211 reviews
I'm giving it a slightly higher rating than it actually deserves, because clearly a lot of work went into this movie from a bigger than usual cast and crew, and the result is not horrible.
The writing is not the worst thing about the movie, because the premise was actually interesting (enough to make me want to watch the movie), there is some sort of a plot in there, and there is even an attempt at some character development. But the story is still weak.
The acting was pretty decent from most of the cast (the old man in the beginning, the asylum inhabitants and its female employees), with some exceptions (the goofy dude in the beginning, the evil doctor, the male orderlies). The main villain especially seemed extremely wooden and seemed to have a multitude of evil hobbies - as many as the writers could come up with/fit into the runtime. That being said, maybe it's not the actor's fault - maybe he was just following the direction he was given. I certainly felt that the actress playing the main nurse had to literally slow down her delivery or just act dumb in order to make the scenes more believable.
Which brings me to the directing, camerawork, and editing of this movie. All of that felt very amateurish, to the point that I think in the hands of a more experienced / talented director this could have been a much better movie. The scene transitions are non-existent. Plotlines are sometimes so disjointed, and in one case there is no explanation of how characters A and B, who were locked up in the previous scene, are now sitting and watching TV with everyone else. The "contemplative" scenery is simply hammered in at random points. Oh, and I immediately guessed that the director was male, when one of the female characters suddenly decided to lower her shorts to expose her ass to the camera. Or when the main character, who had been wearing a hospital gown, apropos nothing disrobed completely and started walking around like that. Or when the nurse finally decided to cover the naked girl, the closest thing at hand was a white bodysuit that was a perfect fit, which she called "kinky". Or when a bunch of women, who are in the middle of escaping from the asylum, decide to go take a dip in the pond/lake/river in the middle of the night, and undress down to their underwear (which is of non-standard design). I was expecting all of the actresses to completely undress at some point in the movie, but after this scene the gratuitous nudity was dialed back, so I stuck it out till the end.
Overall, you're likely to enjoy it only if you go with very low expectations and don't mind some violence in your movies, even if it's not depicted that well.
The writing is not the worst thing about the movie, because the premise was actually interesting (enough to make me want to watch the movie), there is some sort of a plot in there, and there is even an attempt at some character development. But the story is still weak.
The acting was pretty decent from most of the cast (the old man in the beginning, the asylum inhabitants and its female employees), with some exceptions (the goofy dude in the beginning, the evil doctor, the male orderlies). The main villain especially seemed extremely wooden and seemed to have a multitude of evil hobbies - as many as the writers could come up with/fit into the runtime. That being said, maybe it's not the actor's fault - maybe he was just following the direction he was given. I certainly felt that the actress playing the main nurse had to literally slow down her delivery or just act dumb in order to make the scenes more believable.
Which brings me to the directing, camerawork, and editing of this movie. All of that felt very amateurish, to the point that I think in the hands of a more experienced / talented director this could have been a much better movie. The scene transitions are non-existent. Plotlines are sometimes so disjointed, and in one case there is no explanation of how characters A and B, who were locked up in the previous scene, are now sitting and watching TV with everyone else. The "contemplative" scenery is simply hammered in at random points. Oh, and I immediately guessed that the director was male, when one of the female characters suddenly decided to lower her shorts to expose her ass to the camera. Or when the main character, who had been wearing a hospital gown, apropos nothing disrobed completely and started walking around like that. Or when the nurse finally decided to cover the naked girl, the closest thing at hand was a white bodysuit that was a perfect fit, which she called "kinky". Or when a bunch of women, who are in the middle of escaping from the asylum, decide to go take a dip in the pond/lake/river in the middle of the night, and undress down to their underwear (which is of non-standard design). I was expecting all of the actresses to completely undress at some point in the movie, but after this scene the gratuitous nudity was dialed back, so I stuck it out till the end.
Overall, you're likely to enjoy it only if you go with very low expectations and don't mind some violence in your movies, even if it's not depicted that well.
