SUCCUBUS

In Lisbon, Lorna Green works as a nightclub dancer who performs sadomasochistic acts that end with simulated murders, which shock and titillate the club patrons. She is overseen by her manager, William Francis Mulligan, an American who "discovered" Lorna and helped her forge her nightclub act. After performing at the club one night, Lorna returns home and is visited by William, who spends the night.

Lorna has a bizarre dream in which she is a countess who is running late to a dinner party being held for her at her castle. She travels there by trolley, and is met by Pierce, a mysterious man who feels he has manifested Lorna as a "disciple of evil" and a devil on earth to do his bidding. Lorna meets with a man named Admiral Kapp, and the two engage in a word association game with one another, repeating names of famous writers and artists, before Lorna stabs him through the eye socket.

The following day, Lorna and William stroll through the city together and stumble upon a funeral wake where numerous women mourn in the street. A curious Lorna approaches the body in the chapel and removes a shawl covering the dead man's face. She is horrified to see the man—who has been stabbed through the eye—resembles the Admiral Kapp from her nightmare. Later, she accompanies William to a party held by psychiatrist Ralf, where the partygoers indulge in LSD. Lorna goes into a trancelike state where she begins writhing on the floor in front of the guests, who, under the influence of the drug, approach her like animals, crawling along the floor.

William recounts a story to Lorna about a countess who, under the influence of Satan, murdered her husband after he built her a palace. Later, at the club, Pierce watches Lorna from a distance before approaching her at her table, addressing her as the Countess. She rebuffs him, and tells William and his friends that she does not know the man. In another dream, Lorna brings her friend, Bella, to visit a dilapidated seaside castle where she resides. She takes Bella to a room full of mannequins in various period dresses, and seduces her before bludgeoning her with a statue. Bella attempts to flee before several of the mannequins come to life, after which Lorna stabs her to death. Lorna awakens from the nightmare to find her apartment largely empty, as she has made plans to relocate to Berlin with William.

Lorna accompanies William to Berlin. Unbeknownst to her, William meets with Pierce, with whom he has been in cahoots; the two have conspired to manipulate Lorna. Lorna, in a trance-like state, enacts the sadomasochistic club act in she and William's rented apartment. Held captive for the act are a man and woman with whom Lorna has performed in her club act. William looks on as Lorna stabs the man to death before killing the woman, who pleads for her life. William calls Lorna's name, breaking her trance, and she flees upstairs where gunfire erupts, and she screams.

William returns to Lisbon and enters his apartment there, where he finds a nude Lorna lounging on his couch. She asks him to kiss her, which he obliges, before she plunges a knife through his neck. Pierce appears and drives Lorna to the harbor, where he promises her that his power will "bring her peace," and deems her his "Faustina." The two enter the castle together.

Lorna, manipulated by William and Pierce, reenacts her sadomasochistic act in a trance and kills two people before fleeing, while gunfire erupts and William returns alone to Lisbon.

The ending cements the film’s hallucinatory and fatalistic tone, with Lorna’s identity and agency ultimately subsumed by the manipulations of those around her. The boundaries between her dreams, performances, and reality collapse entirely, leaving both her fate and the nature of her experiences ambiguous and disquieting. Franco leaves the audience uncertain whether Lorna is truly possessed, controlled, or a victim of her own fractured psyche, delivering a finale as enigmatic as the film’s dream logic.