Killer Mermaid opens with a quote from
Moby Dick warning of the dangers and mysteries of the sea and then we
see a couple having fun on vacation in a home movie style
presentation with tropical tinged dance music playing over the
scenes. We now see the couple having a playful and flirty
conversation by the sea. A strange fisherman shows up and the scene
ends with the girl killed with a hook through her neck. It's a cool
kill and a cool opening sequence that sets a fun,
danger-is-lurking-in-the-shadows tone. It's too bad the movie goes
slightly downhill from there, although it is not a total loss.
Now that a back story has been
established and the killing introduced, we cut to the story and see
two girls, Kelly (Kristina Klebe), and Lucy (Natalie Burn), arriving
on vacation. The two leads have a good chemistry and hold the first
half of the movie together. Within the first 10 minutes it is obvious
that the movie takes itself seriously and is not a comedy horror or
goofy or campy in any way. I appreciated that about Killer Mermaid:
it wants to be a true tale of horror and presents it's characters as
real people living in the real world.. The acting is solid,
especially Kristina Klebe who seems to have a natural depth to her,
she is a very talented actress
A problem the film suffers from is
there are continuous shots that unnecessarily pan slowly over the
female bodies and this seems distracting from the serious tone the
movie is striving for. It plays as an adult horror movie but relies
on juvenile gimmicks like this and it seems to conflict with itself.
Another juvenile gimmick is an awkward dance segment in the living
room of a house after the girls meet up with a couple other friends.
It would have played better in a club setting but instead it seemed
tacked on to include the obligatory “we're on vacation and having
fun” dance segment.
The four friends then travel by boat to
check out an abandoned military base on a small island. Here we see
the same strange fisherman from the beginning that killed the girl
with the hook. When he is seen dumping “food” down a well on the
abandoned military base, the group knows something is wrong. The
fisherman begins to chase the group and at this point the movie has a
real slasher feel to it. As they run underneath the military base
from the killer through mazes of dark tunnels, a nice claustrophobic
atmosphere is created and it's the strongest sequence in the film.
Unfortunately the movie really holds
back on the gore here. After the great first kill in the beginning,
there is no thought to the kills that follow and they seemed watered
down. There are loud ominous horns playing during the kills but the
images on the screen can't match the music to back it up.
We finally see the killer mermaid with
28 minutes left, a major fault of the film. It is not built up enough
to pull off this long wait.
Overall I did not love Killer Mermaid,
but I didn't hate it either. I admired the film for sticking to it's
serious tone and trying to create an original horror idea. However,
it couldn't help but slip into some obligatory horror tropes that
left me feeling like the film and story didn't have confidence in
itself. As of right now it's on Netflix streaming and is worth
checking out if you're home one night with not much to do. A major
plus in the movie is Kristina Klebe, I look forward to seeing her in
other things.
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