Everyone has heard the expression “don’t judge a book by its cover.” More often than not, people form their opinion of a horror film just by the title and/or poster art. I am guilty of this and I’m sure most of you out there are, as well. There are some pretty outrageous titles for films in the horror genre, so it’s only natural to think to yourself, “wow, that sounds like it’s gonna be good,” or, “woah, that’s sounds awful.” While it started out as Mamula and then changed to Nymph, I can only imagine the reaction of most of the US audience when they hear the final title for Milan Todorovic’s newest film, Killer Mermaid.
Two girls go on a Mediterranean vacation and meet up with an old college friend. When they venture off into an abandoned military fortress, they discover a creature only believed to be a myth…
It’s amazing to me that out of all of the horror films that have ever been produced, none of them have ever truly dealt with the mythology and lore of mermaids! Sure, if you saw Cabin in the Woods, you witnessed the first ever mer-man, but to have an entire film based on the creatures is unheard of… until Milan Todorovic and his team of writers came up with their treatment for the then titled Mamula. The film turned out to be a pretty entertaining mash-up of a slasher film and a creature feature and I definitely recommend it to you all.
For the most part, the acting was pretty good. Kristina Klebe (Proxy) did a great job as one of the main protagonists, but my favorite performance was from Franco Nero, hands down. The man who played the original Django in 1966 did an awesome job as Niko in Killer Mermaid. He was a great addition to the movie and I hope that he returns, if they ever make a sequel to this film.
We all know what was make or break for this film — the creature design! Luckily, the effects team pulled off a pretty impressive job of combining practical effects and make-up with CGI to make a rather neat looking mermaid. While I would have loved a 100% practical creature, I can understand why they chose to use some computer graphics to aid in the process. The final product was a slick-looking monster with two forms, one way more gruesome than the other, that looked impressive both in and out of the water.
If you want to see the first ever Serbian-produced creature feature and, as far as I know, the first ever mermaid horror film, you definitely need to watch Killer Mermaid. It is available now on DVD from Epic Pictures, so be sure to pick up a copy today!
I give this film 3 siren songs out of 5.
The movie She-Creature immediately came to my mind. But I think there are indeed not many horror movies with mermaids. Creature features are my favourite type of horror movies, so I probably like this.