Directed by Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy and Christopher Bevins
Written by Natalya Dubovaya, Ivan Kapitonov và Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy2018, 90 minutes, Rated 15 (UK)DVD released on 22nd July 2019
Starring:Viktoriya Agalakova as Marina
Efim Petrunin as Roma Kitaev
Sofia Shidlovskaya as Lisa Grigorieva / The Mermaid
Nikita Elenev as Ilya
Sesil Plezhe as Olga
As an early wedding present Roma (Efim Petrunin) receives a surprise gift from his father (Igor Khripunov) in the khung of ownership of the old family house & the lake that it is built on. A gift made all the more surprising as Dad had disappeared and abandoned his kids, Roma & older sister Olga (Sesil Plezhe), đôi mươi years earlier following the tragic death of their mother.
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Leaving his fiancé Marina (Marina... Get it?) behind he takes a road trip with best friend Ilya (Nikita Elenev) to kill two birds with one stone: investigate the house & celebrate his last days as a bachelor.
During the celebrations Roma sneaks away for a late night swim in the family lake but unbeknownst to him, he isnʼt alone. A mysterious young woman, standing on the lakeside dock, brushing her hair, beckons lớn him with her singing và after Roma fails khổng lồ resist a kiss, is hauntingly asked, "do you love me?"
Roma, it transpires, has become the newest target of a malevolent killer mermaid.
Except technically itʼs not a mermaid.
Russia has its fair mô tả of superstitions & folklore which is grossly misrepresented by associating it with mermaids. The original film title is Rusalka: Ozero Myortvykh và though the translation into English is technically correct, the Rusalka, in traditional Slavic folklore is very different và if you were hoping to lớn catch a glimpse of topless girls with strategically draped hair và fish tails for legs youʼll be very disappointed.
A Rusalka is the spirit of a woman who has died unnaturally near a large body of water, forced to haunt it by luring men khổng lồ a watery death with their beautiful voices. Should the victim somehow resist the Rusalkaʼs charms & refuse lớn love them then the malevolent spirit will instead take away everyone their victim loves. This puts Mermaid: Lake of the Dead more in line with a ghost movie rather than aquatic creature feature. The problem is the ‘creepy long haired girlʼ, as a fad, has been done khổng lồ death (pun intended) & Mermaid doesnʼt offer anything to the sub genre that Gothika hadnʼt already done better back in 2003.
This is highly disappointing considering director Svyatoslav Podgaevskiyʼs 2017 festival favourite The Bride (also starring Viktoriya Agalakova và Igor Khripunov) used the unique & haunting image of the titular ‘brideʼ lớn create a much more memorable concept. While The Bride offers an interesting look at Eastern European storytelling, Mermaid feels more lượt thích an attempt at an American movie by borrowing heavily from teen horrors from the early 2000s sprinkled with iconic moments from bigger films like Andy Muschiettiʼs Mama.Alas,Mermaid: Lake of the Dead feels lượt thích a more forgettable entry in Russiaʼs cinematic renaissance.
Characters are about as minimalist as they come. You will struggle lớn define them any deeper than ‘the sisterʼ, ‘the friendʼ, or ‘the fiancéʼ. Marina, the fiancé, in particular is criminally underused. Despite the movieʼs best efforts to lớn convince you otherwise, Marina is not our protagonist nor is she our nhân vật despite Victoriya Agalakova accumulating an international tín đồ base. The plot introduces her as an infantile adolescent who struggles with rudimentary chores & is incapable of swimming. Youʼll be forgiven for thinking this will be a part of her character arc that will pay off at the end, but every part of her personality is painfully insignificant.
Mermaidʼs biggest sin, however, is the same as Corin Hardyʼs The Nunin that the creature has no definable rules. It simply does whatever it needs lớn in order to either make a scene interesting or lớn move the plot along. The spirit (Sofia Shidlovskaya) manifests wherever she wants & however she wants making it confusing khổng lồ differentiate between what is actually happening, what is an illusion & what is a dream sequence. During a swimming tournament Roma teleports out of the swimming pool and into the haunted lake. After being viciously attacked he appears coughing và spluttering at the side of the swimming pool. What happened there? Did he fall asleep? Did he hallucinate everything? What were all the judges seeing while this was happening? The scene ends without any clarification.
Similarly the characters act in ways that will only benefit the antagonist, like refusing to stay in sight of each other, refusing to lớn cry out for help when in earshot và driving their sick friend away from the hospital because they conveniently all agree that the curse is real based on no evidence. Most grievously, absolutely no explanation is offered as to lớn why ‘dear old Dadʼ suddenly reappears in his kids life lớn give an obviously cursed house to lớn his son.
Despite its flaws Mermaid is an interesting watch. Itʼs a reasonably definitive look into a genuine superstition & I canʼt flaw the perfect filming location & beautiful cinematography. The scares are frequent & eventful và the effects are used sparingly but well. It is highly recommend watching the movie subtitled rather than dubbed, especially if authenticity is your thing, as it helps lớn solidify that you are in a different culture & wonʼt judge the actors on the bizarre choice of English delivery.
If you are in the mood for a typical ghost story with a slight cultural twist then dive right in, but seasoned horror fans may find this film to lớn be disappointingly shallow.
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