I loved how Liz just showed up in a mermaid costume between cuts. That was totally unexpected and hilarious.

And to be fair, the psychic impregnation does solve the "Mermaid problem" - specifically, how mermaids with the fishy part instead of legs give birth. It's a pretty weak explanation, but I don't seem to recall anyone else using it, so it at least gets a few points for originality. But the rest of the movie has no suspense or real horror to it, and the topless mermaid is just shameless fanservice.

Why is there a "mermaid problem" at all? There are several species of fish and snake who are viviparous and give birth to offspring that hatched from the egg inside the mother. Not to mention mammals like whales and dolphins which also don't have external genitalia and labia because they hide that stuff under skin folds in when not in use. The mermaid has breasts, therefore she is clearly a mammal. I see no problem with the concept of a female mermaid and a male "merman" mating and she later giving birth in the sea, as dolphins do.

I'm more interested in the question, does this mermaid have gills in addition to her lungs? She seems to breathe air just fine, but also stays underwater... but then, cetaceans like dolphins and whales, and pinnipeds like seals and sea lions, can also hold their breath and stay underwater for a long time, by storing oxygen not merely in the hemoglobin in their blood but mostly in the myoglobin in their muscles, thus avoiding aeroembolism (the bends) when coming up quickly after diving.

I would have been fine if the movie had made the mermaid related to seals. Okay, so they gave her psychic powers and made her a shapeshifter, too. *sigh* Fine, that's the fantasy element. But why psychically impregnating a human women? What for? And if the mermaids needs human women as breeding wombs to give birth to mermai daughters, what is the point of the mermaid growing legs for one night each year? Does she use that night to look for a human male to have sex with, as in the fairy tales? Then why does she... ARG.

I remember this one mermaid myth. Eating the guts of a mermaid would allow you to live forever, but for the rest of eternity you would crave the taste of mermaid guts. Sounds kinda like a zombie. I believe that was also use in both Mermaid Forest & Petshop of Horrors.

This movie reminds me of a different mermaid myth, where merfolk knock over boats & steal whatever & eat whomever falls out. Human possessions & bones are used for primitive tools & jewelry.

As for the naked breasts... being German I'm not fazed by naked breasts, so they didn't even register in my mind. I'd have been more pissed off if the mermaid had worn a ridiculous seashell bikini top or strategically placed scales on her chest in the shape of a bikini top, like they did with the Gorgon in the Clash of the Titans remake.

Missionaries have not yet spread the gospel shame of nudity to the sea yet.

There WAS genuine potential in a film like this, I feel like! So many things could've gone better if the writers actually knew how to write a proper horror film. The technical aspects of this film seem pretty good, the sets are great and even the special effects are really good. I had trouble telling at the end if the monster was an elaborate suit or CGI in a couple spots, so props to them for that. It's a shame one can't "remix" films as easily as one can with music. Ah well.

Great crossover. Excellent job, you two! Also, mermaid costume + DERP DEE DOO = multiple laughs from me.

I think I caught this movie once on TV, because I dimly remember it.

Why does everyone think this is supposed to be a horror movie? Is it sold as a horror movie? Does "creature feature" equal horror movie in the US? Most of the criticism seems to stem from the fact that people expected a horror movie and it didn't deliver on that front. Would it make a difference if you watch it as a fantasy/period piece movie? I kinda liked the atmosphere of the movie, but I admit the plot was rather thin.

The movie poster for She-Creature is suspiciously reminiscent of the poster for Species II. She-Creature came out in 2001, while Species II came out in 1998. Coincidence? The main draw of Species was a man-eating alien passing herself off as a naked woman. Same target demographic?
http://www.imdb.com/ title/tt0050957/
http://www.imdb.de/title/ tt0120841/
It's like an Asylum movie that tries to pass itself off as a Blockbuster movie in the hopes people will accidentally rent this one instead of the Blockbuster. But the production design, costumes and so on most've cost far too much to be a simple low-budget creature feature B-movie. Puzzling.

And the mermaid is basically doing a Natasha Henstridge impression.

I kinda got a sense of being more sympathetic to the she creature/mermaid than actually being afraid of her. The way the woman and the mermaid interacted (if you can call it that) and how the mermaid was harassed by some of the men aboard the ship in one scene actually made you feel sorry for her. So in a sense she definitely failed in that regards for being a horror movie creature.

I'd almost forgotten this movie - watched 3 or 4 of the 'series' back when they came out. (Stan Winston and friends did them as practice, basically).

Still has one of the most out-of-nowhere, dopey "swerve" endings.. which didn't even make a difference to the plot.

Oh my gods, this film is real. I thought I just imagined this.
In a way it's a bit of a relief that I didn't imagine something that stupid.

