" Mermaid Down" A wonderful indie film that needs to be made

[Odette]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mermaid-down-an-original-film-about-a-mermaid-thrown-into-a-mental-home

as quoted from the site:
From an award-winning script, "Mermaid Down" is a terrifying and inspiring feature length, independent film.

"based on an Award-Winning Script, about a MERMAID ripped from the Pacific whose tail is brutally hacked off with a fisherman's AXE before she's thrown into a MENTAL HOME for Disturbed Women (where no one believes … she's a mermaid)."

This is a beautiful piece that is both unique and meaningful. It's nothing like the typical stories we keep putting together with helping a mermaid find her true love and all that same old music. It's going to make you cringe in your seat and also give you a new kind of perspective.
Another cool thing that I am pretty sure many of you would like to try is auditioning for the role of mermaid.
as it says on the indiegogo site:
23723
The mermaid character is a metaphor for our oceans and what we are doing to them and the abused woman. Abuse happens to women every day and happens to a lot of us. from early ages of life that many endured, to the later times when you feel stuck with someone who hurts you, it is very common and i think that part of this story was an amazing idea. It looks really cool.

All the awards for donating to this are really cool. One also includes OWNING a tail from the set or being in the credits. If you have any money you can give to this project, its well worth it!

[Mermaid Isabel]

this is really interesting! I'm so into it :)

[PearlieMae]

I'm so not into seeing another female mutilation film. I think this is discussed in another thread somewhere.

[Mermaid Laurell]

Idk. It might be a bit too gory for me but I think it's important.

[Echidna]

I'm so not into seeing another female mutilation film. I think this is discussed in another thread somewhere.

http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?8956-Mermaids-amp-Mythology-Magazine-feature-on-Mermaid-Down-film!!!

they made an account and keep making new threads about this sorry excuse for a movie.
If you read the comments and/or watch the trailer, you'll see there is nothing "wonderful" about it.

Unless you have a fetish for sawing women in half and blood and meat everywhere, you're better off to not watch this.

[Mermaid Isabel]

omg I just read the official indiegogo page and I expected something else….maybe more like a fairytale, not like a creepy movie about insanity :/ I'm pretty much done with horror movies…
furthermore from what Caltuna said, I guess it's going to be as creepy as "the human centipede", although it's going to be difficult to reach that level…

[AniaR]

I watched the footage a few weeks ago one of my friends who lives near these people sent it to me and I found it pretty disturbing and odd. I felt like it exploited mental illness too :(

[Echidna]

I just don't get what exactly is the purpose of this film?

Do you want to raise awareness how brutal, cruel, and pointless whaling, dolphin-killing, and fishing is?
There are better ways to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaYCDoNdEnk

Support SeaSheperd, if you want our oceans to have any life left in them in a couple years.

The Earth is driven steadily to a point of collapse.
Look at this picture, it shows just how many wild land animals are left (in comparison with overboarding humans & cattle)
23727

Stop wasting time with sick, pointless crap.
Wake up.

[Mermaid Laurell]

Okay, I see your point. I didn't see the trailer. I just read about it, so I suppose I don't know as much about it as I could. And I thought it might be a good way to raise awareness for what we're doing to our oceans, but you're right, there are other ways to do that that are much more uplifting and a lot less demeaning.

[Odette]

I had no trouble understanding it.
Exploiting mental illness? Well, the reason that they had her in a mental hospital is to show the mermaid (metaphor for abuse and the ocean) was to portray how some issues of those kinds are ignored or even put aside just like putting a person in there that doesn't belong is a way of putting them aside. I am not ok with exploiting mental illness as i have dealt with all sorts of those problems, but that's not what they were going for.

I do agree that that turn in the story was a bit confusing because if you find a mermaid, wouldn't you want to dissect it for science or sell her for money? The writer was trying to get a point across. It's not all about the mermaid. It's deeper than that.

I totally understand not wanting to see the mutilation thing. It's just the fin, but yeah, it's gross.

