Early 19th century - Angus a carnival owner gets a visit from a grizzled old sea captain who believes that their mermaid is real and is there to warn them of the dangers of this creature. This is when the old man shows Angus and his girlfriend Lillian the mermaid he keeps bolted in a large fish tank. Now Angus wants this never-seen-before attraction and he steals it with the plan of heading to America on a sailing ship for fame and fortune. But the crew aboard the ship meet the deadly side of this beautiful creature and Lillian gets real close and personal with it.
This might be a diamond in the rough compared with the rest of the cable TV Creature Features' presentations. I agree that the mythology idea surrounding the feature is an extremely original one and it's very well produced, but I thought the film did not entirely complement it altogether. That goes for the shapeless direction and disjointed script that lacked personality. But with these faults in mind - I still found the film to be hypnotically enchanting, striking attention to the dense material and the atmosphere breaths the old fashion creepiness of monster flicks back in the heydays. Visually it's rather appealing with its darkly slick surface gloss bursting at the seams. Maybe at times it got a bit too artsy and either pointless for its own good - like those edited scenes of the mermaid attacking it's victims and the constant flashes of the mermaid in the tank. I actually thought the death scenes were poorly handled and definitely lacked imagination with the majority of the lethal cut-away deaths being replayed in POV frame shots that turn bloody red. When it comes to the action / violence it doesn't really break out until the final third - where the pace and excitement levels really picks up and we get swept up in some well-placed shocks and neat looking creature designs provided by make-up guru Stan Winston. The well-accomplished special effects are truly detailed and the sensual beauty of the mermaid design (who's mysteriously played by the adorable Rya Kihlstedt) is simply hard to take your eyes off. The atmosphere created builds upon it's confined setting with the majority of the film-taking place on a sailing ship. But the film is still decorated with a surrealistic, dreamlike build up because of the mythical set-up that truly makes you pay notice. The performances are stable and precise. Carla Gugino is irresistibly winsome and Rufus Sewell gives a sincere performance. Aubrey Morris as Mr. Woolrich is enthusiastically, resourceful in a rather small role. While, the mobile score doesn't have that much of a huge impact on proceedings -- the sweeping photography is rather polished and brings another fine dimension to the presentation. This watery tale is one of the sea's many wonders.
"Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature" is no more than a glossy and at times an interesting slow-burner of a monster feature.
This might be a diamond in the rough compared with the rest of the cable TV Creature Features' presentations. I agree that the mythology idea surrounding the feature is an extremely original one and it's very well produced, but I thought the film did not entirely complement it altogether. That goes for the shapeless direction and disjointed script that lacked personality. But with these faults in mind - I still found the film to be hypnotically enchanting, striking attention to the dense material and the atmosphere breaths the old fashion creepiness of monster flicks back in the heydays. Visually it's rather appealing with its darkly slick surface gloss bursting at the seams. Maybe at times it got a bit too artsy and either pointless for its own good - like those edited scenes of the mermaid attacking it's victims and the constant flashes of the mermaid in the tank. I actually thought the death scenes were poorly handled and definitely lacked imagination with the majority of the lethal cut-away deaths being replayed in POV frame shots that turn bloody red. When it comes to the action / violence it doesn't really break out until the final third - where the pace and excitement levels really picks up and we get swept up in some well-placed shocks and neat looking creature designs provided by make-up guru Stan Winston. The well-accomplished special effects are truly detailed and the sensual beauty of the mermaid design (who's mysteriously played by the adorable Rya Kihlstedt) is simply hard to take your eyes off. The atmosphere created builds upon it's confined setting with the majority of the film-taking place on a sailing ship. But the film is still decorated with a surrealistic, dreamlike build up because of the mythical set-up that truly makes you pay notice. The performances are stable and precise. Carla Gugino is irresistibly winsome and Rufus Sewell gives a sincere performance. Aubrey Morris as Mr. Woolrich is enthusiastically, resourceful in a rather small role. While, the mobile score doesn't have that much of a huge impact on proceedings -- the sweeping photography is rather polished and brings another fine dimension to the presentation. This watery tale is one of the sea's many wonders.
"Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature" is no more than a glossy and at times an interesting slow-burner of a monster feature.