The Lure

I just came from a screening of this movie at the filmPolska festival in Berlin. I enjoyed it more than I expected, because the film description made me a bit apprehensive. But it turned out very good! I enjoyed the unexpected mix of comedy, drama, music, horror, fairy tale and a bit of eroticism. It also had a nice flair of the 1980s Poland. The visual part of the film is great: the mermaids are very realistic (if you can say that about a mermaid), with long and heavy fishtails, and the actresses give a great performance. Despite their prettiness, the mermaid sisters look inhuman, animalistic. Mermaids are said to sing extraordinary beautiful song to attract men (and then kill them, heh), so I think it was a difficult task to create music to reflect this. However, it worked brilliantly. I was also pleasantly surprised by the subtle eroticism which never bordered with vulgarity. (It was also great to see a love scene between two women, I didn't expect it from a Polish movie.) Great job!

Not going to lie, I had no idea about this film till I saw the upcoming artwork for the release of this film on Criterion Collection. I was instantly intrigued. Mermaids? Hell yeah! I don't think I've seen anything from Polish cinema; I only really watch foreign films when there is a good amount of buzz for a film and I feel I need to see it. I have to say this film is weird and bizarre but overall I felt it was quite creative despite not always hitting the right notes (not a pun on this being a musical, I swear).

The film is about two beautiful mermaids who befriend a rock band and then use their condition to become part of the group and entertain fans. Along the way one of the mermaids falls in love with a group member and longs to become a human to win his affection. The other has blood lust and is out to slash the throats and eat the hearts of men. Visually the performance scenes and the presentation of other dark scenes are done wonderfully.

I thought the film had a nice mix of being a horror film, a fantastical film, and a rock opera. The music was often catchy although I wasn't sure about the lyrics at all times (since they were very literal). The film is fairly erotic and captivating mainly due to the beauties of the two leads. The film does well to bring in mermaid lore and showing them as violent even if they may look beautiful. It basically felt like a horror take of The Little Mermaid at times.

My only concern is the film felt kind of imbalanced since it seemed fluid and didn't have a strong sense of accomplishing anything. Scenes just occur one into the next and seem like a progression without any real motivation. It's still a highly imaginative venture one that left an imprint, as I am sure was the intention. I'm not sure if I will pick it up on Criterion blu-ray but I am pretty pleased with the sort of outlandish nature of what was presented.

7.5/10

This Polish flick is a weird one. I mean, the story I can dig but being some kind of horror filled with a musical overlook makes it a rare flick to watch. The story itself is rather simple and it's some kind of love story but what is happening with the two lovers, well, it's a dark fairy tale.

Two mermaids come ashore and are starting to work in a strip club. So far so good but mermaids can't fall in love with humans and when one does she is told to kill her lover. What do happens is for you to find out.

The effects are really good, you would indeed believe that they are real mermaids. They both have a special face to make it more believable and they areen't shy to show their naked body. The thing that can make people turn it off is the fact that it is also some kind of musical. The mermaids do sing in a local band but sometimes other actors start singing. That fact make it hard for horror geeks to watch it. But if yoy aren't going to take it seriious then you can watch it easily. There's a bit of red stuff but not that much but it's the strong script that keep you attached to the screen. I loved it.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 3,5/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Coalescing the elements of horror, comedy, romance, musical, fantasy & coming-of-age drama into one abstract & ambitious fairytale, The Lure is an art-house endeavour that brims with fresh ingredients but it isn't a film for all. While some may be enamoured by its uniqueness, others will despise it for its muddy premise.

Set in Warsaw during the 1980s, The Lure follows a pair of mermaid sisters who are adopted by a family of musicians and are soon enlisted for gigs at the nightclub they regularly perform at. While one of them seeks companionship with the humans, the other is unable to escape her bloodthirsty nature and kills people with zero remorse.

Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, The Lure is no doubt arresting from the visual standpoint and adds few new things to the mermaid lore but it also becomes repetitive after a while and is unable to immerse the viewers into its tale or make them invest in the characters inhabiting it. Also, there is no explanation for the significance of its 1980s setting.

The atmosphere is mysterious & sexually charged, songs are intriguing & tuneful, romance subplot feels forced, while the horror part is only present in bits n pieces. The chemistry between the two girls playing the mermaids is electric and fascinating to watch but the rest of the cast barely has any meat on them, and their presence makes no difference whatsoever.

On an overall scale, The Lure is a finely envisioned & well conceptualised idea but it's also poorly executed. Its plot is intriguing but never engaging, its images are aesthetically pleasing but never alluring, and although the effort is commendable, it's never emotionally involving. Promising & flavourful at first, it doesn't take long for The Lure to turn into a pungent smelling sea foam.

It's 80's Poland. Two mermaids, Silver and Golden, are lured on shore. They join a strip act in a nightclub. Silver falls for Mietek and risks her life to be with him.

This is a Polish film reimagining the Hans Christian Andersen story, The Little Mermaid. It's a dark erotic horror musical fable. It's doing a little too much and gets a little disjointed. I would drop the carnivorous nature, and the musical. Others may see it differently. I couldn't figure out whether to fear for the mermaids and be afraid of the mermaids. The shifting can be jarring. I get the musical aspect's connection to the story but it doesn't really fit. The world building is also a bit muddled. It's somewhat confused whether people know about mermaids or not and the era does not get infused into the story. This is definitely ambitious even if it's too ambitious.