10 Creepy And Unique Mermaid Designs In Movies And TV
8. “Scylla” - Nymph / Killer Mermaid
It’s your average teenage pants party on a tropical touristy beach — the favourite opening of most teen horror-holiday flicks. A carefree Mediterranean vacation turns into a fight for survival when two women discover a deadly mermaid’s lair beneath an abandoned military fortress. This Serbian indie flick was originally titled “Nymph” in other countries outside the U.S., which gives the movie the mysterious and rather exotic flair that fits the overall tone much better than its official title “Killer Mermaid”.
“Nymph” is not just your average mermaid tossed into the horror pond. It has actual character development and an interesting and fun story, which puts you on the edge of your seat until the mermaid finally shares the screen with the spring breaking YA’s. This movie also benefits from the resurfacing of an old Hollywood legend you might know from the original 1966 spaghetti western “Django”: the fabulous and rough around the edges Franco Nero himself. Another is the aforementioned creepy mermaid. We encounter mermaid Scylla first in a well-like construction inside a military bunker on a remote island.
Slowly making an at first unseen entrance in the background, her honeyblonde hair covers most of her upper body, spiky fins run along her lower arms and end in thickly webbed fingers. With long gills cut along her ribs and a strong fishtail, the entire concept of this unique mermaid has a rather meaty look to it, far from the shimmering flukes we know from her watery sisters. The entire creature is nude-coloured, which gives her an uncomfortable vibe overall, and it only gets worse once she shows her true self: her dolphin-esque fins transform to a pair resembling a sting ray or a sharks, her skin becomes more ashen, and her mouth broadens into a grotesque beak like snout, a harsh sight given her non-existent nose and crooked sharp teeth
While the special effects and style of the predatory mermaid are not too bad for a SyFy- production and quite decent, the general mermaid design would have benefitted from an all practical make-over rather than digital. Especially since this design is not too complex and thrives of its raw and somehow unfinished assuming style, which is not a bad thing at all. This daughter of Nereus switches smoothly from oddly seductive to terrifying, from day- dream to nightmare, perfectly capable of luring and hunting in the somehow schizophrenic manner we all know from legend and lore. Just like the She-Creature on top of this list, Scylla shape shifts from maiden to monstrum without effort as it would determine her survival in the deep dark.
But then, what else to expect from a mermaid poetically named after the nymph turned leviathan from the ancient Greek myth? “Nymph” sure is it’s own beast and you absolutely get what’s on the tag.