With indie films, you have to think past the story line to understand them. Most people don't want to think so much during a film they want it laid out for them and that's why these films are not so popular as they seem confusing (and sometimes they are. You can easily get two different meanings from some films).

[SeaSister]

I just don't get what exactly is the purpose of this film?

Do you want to raise awareness how brutal, cruel, and pointless whaling, dolphin-killing, and fishing is?
There are better ways to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaYCDoNdEnk

Support SeaSheperd, if you want our oceans to have any life left in them in a couple years.

The Earth is driven steadily to a point of collapse.
Look at this picture, it shows just how many wild land animals are left (in comparison with overboarding humans & cattle)
23727

Stop wasting time with sick, pointless crap.
Wake up.

Caltuna, that video reminds me a lot of a book I once read a while ago called "The Last Whales". It's a book that examines a future where whaling has driven the majestic creatures to near-extinction and dolphins are used as tools of war. Unlike most fictional animal books, which are usually directed towards children and involve cutesy talking animals, this book is really written as though from the view of a few select ocean denizens, communicating without words and showing cetaceans as the intelligent and emotional creatures they really are. It was a great read for me, although many people have reviewed it saying that it's "too boring" or "too slow". The important thing to remember for this book is, I think, that it's meant less as a "traditional story" and more a peephole into the minds of various cetacean characters as they struggle to navigate a world ravaged by humans.

Anyways, in regards to the trailer I have mixed feelings. I can sort of understand where Odette is coming from. From what I could see, I doubt that it's meant to trivialize mental illness in any way - the opposite, in fact. However, I don't see how it's meant to promote a "saving the oceans" slogan. I believe that in order to make people strive to change their behaviour, they have to first own their behaviour. In this trailer, I see a "big old evil fisherman" that no one would be able to identify with. There's too much of a disconnect; since it's an obviously fictional horror flick about a mythical creature, viewers are less likely to view it as an immediate problem or make the connection that the mermaid is supposed to symbolize the cetaceans that are similarly torn from their homes. So, that said, I think there are far more effective ways to drive across the "save the oceans" slogan, such as through documentaries presenting REAL issues in a very straight-forward manner, than using gory horror films.

Also, I myself am not a fan of horror/gory films to begin with, so I wouldn't be interested in watching this film anyways. The clips shown were about as much as I could handle.

[Anahita]

I kind of get the feeling that if you have to EXPLAIN your symbolism, you're not actually really making the movie for the symbolism.

That intricate explanation of the symbolism, the feeling that they need to make such a point of it, plus the fact that there was a person who made an account specifically so they could spread it all over Mernetwork makes me think they were making a gore-horror flick first and then realized they could try and exploit another angle of it to get a wider audience brought into it.

That's been my personal experience with filmmakers and projects like that. This really feels the same to me....

[AniaR]

Agree

[Mermaid Isabel]

I kind of get the feeling that if you have to EXPLAIN your symbolism, you're not actually really making the movie for the symbolism.

That intricate explanation of the symbolism, the feeling that they need to make such a point of it, plus the fact that there was a person who made an account specifically so they could spread it all over Mernetwork makes me think they were making a gore-horror flick first and then realized they could try and exploit another angle of it to get a wider audience brought into it.That's been my personal experience with filmmakers and projects like that. This really feels the same to me....
omg you got the point!!!!
brilliant! :D :clap:

[Starfrit]

Anahita, Caltuna and SeaSister have all pretty much nailed my thoughts on the film. There is absolutely nothing I can see here about it being any kind of artistic statement regarding the ocean and treatment of cetaceans; from what I've seen so far it's been promoting itself almost solely as a horror film that just-so-happens to have a mermaid in it. I honestly got really uncomfortable looking at a lot of the movie clips they showed in the IndieGoGo pitch. All I saw was a woman being butchered and abused by Big Evil Fishermen stereotypes, then thrown in a mental hospital, treated as mentally ill and further abused there by Big Evil Male Asylum Staff stereotypes. And then she... What, snaps and kills people? Gets revenge before making it back to the ocean?