Not even five minutes into the movie the captain(?) says "Logic and practicality would dictate...". More or less immediately afterwards, all logic and practicality went out the proverbial window...! I counted eighteen characters in the list of characters from this movie here at IMDb. At least three of them (all the three male characters in the beginning of the movie) seemed to be psychopaths judging from their actions. Three out of eighteen is many, many, many times the normal ratio of psychopaths to normal people in the real world! Out of the remaining sixteen, at least one of the guards seemed to have an IQ far below what I would have said qualified as a minimum for a job like that. On top of characters largely consisting of psychopaths, the film consisted of several cringeworthy scenes because of the bad script and directing! The acting was not terribly bad, but still far from good enough to save the bad script and directing!!
As a guy, if found the main actress beautiful, and liked the (semi) nude scenes with her. But I STILL found the same scenes to be speculative and mostly unnecessary for the progression of the story in the movie!
So my advice to you is that if you are not REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALY bored, do NOT watch this movie!
As a guy, if found the main actress beautiful, and liked the (semi) nude scenes with her. But I STILL found the same scenes to be speculative and mostly unnecessary for the progression of the story in the movie!
So my advice to you is that if you are not REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALY bored, do NOT watch this movie!
- forpassord
- Dec 9, 2021
- Permalink
There have been several mermaid films through the years, and in order to stand out from the rest the script has to be different. This one is WAY different, though the storyline of the «good» mermaid with the help of some odd friends vs. the «Evil» Doctor is a very familiar theme.
Despite being a low budget movie with new unknown actors the acting is not too bad, and the filming isn't horrific either.
Unfortunately the use of too many abused clishes, nude bait, and prolonged scenes kills the viewers interest and makes it drop on the ratings.
Unless you have partisipated in the movie or you're paid to give good reviews, it is not possible to rate it higher than 5. It gets 4 from me, and only because 3,5 isn't possible.
- bjornar-182-260351
- Oct 7, 2019
- Permalink
Yo, I don't know what yall talking about man this film is HELLA DOPE! I was expecting some princess story and was pleasantly surprised that it's hella sick. Dope acting and The Mermaid is FIRE Shoutout for the diversity!
- Georgia-16859
- Oct 4, 2019
- Permalink
Check the distribution of ratings, practically all 9 and 10.
Another one of those movies, where 95% of the ratings are fake.
The losers at IMDB still don't have a clue and are still accepting them.
In reality this movie is total garbage, and makes no sense at all. Add subpar acting and plot holes to the stupid story and you get the picture.
Do yourself a favour and stay away from this pile of manure.
In reality this movie is total garbage, and makes no sense at all. Add subpar acting and plot holes to the stupid story and you get the picture.
Do yourself a favour and stay away from this pile of manure.
Actors and actresses were with bad acting
And also the movie was filmed With a bad technique
- horden-69903
- Nov 20, 2019
- Permalink
I often pick a movie to watch by looking up ratings and mostly I have become to agree on the ratings after watching the movie. Above 7 is a quite good movie to spend time on and below 6 is many times not worth watching. Some of Indian movies were rated too high having 2~3 more stars than they were supposed to get, otherwise mostly rating seemed credible.
In recent 2 years I have started seen blind 10 stars with commentaries of similar style by numbers to get a new movie rated unthinkably higher than it is. After watching this movie I feel the rating has been fabricated by the same advertising efforts. Only other possibility should be a bunch of initial victims who wasted their time on this movie hooking another by giving 10 stars, which I am not going to follow giving one star hopefully to balance the misleading rating.
- wallfree-798-37256
- Dec 21, 2019
- Permalink
- CarlMarket
- Nov 16, 2019
- Permalink
- FranklinDun
- Jul 10, 2020
- Permalink
After they paid for the prosthetic fish tail, there clearly was nothing left in the budget. The main part of the movie (supposedly set in a small psychiatric home for women) was most definitely filmed in someone's Topanga Canyon bungalow - likely unbeknownst to the homeowner who was away in Cabo for a week. The crew also probably borrowed his boat and traded a down-on-his-luck sea captain a bottle of Old Smuggler for the use of his trawler.
