When you think of mermaids, sirens of sea nymphs in film, the likes of Daryl Hannah in Splash! or Ariel in The Little Mermaid may come to mind. However, if you cast your mind back to Hans Christian Anderson’s original version of the classic fairy tale, first published in 1937, the ‘little mermaid’ in question had her tongue cut out!
A24/Director’s Fortnight
This week sees the release of Robert Eggers’ already-celebrated The Lighthouse starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, which also features a sea siren in a very dark cameo, so we thought we’d take a look back at cinemas more sinister sea spirits.
The Lure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJB5hctnxQQ
We start in 2015 with a little-known Polish movie titled The Lure. Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska and released on Christmas Day in its domestic territory, the 1980s Warsaw-set film revolves around a couple of mermaids, Srebrna (Marta Mazurek) and Zlota (Michalina Olszanska), who find work in a city nightclub. One of them seems to be there looking for love but the other lusts after the blood of every human she comes into contact with, luring men into her clutches whilst posing as a club singer. The Lure had a Stateside premiere the following January at Sundance and then did a variety of festivals in the months that followed in 2016. It’s a fun world cinema genre piece and well worth seeking out on the home formats.
Night Tide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ6-ZcVzzIQ
‘Was she human.. or was she a temptress from the seas intent upon loving, tempting and killing.’ Let’s take a trip back to 1961 and the golden age of Hollywood for our next film on the list, Night Tide starring the legendary Dennis Hopper. Here, a pre-Easy Rider Hopper plays a sailor by the name of Johnny Drake. Drake falls for a mysterious young woman Mora (Linda Lawson) who performs as a mermaid at the end of the famous Santa Monica pier. However, things don’t seem to be as straightforward as first thought as he soon has suspicions that she might indeed be a real mermaid/ sea person, one who has a habit of murdering her former boyfriends by drowning them in the sea under the full moon.
Related: The Lighthouse review [Cannes]
The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead
I have to confess to not seeing this next one but I think the title stays it all. Released fairly recently in 2018, The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead‘s official synopsis on the IMDB reads: ‘An evil Mermaid falls in love with Marina’s fiancé Roman and aims to keep him away from Marina in her Kingdom of Death under water. The Mermaid is a young woman who drowned a few centuries ago. Marina only has one week to overcome her fear of the dark water, to remain human in the deathly fight with the monsters and not to become one herself.’ After receiving a release in its native Russia under the local title Ozero myortvykh, the movie started to heavily roll out on the home formats last year so we should be able to seek out.
Mermaid’s Song
This one is said to be a dark homage to Hans Christian Andersen’s dark The Little Mermaid story, though is this time set in the 1930s depression-era Dust Bowl – probably the last place you’d expect to find a mermaid, right? Iwan Rheon (Misfits, Game Of Thrones) leads the cast. Charlotte (Katelyn Mager) is a young girl with a ‘special gift’ while Rheon is a local gangster who is trying to get his hands on her family’s business. The film was originally called Charlotte’s Song – referring to that special gift that the young girl has – controlling us humans with just her singing voice.
Nymph
We travel back into the land of world cinema and Nymph, our final movie on manic mermaids list with a creature feature hailing from Serbia, of all places. Nymph (Mamula) from 2014 follows two girls heading to Montenegro to sample the delights of the summer and to meet up with their old friend Alex. However, things turn awry after they stumble the island of Mamula, an old Nazi concentration camp which happens to be the hidden home of a mysterious sea nymph, one who hasn’t taken to kindly to being disturbed.
The Lighthouse is released on Friday 31st January.