Look, I'm cool with horror movies, though I don't watch them that often. But I'm tired of movies like this getting branded as "groundbreaking" and "original" when its whole premise is "gorefest featuring young, conventionally attractive female who is abused by caricature-esque evil man." It's not groundbreaking, it's exploitative and gross.

(::edit:: Also, kind of side-eyeing the "Don't try to domesticate this animal" tagline. Along with the exploitative gorefest-victimized-woman trope, the whole concept of any woman character being addressed or treated as an "animal" rubs me the wrong way.)

I don't see how it does anything to promote environmental awareness of any kind. I'm not seeing any obvious, intended symbolism regarding that. I think it could be an interesting premise, but as a deep, artistic statement about the oceans, fishing, abuse of cetaceans... Nope. It's not there.

Assuming the film does get made, I'll likely check it out just so I can form a better opinion of it, but so far... Really not impressed.

[Kishiko]

I don't reLly think it's about sybolism OR being an excuse to pretend to abuse a woman. How about a director just wanting to make a good horror film? Now, I probably wouldn't watch it just because I'm not really into horror movies, but I really don't think they're trying to turn it into a mutilation thing. And as for the "don't try to domesticate this animal", again I don't think they're referring to the woman specifically. In this story, mermaids are portrayed as subhuman and very animal-like. More animal THAN human of you wil. Not a happy go lucky singing on rocks lady with a fish tail as they already covered.

[Starfrit]

Don't get me wrong, I do think the director and everyone involved with the project really have their hearts set on making a good, unique horror film— which is why I'm willing to give it a chance despite my issues with what's been shown. Mostly I'm just really bothered by this recent trend in movies and gaming where story writers rely on violence against women to gain a reaction from people and a lot of the seedy objectification and sexualization that comes with it. Granted, I just have personal issues with the subject of violence against women in general, so I tend to have a harder time looking past that sort of thing anyway. Take from that what you will.

That and like Anahita mentioned, they seemed to promote it almost purely as a gore/horror flick until they realized there was a mermaid community they could try to pander to by throwing in this environmental statement thing as kind of an afterthought— I wouldn't have an issue with them promoting the film as it is, but if you start trying to sell people on messages and symbolism that isn't really there, that's what I'm kind of unimpressed about.

Granted, my opinion of it comes solely from watching what few clips they show throughout the IndieGoGo pitch which to me feels like the same mindless brutilization of women with a different coat of paint whether the producers intended it or not. Maybe the full film itself will actually prove me wrong— I kind of hope that's the case when I go see it, because like I said in my previous post, it IS an interesting premise and I'd like to see how it plays out and get a more informed opinion of it.

[Prince Calypso]

I really think everyone is reading too much into it. its just a unique horror film and i wouldn't mind seeing.
as for the "do not try to domesticate this animal" tagline, i really dont think its meant to say women are animals just that the mermaid herself is an animal. wild and untamable.
i think people are really just finding things to nitpick about in the movie

[AniaR]

I saw all of what they've made so far I think people should watch most people here are right on the ball.

[Mermaid Momo]

I couldn't really get into the reel because I kept thinking of plot holes in it lol (like how if they cut her tail off and threw her down into the ship without medical attention of any kind she would bleed out. Or how she grew legs....when there was nothing to grow legs from *cough* you sort of chopped off her leg portion in the beginning *cough* or how she would have probably passed out from shock after being chopped up with an axe.) But then again, this is assuming their mermaid is like humans and other animals.

[Sherielle]

Technically, if a mermaid's tail was to follow fish biology, the caudal fins are the legs and the tail is just that....a tail. I'm a sort of stickler for biological details and mythology. It's like when people show or write about werewolf transformations and say that the knees suddenly bend backwards. Canines have knees. The 'bent backward' part you see would actually be their ankle.

[AptaMer]

This film seems to be in post-production now.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3584496/

We'll see whether it makes it onto the film festival circuit, or goes straight to DVD/streaming.

It sounds pretty gross, though, even for a horror film.