Ghost Lawyer. That sounds familiar.
Ghost. Lawyer.
Ghost... Lawyer...
A Lawyer... who's a Ghost.

No.

Noooooo.

No Lupa you wouldn't, would you? You wouldn't attempt to review it. That film that leaves you without emotion for weeks even months after watching it. You'll feel no joy, sadness, nothing. It's worse than pure evil.

Oh well, I'm sure it'll be a funny review anyway. I look forward to it.

i think she was referring to his character in ally mcbeal,where he was a lawer,who later in the series died

Well I just wish Allison replied to Liz talking about psychically impregnating woman at the end with something along the lines "Sure, as long as it's not me."

The implied eating of the sailor is one of the biggest plot holes in the movie. Now, either the mermaid climbed out or she lured the sailor to her and then grabbed him and pulled him into the tank. Fine. But that doesn't cover the questions:
- Why is there no blood? There should be blood either outside the tank or in the tank's water.
- Where are the sailor's clothes? did she also eat his clothes? Ew.
- Did she eat him with bones and hair and everything?
- How did she kill and eat him with no-one hearing any screams?
- How does a mermaid eat her own weight (if we include her tail which makes up over half her body length) in human sailor all at once? There isn't even a bulge in her belly area! And if she digests incredibly quickly that would create a lot of excrement. Instead, we get the cliché movie monster that can apparently swallow people whole including clothes and still be hungry for more.
- Come to think of it, are the protagonists feeding the mermaid at all? Like, maybe give her fish? Wouldn't they try to keep her alive? You'd expect them to try and feed her. And, um, change her water?

I think the movie could have worked if the script writer had
a) either made it a period piece fairy tale movie in which the mermaid is a magical creature, or
b) make her a selkie (a shapeshifting seal-folk from Norse mythology) instead of a classic mermaid with fish tail, or
c) make a "realistic" movie, in which the mermaid is a cryptid species that feeds on fishes and human flesh and mates with humans.

Really, this movie screams for a crossover with a Lovecraftian mythos plot. Lovecraft's Deep Ones didn't have a fish tail, they were pretty hideous humanoid fish/frog-people with gills. But August Derleth, Lovecraft's "apprentice", wrote a story ("Innsmouth Clay") that is basically an adaption of the Deep One lore to mermaid legends. If the mermaid had been a hybrid in a mid-stage of transformation to a true Deep One but she gets caught by a fisherman and shown around as a freak of nature in a traveling circus until she escapes back to the sea, this might have been more interesting.

In fact, there already is a novel that does "mermaid + period historical setting", and does it well. It's set in late 17th century France, during the Age of Enlightenment.

It's about a mermaid who is caught by fishers and brought to the menagerie of the French king Ludwig XIV the "Sun King", at Versailles. The mermaid becomes the talk of the court, but they view her as a strange animal. The point is, in that setting, the existance of mermaids itself is accepted as given, although most have never seen one. It is implied that some "mythological" creatures, like i.e. unicorns, may have existed as well. Although it's kept rather realistic; magic does not exist in the novel's setting.

The human protagonists are a maid of one of the court ladies and a young male scholar who was ordered to study the mermaid befriend her and find out that she is intelligent; they teach her to talk and sing in French. This raises philosophical questions, "Must the mermaid be considered human? Or is she still an animal that apes humans in shape and speach? Was her species created by God? Does she have a soul?" While the king sees this as an interesting puzzle, the Church cardinals are aghast. The mermaid does not fit into Christian doctrine about Man's role in Creation, and they want to get rid of her, and have her dissected to prove that she's merely an animal afterall.

Unfortunately I can't remember what the novel what called, or the author. I'm not sure where I left it. Hm.

Derp dee doo to you too, Lupa ^_^

Awesome crossover!

Wait... I was expecting Liz will psychically impregnate someone specific in this crossover... in retaliation for hideous bear curse.

Not that I know to whom exactly I'm directing this, but here goes. Once again, and again until the point is satisfactorally across-gotten:

Goddamnit you folklore-impaired newbs! Selkies and sirens are supposed to be unsettling, inhuman creatures that always end up killing you, if only because they don't know any better. The little mermaid portrayal is equivalent to what Twilight did to vampires.

Oh noes, not mermaids! 80
Good video, ladies.

when i saw this movie, i suspected that it might have inspired the puddle queen from courage the cowardly dog. anyone?

Really enjoying the Liz/Lupa crossovers. The mermaid outfit (and Mike's Liz drawings from the RPG reviews) were a nice touch (as was the story behind it in the commentary). (Now Liz just needs to borrow Lupa's construction paper shells from Lindsay's "Little Mermaid" review, and it'll be perfect! XD) Hopefully, they'll collaborate for a three-way crossover with Film Brain, who surely should have some kind of revenge planned for what happened at the end of the "Gooby" review....

soooo... is Lupa pregnant now?

or was that whole "mermaids can make women pregnant" thing just bullshit?

