The Lure (2015)

Movie Info

Your typical Polish stripper mermaid musical horror movie…

The band Figs n’ Dates has just found a new group to join their act at a Polish strip club.  The Lure made up of Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Golden (Michalina Olszańska) aren’t like other girls…in fact they aren’t girls at all.  Silver and Golden are mermaids and the hottest thing at the club.  When Silver falls in love with Mietek (Jakob Gierszal) of the band, Golden realizes that her life could be in danger if she turns away from the sea forever.

Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, The Lure (Córki dancingu aka Daughters of Dancing) is a Polish horror-musical.  The film premiered in Poland in December of 2015 and was released at Sundance the following January.  The Criterion Collection released a version of the film (Criterion #896).

I heard about The Lure a while ago and didn’t know what to make of it.  It could either be really cutting edge or it could be really bad.  Watching the movie, it falls somewhere in between.

It is hard to pick the body parts from my teeth

Part of the fun of The Lure is telling the plot to people.  Mermaids, strippers, ’80s, Poland, and musical don’t generally go together.  Much of the film’s plot is a riff on the Hans Christian Anderson 1837 fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” (which of course was famously cleaned up by Disney), and it takes a very different approach to the story to make it a modern film about innocence, sexuality, and control.  It doesn’t always work, but it is relatively short and an interesting path.

The film hinges on the allure of both Marta Mazurek and Michalina Olszańska.  Both actresses do a good job with Michalina being the cautious and untrusting mermaid while Marta is the open and easily wooed mermaid.  With Golden and Silver as the focus of the story, the supporting characters feel like supporting characters.  There isn’t much focus on them or their motivation, but it also gives the impression that you are hearing the story from the point of view of the girls (in particular Golden).  That adds to the fairy tale aspect of the story…and everyone in the cast seems to get into the groove of the idea.

Mermaids aren’t fans of clothes

The movie is a great visual film.  I have always thought mermaids were creepy and if you give them either vertical tails or snakelike tails (as in the film), they quickly transform from “pretty” to downright horrific.  This visual is combined with very dream-like musical numbers and extremely overt sexuality…it gives it an older, more dangerous fairytale feel like the original tales before people cleaned them up for children.

The Lure is an extremely different movie.  It is unique and definitely not for everyone. To enjoy the film, you have to go with the high concept of the story (aka no one seems too shocked that there are mermaids) and enjoy the ride as more of a parable of love and loss.  I can’t recommend The Lure for this reason, but I do think it is worth seeking out for fans of film and world cinema.