The strangest take on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” ever filmed, The Lure is a musical-horror-fantasy-romantic tragedy from Poland about mermaid sisters who have a taste for human flesh. Like the Sirens in Homer's The Odyssey, these feral creatures lure male victims with their song, and devour them with razor-sharp teeth. And then these aquatic vampire sisters take a detour to experience life on land as backup singers in a flashy disco nightclub act during which they hypnotize with their voices, strip, and then leap into a tank to expose their tails (which are slick and slimy like an eel) for the finale. While one sister maintains her predatory instincts, the other falls in love with a human and—as in the fairy tale—gives up her fins and voice for legs. Filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska brings a feminist perspective to the story, observing how the women lose their power in a man's world on land and are exploited, and it also tosses in social satire (including a splashy musical number in a department store celebrating the joys of consumerism) and a visual style that bounces from glitzy showbiz set pieces to horror movie imagery to the drab world of life in modern Poland. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
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