Erzulie – Killer Mermaid
Director: Christine Chen
Writer: Christine Chen, Camille Gladney (Screenplay)
Starring: Zoe Graham, Courtney Olivier, Leila Annastasia Scott, Jason Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Trieu, Diana Rose
Plot: A reunion between 4 friends quickly goes awry when they find themselves face to face with Erzulie the swamp mermaid goddess.
Runtime: 1 Hour 26 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Erzulie starts as the four friends Wendy (Olivier), Ari (Rose), Violet (Trieu) and Fay (Smalling) have a weekend get away to deal with their personal problems, with Wendy looking to make contact with the Erzulie, a mermaid goddess that will help them in their time of needs.
When the women find the mermaid stranded on shore, they will try to help her, as she grants them wishes for helping her, while showing a much darker side to her nature.
Thoughts on Erzulie
Characters & Performances – Wendy is the one of the friends who looked to summon the Erzulie, she wants this to help her deal with the problems that she has been through in life, her friends will let her have her own belief which is why she is allowed to go through with it. Ari has been dealing with an abusive relationship, one that she is struggling to escape from, with Violet and Fay offering to supporting their friends on this meet up. The four stars will show the distant friendship has caused problems over the years, while the bond that keeps them together feels strong. When it comes to the supporting cast, we fall into the typical small town American male characters who talk big, but will do anything for their family.
Story – Erzulie will bring us a group of friends that summon a mermaid goddess to deal with the male problems in their lives, unaware of the violent side the mermaid will bring as it searches for blood. This will look to dive into a folktale that surrounds a swamp, one with a mysterious disappearance in the past, while putting together the discussion about turning to your friends to solve problems without needing to turn to witchcraft, along with having an environmental discussion. Mixing everything together into the story, doesn’t come off as strong as the story could, with the supernatural side feeling like it is being held back a lot.
Themes – Erzulie is a horror thriller that will look to bring us a balance of a bloodthirsty mermaid and environmental problems, to tackle wrong doings the characters have been through, all while staying within the area of a swamp, where many different things could have gone wrong for the people there. The swamp is used to bring to life the folktale side of what might be in the swamp.
Final Thoughts – Erzulie does have plenty of mystery, but struggles with the environmental side of the problems.