Nymph (2014)
Gareth Jones
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Starring Kristina Klebe, Franco Nero, Natalie Burn
Directed by Milan Todorovic
American friends Kelly (Klebe) and Lucy (Burn) head off on holiday to Montenegro to catch up with an old college buddy in Milan Todorvic’s creature feature Nymph. While there, the pair hook up with their bud, his girlfriend and another pal by the name of Boban and head to the nearby abandoned island fortress of Mamula.
While there, the group find themselves stalked by a murderous fisherman armed with a small boat anchor – oh, and there’s a nymph living in a well in the centre of the fortress, too!
I’m just going to make this quick, as the time has already been wasted on watching this: Nymph (also known as Killer Mermaids) is awful. Taking far too long with a bunch of poorly developed and badly acted protagonists, what is supposed to be a film about, yes, a killer mermaid ends up spending most of its time in slasher territory, having the group run away (or cower and cry in front of) a rugged fisherman whose main choice of weapon and general lack of physical intimidation make him look like a villain who could have easily been taken down ten minutes from initial contact by a concerted group effort. Instead, the men would rather flail about while the women lie on the floor just feet away and scream instead of doing anything. Well done, all. This isn’t helped one bit by ridiculously shoddy editing that almost completely obliterates any sense of space or character position during most of the action scenes inside the fortress.
By the time the mermaid bares her teeth, the film is already beyond saving; and despite a rather excellent design for the titular character when she’s in her more human form, her oft-revealed true appearance is rubbery and cumbersome looking. The idea behind the mermaid and her male-enslaving siren’s song is a good one but rarely utilised to best effect; it’s all just too haphazard, poorly presented and, ultimately, boring to be anything close to worthwhile.
Italian legend Franco Nero shows up in a small role as Niko, another fisherman who knows exactly what’s going on around the fortress, whereby he’s given little to do but show up the acting efforts of his cohorts – lending a gravitas to what is asked of him that is far beyond what the material truly deserves. The last ten minutes or so give a little bit of excitement and genuine monster action, but it’s just one tiny part of a great big mess that even has the audacity to tease at an Aliens style sequel. Yeah, no thanks.
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