DIRECTOR Milan Todorovic WRITER Marko Backovic; Barry Keating; Milan Konjevic STARS Kristina Klebe; Franco Nero; Natalie Burn DOWNLOAD 29 June DVD 29 June
Coming from a confused premise—the mythological Greek siren; (inaccurate) Nazi history; stalk-and-slash—Killer Mermaids is an empty affair. A lack of subplot and character arc struggle to fill feature-length, and, despite its excellent location—the islet of Mamula, which holds a fort once used as a Fascist concentration camp during WWII—the film fails to reap potential rewards.
The title’s promise of a schlocky creature feature is far from what is delivered; our titular mermaid disappointingly plays out as a minor supporting character, in lieu of her anchor-wielding human assistant, making for a bog-standard slasher. Depth-lacking performances delivering perfunctory dialogue do nothing to assist, and, while Franco Nero is welcome as horror’s archetypal voice of foreboding, his gravitas is undermined by an unintentionally funny edit that introduces overly-long, repetitive monologues to what desires itself a frenzied affair—although that freneticism is largely made up of characters simply running through corridors.
Strong points are some very good underwater photography—more use of this would have paid dividends—and a lush locale. These however are not enough to elevate Killer Mermaids past tedium.
