I’ve walked into multiple films blind before; blind as in I haven’t seen an ounce of promotion or trailer about it, maybe just a quick synopsis or central tone of the film. As a film fan, it’s liberating to not be tied down to knowing specific shots or scenes and just watching the film as a piece of art displayed for the first time in front of you. Never has walking into a film completely blind work as well as it did with The Lure, a strange Polish film by Agnieszka Smoczynska that I had little to no knowledge about except that it was a horror musical with mermaids. Just reading that line sold me to watch this one, and it paid off so well. Set in 1980s Poland, The Lure tells the fairy tale-like story of two mermaid sisters that wash up on the shore of Poland in front of a rock band just taking some R&R. After agreeing to come back with them to the club they play at, the mermaid sisters, who are now named Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Gold (Michalina Olszańska), become a huge break-out hit for the club’s patrons. As they progressively become better friends with the club band and managers, both sisters evidently fall in love with the bass player of the band, Mietek (Jakub Gierszal). While pursuing Mietek, both sisters discover more about how they truly feel, as Silver wants to become more human and Gold starts to become obsessed with the taste of human flesh.
If you’re reading my description or any kind of summary of The Lure and think that it sounds absolutely insane, well, then, you’d be right. If you read or write the plot, you’d be shocked at how simply the movie plays out. The biggest positive I have for The Lure is how easily they can take a story like this and make it work. A story this crazy can go off the rails really quickly (check out The Autopsy Of Jane Doe if you want to see what I mean) but The Lure leads the film with characters and acting that makes the film a lot more conventional than you’d think. This movie is about the characters and what they go through, and The Lure tells these stories with as much humanity and inhumanity as it can afford. With the dark grittiness of the Polish night life, the film is a mixture of beautiful and horrific shots that add a creepy atmosphere to the film, adding a new layer of mythology to this film. That’s not to say the film isn’t surreal; there are PLENTY of surreal moments and scenes that interject a lot of the story. With every great emotional scene, you have a random shot that doesn’t seem to connect anything or a song that just adds an element of surrealism to the film that may have been absent.
Speaking of a song, one of the craziest aspects of The Lure is that it’s a musical, and do they use it to the films advantages! Honestly, my favorite moments were the songs; they were equally heartbreaking and entertaining, with the songs telling a progression in our characters, from the highs and lows. Mixing the poetically depressing lyrics with AWESOME music to back up these songs is the real success for The Lure. Some musicals fall into a trap where the songs all kind of have a similar sound to them, but not The Lure. Instead, The Lure decides to attempts to write different song styles for each song. Here you have industrial metal, punk, show tunes, bubblegum pop and songs that sound like something Sigur Ros could have put out, to just name a few. The alternating sounds and song lyrics really make The Lure a fresh film experience, and while some of the songs may miss the mark, I fully appreciate the originality of it all, something that most films and musicals can’t say about themselves.
Even with the beauty and quirkiness of The Lure, there are plenty of horror elements to keep fans of the genre happy. Not only do you have a couple of great monster effects (the mermaid tails look convincingly great), but the gore effects are top notch here. Ripping throats and tearing limbs, the blood effects are incredible. The Lure is really worth watching as a horror fan, even if you don’t like musicals, and that’s really where it succeeds. The Lure never seems to have a problem with these genres getting in the way of each other. You want full a full on monster film? Graphically violent body horror? A surrealist 80’s inspired musical? A coming of age film? They’re all here, and they all work perfectly. The way director Agnieszka Smoczynska blends these elements is unreal, and I really can’t wait to see what this new director comes out with after this fantastic debut. i loved the hell out of The Lure , and I really wish this technically came out this year, because it could have easily been in my top 10.
The Lure
2015
dir. Agnieszka Smoczynska
92 min
Screens through 3/16 @ Brattle – click here for showtimes and ticket info
