler on occasion to pass along information on the Demonlover deal. Meanwhile, Diane discovers that Elaine's company is a front for a website called the Hellfire Club, an interactive torture web site dealing with extreme sadomasochism broadcast in real-time. When confronted with these charges, Demonlover praises Hellfire Club but claims no ties to it whatsoever.
In order to seal the deal for Mangatronics, Diane is sent by her handler to steal data from the computer in Elaine's hotel room. Before Diane can download the information, Elaine enters the hotel room and notices Diane's presence. They struggle, eventually culminating in the suffocation of Elaine. Diane checks to see if she can make an escape, but then discovers Elaine's body is missing. Elaine, who was not dead, uses the last of her strength to club Diane over the head. Diane is knocked unconscious, and Elaine passes out due to blood loss sustained from injuries in the struggle. When Diane awakens, she is in Elaine's hotel room, and everything is completely cleaned up. There is no evidence of a murder, burglary, or struggle.
At this point, the narrative structure of the film more or less breaks down, although we do learn a great deal more about the characters. It is revealed that Demonlover does indeed own the Hellfire Club. It is also revealed that Elise, who it is suggested is a spy for Demonlover, actually works for Hervé, who is also likely associated with Demonlover and by extension the Hellfire Club. Hervé admits as much on a date with Diane later in the film. The two become intimate in bed, but Hervé goes too far and rapes Diane. However, the second time she is raped, Diane manages to reach over into her handbag, into which she had previously placed a pistol. Diane fires at Hervé's temple and he dies instantly. In the end, Diane herself is forced into the Hellfire Club. She awakens in a dungeonlike room, on a mattress, dressed in a vinyl suit and with a wig. Beside the mattress there are pictures of Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel in The Avengers (a 1960s television show, which had an episode entitled "The Hellfire Club" that was subsequently banned from American TV for the so-called "provocative" nature of Mrs. Peel's costume). Diane attempts to escape, and is almost successful. However, upon driving her getaway car she is involved in a car accident. The escape fails.
The final scene takes place in an American household. A teen-aged boy logs on to the Hellfire Club website using his father's credit card. He then fills out a detailed fantasy of what he would like done to the woman on the screen, who turns out to be Diane. He then allows it to play in the background as he does his science homework. Diane looks up at the camera in her room, helpless, but also, in a sense, suggesting an indictment of the character. The final shot pans from the computer screen – a window from which Diane looks out helplessly – to the boy's science homework – answering problems while handling a DNA model that he seems to have constructed.
cult, suspenseful, murder, violence, sci-fi