Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.   For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday, I have decided to discuss the very fatal female protagonists of the Mermaid Horror Musical The Lure.   Yes, you read that right, this Polish Horror film is also a musical about Mermaids set in 1980s Warsaw!   The two Mermaid sisters, Golden (Zlota in Polish) and Silver (Srebrna in Polish) cause all sorts of chaos in this amazing film.   I do want to mention that on IMDb, the first genre label on this film is Body Horror, and this is very much a Body Horror film, making it a tough watch if you do not care for that type of horror. 

The actual plot of the film is very much based on Hans Christian Andersen’s original version of The Little Mermaid, with all of its more tragic themes and ending.    The film simply takes a musical horror spin on that tale, changing up the story of a single Mermaid exploring life on land to gain a soul for a story of two Mermaid sisters exploring life on land to cause mischief.   As is to be expected when I stated that the film takes inspiration from The Little Mermaid, one of the two sisters, Silver, falls in love with a human.   This relationship is the main cause of tension during the film, with Golden worried about her safety, knowing the rules of what happens when a Mermaid loves a human (especially if she is betrayed).   I do not want to go deeply into any major spoilers here, as I genuinely want my readers to check out this film, but if you are familiar with Andersen’s original tale, you can guess exactly why Golden is so worried!    

Another point of tension in the film stems from Golden continuing to act on her nature, as she continues to do what Vampiric Mermaids would be expected to do, while Silver is truly attempting to assimilate with the humans.   In fact, the man that Silver loves even tells her at one point he sees her as an animal, a fish, which is a truly upsetting scene to watch when you are empathizing with Silver!   I will not give any other spoilers, but that one I thought was a good way to pique interest in this film as that is a pretty small thing and is just a set-up to a much larger plot point.   

At the beginning of the post, I mentioned that this film is a musical, and it has so many awesome musical scenes.   Some are set in the club where the sisters and the family they are staying with on land work, while others are more surrealistic and dreamlike.   In fact, these musical numbers gave me a new appreciation for the Polish language, as it was when songs were sung in the language that I could hear how beautiful the Polish language truly is!   

I love the way that Mermaid lore is presented here, with a male Merman, called a Triton to be specific, serving as a sort of Wise One giving Golden advice to protect Silver.   The darker, more deadly Vampiric Mermaid energy is in line with a lot of old folklore.   They even chose to make the Mermaid tails look as unappealing as possible to add to the horror, with them being based on eels.   The setting in the 1980s lent to a lot of interesting looks in the club scenes and the use of neon lights for musical numbers.   Outside of those scenes, a lot of the sequences are bathed in Greens and Blues, reminiscent of the Sea from whence the Mermaids came!

The film does not shy away from the horror elements with plenty of blood and, as I discussed, a very memorable Body Horror sequence.   While the Mermaid sisters are deadly and very much embody the Monstrous Feminine and Female Rage during the film, they are also shown to have a true bond and loyalty to one another.    It is this level of nuance that makes this horror film so much more than a scary take on The Little Mermaid!   

I would highly recommend this film to anyone looking for a great foreign horror film to watch this Spooky Season, especially if you love a good scary fairytale!   I hope you have enjoyed this little review and analysis of one of my favorite Mermaid films, The Lure.   Have you seen the film?  Do you want to see it now?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the film poster.   I found the image on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5278832/.

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: https://patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Further Reading/Watching

• The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
• The Lure (2015)