10 Creepy And Unique Mermaid Designs In Movies And TV

9. “Syrena” And Her Tribe - Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

While charmingly fragile and somehow romanticised, the Greek account of ancient mermaids have often described them as shapeshifting beings. From a young maiden with a shimmering fishtail into a monstrous water creature with rather vampiric features. Often titled “Sirens”, these mermaids were out to lure and drag human men right underneath the surface of the stormy ocean, just like in the good old stories predeceasing your favourite Disney mermaid.

A quite classic depiction of this kind of mermaid was shown in the fourth instalment of the POTC saga “On Stranger Tides”. While the first version of these mermaids was supposed to be closer to the Na’Vi from Avatar, with giant, anime style eyes, blue skin and incredibly large mouths, in which they hid rows of piranha teeth, the team lacked the time to finish the concept for all of the supermodels cast as mermaids. As the tribe swims through the ocean, the mermaids were supposed to have hair that turned into seaweed and surrounded them like a veil, giving them an almost ghostly or jellyfish like appearance. They were also supposed to cover the parts of their bodies that were — of course — too provocative for a Disney film.

The final look is still quite startling and appealingly grotesque with the overly long fishtails — something that is always creepy, especially in deep, dark, murky waters! The tribe around Syrena shows off her vampiric fangs and yellowish, predator eyes, features that bare a strong resemblance to the vampire designs of “The Lost Boys”, later adapted by Joss Whedon for his tv spin-of of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. The original concept art, however, is slightly different from the final design:

Long hair the colour of the sea and pearly skin covered in scales, with clawed tentacles, fangs, and barnacles and boils covering their scales. With that ghostlike appearance they seem not only more delicate and oddly spherical, with obvious attributes of a jellyfish. Once their bodies and algae hair begins to glow fiercely, poor seamen were long entangled in their soothing song, dragged out of their boat and under the surface of the deep waters, pulled without effort by the mermaids superhuman strength.

Then, the usual issues of post production struck. Being close to opening night director Rob Marshall decided that audiences might have trouble accepting Sam Claflin’s young missionary’s attraction to the mermaid Syrena if she was too inhuman looking from an ordinary woman. But if Syrena appeared more human, then the other mermaids had to match her style. So the team decided to scale back the creepy weirdness of the mermaids in order to accommodate a more human romance. Quite a shame really, but if you watch one particular scene closely you will discover one of the original, stunningly eerie mermaid designs: “washed ashore” after the nautic tackle of pirates versus mermaids, a lifeless sea maiden is discovered by Ian McShane’s Blackbeard.

In one very brief moment he triumphantly pushes it disrespectfully with the tip of his heavy boot. Funny that one of these silicone props should be found later on a beach (while locations vary, it was most likely in Los Angeles, California, as it is where the monster maker realms of Industrial Light & Magic are located). Half hurried in the sand and entangled in sea weed this life-sized and super realistic mermaid design did indeed cause some excitement amongst beach goers and mermaid enthusiasts to say the least. Shame they were only placed by the special effects team for a little bit of cheeky time.