The world may never know!

Holy crap, that's Aubrey Morris in there! You know.. the gravedigger from Wicker Man.. Mr. Deltoid in Clockwork Orange? A favourite actor of mine.

At least it's better than the She Creature feature from the 1950s that MST3K tackled. Slightly.

Also, no use of "Murmaider" by Dethklok? And you call yourself a metalhead, Iron Liz. For shame.

It's a bit unfair to say that the scariness of a scene can be defused with a new musical score. That applies to every horror movie ever, good and bad. I don't doubt that this is bad, but

Surprising as it is, there is actually a pretty good horror story with a mermaid trapped in a water tank in visual medium: an episode of the anime Vampire Princess Miyu, the TV series, which nicely clashed together the expectations of the modern Western stereotype and the old Japanese folklore.

Did you know that you can become immortal by eating the flesh of a mermaid? But that she'll do the same to you if you're not careful? Yeah, the man-eating part is pretty faithful to the classic legends, though the psychic impregnation really isn't.

excellent video!

I thought it was funny how Liz was in a mermaid costume throughout. Did she always have that or get it just for this review?

Anyway, i rented this movies years ago. I was browsing Hollywood Video (that's how long ago it was) and came across this and decided to get it for grins. Except no grins were had because the movie is, as pointed out by the ladies, dull and uninspired. I actually only remember it for the ending: between that mermaid monster and Stan Winston's association with the movie, i had to make sure i hadn't gotten Aliens by mistake.

I don't know about Liz, but I have a mermaid costume laying around. Mostly for parties.

One more crossover that I didn't expect but I am happy that it was made.

Nice outfit

I wondered what happend to the guy from Dark City.
Nice review once again.

"I wondered what happend to the guy from Dark City."

I knew that guy looked familiar!

BTW, I'd like to point out that the first guy we see die on screen... is Black.
Fuck you, movie.

I watched it once, but got so bored half-way through the movie and just started watching Invader Zim instead...

Good choice!
"What does the 'G' stand for?"
"I don't knoooow..."

Mmm...

Tell me about it.

Oh, I saw this film on the Scifi... SyFy channel once.

It's bad.

Nice to see you gals doing another crozzover.

Why can't the villain of this movie be something like Swamp Thing or Man Thing?

Psychic powers make you pregnant? PSYCHIC POWERS! DON'T! WORK THAT WAY!!!

The mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides are far more creepy than the ones in this film.

I love it when Lupa says "Derpdeedoo."

Yeah.

Because Man-Thing's movie sucked!

You do realize this is a mermaid movie and mermaids are like the Greek gods... not real and the runs of are weird and Zeus once knocked a girl up by turning into golden light and shining on her.

They're nearly the same creatures just the ones in Pirates went more with Splash rules than this one did!

I actually liked this movie because it's a lot like the Dagon movie and all the other low level Lovecraftian style movies and stories!

I actually tried to watch this once. I believe Sy Fy was showing it. I turned it off though. It was just too damn boring. I had forgotten about it till I watched your review.

So one could say that the mermaid queen's psychically impregnated baby is her brain child?

I hope Liz didn't hurt her back sitting like that for so long. The human spine isn't design for it.

You can tell this movie had a lot of potential. It's too bad it was utterly ruined by the pacing. You can't build suspense if the characters spend long stretches of time doing inconsequential things. I am shocked that the dancing CGI baby from Ally McBeal is more interesting.

The almost lesbian mermaid kiss was so stupid.

I'd like a T-shirt with iron Liz as a mermaid, or a sticker for my bass guitar.
Or even better Liz and Lupa as mermaids.

Why do you own a mermaid costume and what do we have to do to get you in it more often?

I guess it's time to write that mermaid RPG.

There's a link for the commentary under the video. The origin of the mermaid costume explained! :D

The Godfather reenactment scene was awesome! :D

Also, wasn't that the guy from "Dark City"?

Didn't the Gooby curse go to Film Brain? Oh well.

Liz's deadpan delivery and Lupa's...well, opposite of deadpan delivery work really well together! And Liz makes a hilarious deadpan mermaid. She's all like 'yeah, I'm dressed as a mermaid. What about it?'

Liz's suggestions for how this film could have been good sounded like things that I would actually love to see, as in my opinion we need more popular culture stuff about the darker side of mermaids that we see in mythology (to counteract the cutesy image that Ariel gave them), but as it is this film looked incredibly boring. Wasted opportunity.

Oh yeah, and as an English person I would like to report varying levels of success with the accents.