Mermaid Down (2019)

Mermaid Down takes a familiar creature-myth and drags it into a bruised, human world, turning a low-budget premise into something strangely lyrical and haunting. Jeffrey Grellman leans hard into atmosphere—moody, visually striking images and a dreamlike dread that makes the asylum setting feel less like a location and more like a state of mind—while Alexandra Bokova gives the mermaid a raw, wounded presence that’s easy to feel even when others refuse to believe her. It plays like a dark fairy tale filtered through horror and mystery, where the beauty is real but so is the cruelty, and the emotional undercurrent sneaks up on you. Fair warning: the violence and torture elements, plus some nudity, make it a tougher sit than its fantasy trappings suggest—but if you’re craving an offbeat, surprisingly moving genre hybrid, this one earns your attention.

Mermaid Down is clearly trying to be a grim, fairy-tale nightmare about dehumanization and disbelief, with a “what if the monster is the system” vibe and some body-horror edge. The problem is the execution: the story lurches from scene to scene with plot holes and logic gaps, the editing feels amateurish, and the performances swing wildly in tone, with the villain in particular coming off more silly than scary. It also leans on gratuitous nudity and torture imagery in ways that can feel cheap rather than purposeful, so if you’re looking for a coherent mystery or polished horror, this will test your patience. If you can forgive rough filmmaking for a pulpy, nasty concept and a few eerie moments, you might find it watchable, but go in expecting more “messy curiosity” than hidden gem.