Mamula

This little film from Serbia directed by Milan Todorovic is based on a story by Marko Backovic and transformed into a screenplay by Barry Keating and Milan Konjevic. It will satisfy the current voracious appetite for horror stories that serve substantial amounts of gore to audiences who love that sort of thing. With an unknown cast the director relies on the presence of Franco Nero to bring a bit of credibility to an otherwise incredulous story.

Two American girls travel to Montenegro on vacation to visit an old friend, playboy Alex who unbeknownst to the girls is now engaged. They decide to venture to Mamula, a former prison island and Nazi concentration camp that houses a horrendous evil. During their exploration of the fortress they discover that they are not alone: a sinister fisherman named Niko (Franco Nero) is seen disposing of human remains in a well and everyone realizes they are in mortal danger. Someone else is on the island with them and he will stop at nothing to protect it's secrets. There is a darkness hidden beneath the island and the terror has just begun – the killer mermaid.

As if there weren't enough of this type of tale on television for free they continue to light up the marquee. As long as there is an audience there will be more. In Serbian and English with subtitles. Grady Harp, September 14

To be perfectly honest, I had some fun with this.

Like others have said, if you don't expect much, you might find it enjoyable. And, it's not hard to keep the expectations realistic after director's debut, Zone of The dead. This film is a step up.

The locations are fantastic, paired with intriguing premise, what can go wrong? Well, let's see....

Acting is questionable, characters paper thin, story rushed and what we do learn about them doesn't keep us exactly rooting for this bunch. The film starts out in least promising way possible, cliché one liners, atrocious acting from most members of the cast (Kristina Klebe, Franco Nero and D. Micanovic excluded) and awful, cheap music to go along with holiday mood.

After initial half hour or so which does test one's patience, Mamula indeed gets off the ground, meaning we finally start getting a taste of some action, essential for projects like this. Thanks to ideal setting (island of Mamula on Adriatic sea; former military base) and some gory fx, the pain of enduring uninspired talk and "character development" is finally paying off. Some generic slasher kills, chasing through the maze of corridors...all's good, but, where's the Mermaid?!

Nymph is the strongest thing this film has going for it, location aside. And, indeed when she does finally appear I was ready to forget all the shortcomings. Could have watched her go all day long, nice make up/fx work there with pinch of bad CGI, but having relatively humble resources in mind, that is really not that big a deal. Although, I could have used a bit more daring approach, the Mermaid should have gotten more screen time doing her "thing", imo.

One of the surprises was Dragan Micanovic, in a role that's atypical for him, he handled the perky, jokey and lively Boban pretty well. Nero shows that he's still got it/with admirable screen presence against the pale bunch; and calm, assertive Klebe takes her role seriously. Overall, not the worst way to spend hour and a half, if nothing, to soak up the natural beauty of the setting with occasional horror action thrown into the mix.

That's the best I can say about the movie. It delivers every cliché in the book and there are lines of dialog, that were openly laughed at, at the Screening at Frightfest. While director and stars are invited I always feel sort of bad for them, but it wasn't an issue at the Q&A afterwards, which was a good thing.

The actors are all pretty, but some struggle with their lines (especially those whose first language isn't English!). Franco Nero might seem like a lighthouse, but considering the demands he made to be in the movie, it might have been better, if he actually wasn't. He brings some sort of gravitas, but he has some speeches that feel endless and stop the movie entirely. Not that it was up and running in high speed, but still.

There is some nudity and blood to satisfy those needs, but it does not help make this a fun movie. While the poster (english title "Nymph"), promised something entertaining, it couldn't deliver in the way "Zombeaver" did ...

For a movie called "Killer Mermaid" this has surprisingly very little mermaid action in it, it takes an hour before the promised killer mermaid action actually starts (unless you count the beginning teaser).

In the first 30 minutes or so it still kept my interest a bit, a lot having to do with the beautiful Serbia Monetenegro landscape that I haven't really seen in a movie before.

The characters also feels a little more three-dimensional than the usual 2d stereotypes that cheap creature features like this usually offers.

Not that any of the characters are all that interesting tho and once the action does start in the second half the clichés starts piling up.

The acting is okay although the accents get a little distracting from time to time and make the dialog sound unnatural for most of the cast.

It's not the worst movie I've seen or anything but it's not particularly good either, if you're looking for a mermaid horror movie I suggest SHE CREATURE (2001) instead.

Two young American women go on a Mediterranean vacation and uncover the watery lair of a killer mermaid hidden beneath an abandoned military fortress. What was once a carefree adventure becomes a deadly fight for survival.

So, the film has gone through a few title changes: from "Mimula" to "Killer Mermaid" to "Nymph". The first one is the most accurate, other than that no one knows what that is. The second sounds like a SyFy film. The third is sort of close. Really ,they ended up with a mermaid mixed with a siren. What would that be called?

There is some great use of color, although the camera has an odd tendency to "float" rather than focus on the subjects. There is also some awkward English, but given that this is in Serbia, that really should be expected.

Anyway, not terrible, but it does not even come close to the original mermaid horror film: "Night Tide".