That being said. The film is made in earnest with some serious gusto and heart. The acting is pretty good. There is some lore to the story. Tense moments. Silly ones. It's a strange blend of genres. But I couldn't stop watching.
I can only imagine what it could have been with a little bigger financing.
That being said. The film is made in earnest with some serious gusto and heart. The acting is pretty good. There is some lore to the story. Tense moments. Silly ones. It's a strange blend of genres. But I couldn't stop watching.
I can only imagine what it could have been with a little bigger financing.
Just bad writing and directing. Good idea but poorly executed.
- strizbiz-99429
- Oct 6, 2019
- Permalink
While reading the plot or the watching the trailer you would like Meh!
But weirdly it's quite entertaining and interesting ...
Don't think too much! Just watch it ...
- viggyjiggy
- May 29, 2020
- Permalink
To my surprise it's actually pretty good, some of the cast was great. Silly plot but interesting enough to keep watching.
- joshual-83834
- Apr 5, 2020
- Permalink
- usadainpink-84708
- Jul 10, 2020
- Permalink
It's very strange and catches you off guard with the tail cutting which is graphic and hard to watch. And that's the beginning of the movie but then it gets better. I liked the actress and all the actors for this, I hope I can see this in theater soon. Definitely not what I expected but I would watch again.
- annakruggod
- Oct 4, 2019
- Permalink
Terrible!
One of the worst movies I've watched this year. Horrible plot. Horrible acting. I started to watch fooled by the score, but the movie is really bad. Run away!
- rickferreira
- Nov 13, 2019
- Permalink
People saying it's an indie classic etc.. primer is an India classic and timecrimes.. this was utter crap. Don't waste your time.
- jamiedee-45573
- Dec 10, 2019
- Permalink
Quite possibly the most poorly made movie I've ever seen. Not sure if it's intentionally bad and campy, or if the filmmaker is actually serious. Reminiscent of a junior student film with bad editing
- pete-00812
- Apr 4, 2020
- Permalink
This wasn't brilliant cinema. It was more like watching someone try to explain a dream they had - it made perfect sense while they were dreaming it, but doesn't translate when they are telling you about it.
I do give high scores to all those diligent enough to get its rating up to 7/10! Way to go paid raters!
I do give high scores to all those diligent enough to get its rating up to 7/10! Way to go paid raters!
The story has more plot-holes than Swiss cheese. Clumsy directing : no sense of space + time story-telling. Script writing is super bad, story goes nowhere, no consistency in the character-arc (some times they are good, sometimes bad, no reason for anything change in motivation), nor character development. No budget at all on production design, the set looks worse than set of a dogma film. Worst thing of all, there's no editor, director (who never cut any other film) just cut the film himself, results in terrible action-continuity, movement-connection, no space-establishment, no tempo or anything. The "climax" lasts for like half an hour (for no reason) and very cheesy. In general, this is the worst film I have ever watched in several years. Went to see it because of its imdb score but turned out to be a huge disappointment.
I was not expecting much, to be honest. but i was pleasently surprised. it isn't the greatest movie of all times, but well worth your time. beautiful story and well acted parts. there is something about mermaids that draws me in. i'm glad a gave this film a chance.
- katastrofkatt
- Oct 5, 2019
- Permalink
- Neptune165
- Dec 2, 2020
- Permalink
I saw the trailer and thought, why not! I'm glad I decided to watch this film! What a good film! This is not just another mermaid story, ha ha. I thought director, Jeffrey Grellman, did a good job in telling the story while moving the film along. I never found myself getting bored which is rare. So bravo, this film get a thumbs up from me.
- craigahrens
- Oct 15, 2019
- Permalink
Like it or not, the movie is getting a lot of attention based on the number of reviewers. IMO, the reason is the odd story plot and the memorable mermaid. I was intrigued.