Mermaid: The Lake of the Dead

The first thing my buddy said when I borrowed his DVD-copy of "Mermaid: Lake of the Dead" was that, technically, the girl in the film isn't a mermaid. True that! She doesn't have shells to cover her boobs, or doesn't use a fork to comb her hair like Ariel does in Disney's "The Little Mermaid". Heck, she doesn't ever have a tail, which I think is the bare minimum to qualify as a mermaid. However, this doesn't mean the film isn't worth seeking out. Quite the contrary, the girl - Lisa Grigorieva - is an aquatic creature from the Russian folklore, so her background story and particularities are probably more original than any other horror movie about mermaids and sea sirens (with the exception of "The Lorlei's Grasp", that is a brilliant film).

The plot is intriguing, for sure. Shortly before their wedding, a young couple threatens to be torn apart by the interference of a mysterious water nymph who lures the boy - Roma Kitaev - to his family's lakeside vacationing house and seduces him with her gentle whispers and supernatural powers. The nymph's slowly unraveling backstory is great, and while the lead characters are amiable. So far for the strong points. Unfortunately, the makers of "Mermaid: Lake of the Dead" still believe the best way to make a horror film is to stuff it with jump scare moments and hideous digital effects. What they have here is a potentially atmospheric and petrifying concept, but they choose to throw in a sudden scare or a nasty face every couple of minutes. None of the BOO-moments have an effect, resulting in a chaotic and infantile second half and climax that easily could have been much better.

While the Russian folklore angle is interesting and refreshing, the pacing and the action are kinda caotic and there are too many plot twists that don't really help the cause.

So we in the western world see mermaids as beautiful sea women who have the tail of a fish. Keep in mind that this is a foreign film, and the mermaids of Russian and Ukrainian lore are not the same as what we know. The film has a decent plot but there isn't exactly a lot of logic behind it. The "mermaid" is more like a ghost, because the woman died centuries ago (so now it's a spirit I guess?). Being a Russian film, the dubbing is pretty atrocious. It's almost laughable that they don't even attempt to try and match the mouths with the words. In all its a decent late night flick, but not one you wanna watch more than once.

In 2018's The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead we are introduced to a young woman who has to fight over her boyfriend against a mermaid-like creature. It's actually a Rusalki from Slavic mythology and these creatures usually live in lakes or rivers and lure young man to their death.

There are some moody dark scenes at the small lake, where the Rusalki lives and the contrast colors from the poster in green and red are both present in the movie. Especially the dark green tone which is seen in most of the scenes taking place at night. The effects actually look pretty decent and I liked the design of the Rusalki. There are several scenes where her face transforms with a loud screech and a jump scare. Its a cheap way to scare the audience and is generally not welcome amongst horror fans. Another thing that is not very well liked is the trope of dumb character's. But sadly the movie also takes a slice of this and therefore makes it almost hard to root for them. On the other hand it's certainly a unique movie with a unique creature being the central antagonist. Overall it's a decent film but the final result lacked in execution in some parts. [5,2/10]

I don't know if it's the scares themselves or because i watched it dubbed and not in Russian ,, but it kinda felt overdone ,, A lot of scares ,, i mean the graphics and cinematography are good but there were so many jumpy moments by the end of the movie the scares felt like just any other normal scene.

The plot is semi-genuine, somewhat familiar,, the casting as of the Russian cast looked fine , but as i said sadly all the engagement and interaction thrill factors are lost when you watch it dubbed to English.

So i would say it's not highly recommended, especially not in English.