Doug is a lonely, drug-addicted loser, estranged from his daughter, jobless after being fired from the local strip club where he looked after the massive fish tank, and on the brink of suicide in Florida. He sees a way to turn his life around when he rescues an injured mermaid, takes it home, tends to its injuries, and calls it Destiny. But others seek to exploit the creature for their own gain. Can the bizarre bond between Doug and Destiny save them both when it comes to the crunch? Will Doug sink or will he swim?
For such a seemingly simple plot, there’s a lot going on in Mermaid. For a start, Doug, wonderfully played by Johnny Pemberton, is far from the romantic hero and Destiny is like the creature from Xtro but with a fish tail. They are not your typical fantasy film leads. Writer-director Tyler Cornack isn’t looking for easy emotions here – Doug keeps Destiny as drugged up as he is, partly to stop her biting him and partly because that’s his normal, whilst Destiny is pretty repulsive, chucking up black bile everywhere to sometimes comic effect. And yet, subtle nods at deeper feelings and compassionate motives hint at something that results in an unexpectedly emotional climax.
There’s a refreshingly generous spirit in, for example, the support the husband of the mother of Doug’s child wants to offer, or the way Doug responds to Destiny’s maritime partner, who, understandably, wants her back in the briny blue. Robert Patrick is great as the drugged-up, drunk threat, menacing and funny with a real sense of pathos and danger, and Kevin Dunn is pitch-perfect in the film’s finale, as a rich man who thinks he can exploit anyone and anything.
The film looks gorgeous. Cinematographer Joel Lavold has done wonders in capturing sun-soaked Florida on land and sea, and there’s a fantastic score too. The special make-up effects are superb – Destiny is pretty convincing – and the result is a film that punches way above the weight of what must have been a pretty limited budget.
Much like Doug, who spends much of the film in a drugged haze, there are moments when you want the slow pace to pick up and get a move on, but once it does, it’s all the more impactful.
Whilst there are obvious comparisons to the more pompous and overblown The Shape of Water, the film Mermaid really resembles is Spring Breakers, which is no bad thing. On the basis of this effort, Tyler Cornack will hopefully be making quite a splash.
MERMAID will be released on digital platforms later in 2026.
