Mermaid's Song Review

Mermaid's Song is somewhat of a horror type film that follows a young girl as she learns about her abilities. It's rather slow in pacing despite being shorter in length. It's a meandering tale that doesn't exactly do anything in terms of a plot, but does develop a few core characters. It's weird as there's this large group of characters present, yet a number of them don't matter and you rarely notice if they're not included.

This is essentially focused around a bar with every scene taking place within or around it. There are some thugs that occasionally visit and this pushes things forward. It has some darker elements to it, but it's weird as the film doesn't embrace that fully. It's almost hard to describe as the plot just went along with characters coming and going during certain moments.

The acting is hit or miss here with some characters being very weak. I did find the young girl, Charlotte (Katelyn Mager) to be a stand out performing the best. It was a pleasant surprise and she did well whether she was being a regular individual or embracing the darkness.

It has some quality to the presentation with some shots being decently displayed whereas others were too glowy. I'm not sure what they were going for with the chosen style as while it did help make it look older, it almost comes across as giving it a cheap overlay. It did capture the time era well so that was solid.

The Conclusion

Mermaid's Song is sometimes alright with some rather weak moments and a narrative that wasn't cohesive. I mention things being random and characters really do sort of just come, to then leave later without much of an impact. Some of the plot points didn't make sense and this further builds into the random side of things.

I thought it looked fine for the most part aside from the odd glow. It captured the era well in terms of costume, and setting. I was surprised to see Iwan Rheon here, but he was mostly a distraction as opposed to adding anything. Didn't find his performance to be anything great here. The make-up and creature designs were spot on though, great work there. The songs were decent too.

Mermaid's Song Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening Provided by October Coast Publicity

Rating Overall: 4.5