Director: Louisa Warren
Year: 2019
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Witches of the Water
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After meeting a strange woman, a photographer becomes captivated by the woman’s presence and tries to begin a relationship with her to the point of ignoring his assignment to look into a series of disappearances in the area, which his mysterious partner might have committed.
Review:
This was a decidedly watchable if somewhat flawed genre effort. One of the better elements with this one comes from the solid enough setup that provides some enjoyable factors. The main storyline involving the relationship between the strange woman and the photographer at the heart of the film offers an intriguing mix of melodrama and supernatural thrills involving the spurned lover turning to the other woman while trying to solve the connection with her and a series of disappearances in the area. While it makes sense that there’s something wrong with the woman as she simply waits around in the bathtub without doing anything of immediate medical attention that her wounds should indicate due to her status as a mystical sea creature, this also provides the perfect cover for why the strained relationship investigating the disappearances can go on leading them back together without suspecting her while more attacks take place.
That setup brings about the other enjoyable aspect here in the somewhat intriguing series of attacks that get featured. As it’s established there’s no genuine mermaid here but rather a sea siren that offers up a lot of the same qualities without the expensive effects, there’s enough going on here involving the haunting siren calls ethereally launching out of the darkness bringing the men in the area into a trance despite other amorous attention at the time. Luring victims out to sea in that manner with the call allowing the companion to be attacked as well without interruption, that means the opening attack on the couple by the beach, the threesome that gets interrupted after visiting a local carnival, or the ambush in the flat all manage to feature some fun moments that play off quite well for what they are. Leading up to the finale on the beach involving the true nature of the sirens’ interest in him and the full reveal of their vindictiveness, attacking and devouring multiple people over the course of some frenetic and graphic encounters, it has a strong finishing note that ends this one on a nice point.
There were some problems with this one to hold it down. The main drawback here is the outright sluggish and non-interesting storyline that focuses on the romantic relationship here as while it makes a strong impression setting up the action within this, hardly anything of note happens. Relying on information dumps regarding the history of the sirens, what they want with him, and how they choose their intended targets, there’s long stretches where it’s not that interesting with the rest of the time focusing on the couple trying to rekindle their relationship investigating the disappearances or him spending time with the woman behind his girlfriend’s back. It sets up an intriguing enough storyline, but without a lot of action to help move it along, there are plenty of moments that are just draining to get through. When combined with the general low-budget feel and presentation, there are enough issues here to hold it down.
Overview: **.5/5
An overall intriguing if problematic indie effort, this one comes off well enough as a low-budget general adaptation, while the issues here might be more than enough to keep it down overall. Those with an interest in this style of indie fare or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there, especially creature feature fans, should heed caution.
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