Most human–beast hybrids are on the brutish side. Inherently masculine. Centaurs. Minotaurs. Werewolves.
But not mermaids. At least, not at first.
Mermaids are graceful, tempting. Long-haired and beautiful. Part woman, part animal. There’s something ethereal about that combination: here’s a truly untamed woman. She lives on her own terms, far closer to nature (and perhaps far hungrier) than you.
Am I wiggly with my definition of mermaids in this month’s list? Yes. But “spooky watery-woman-things” was a little long for a theme title. And more than that, I think “mermaids” in horror are more of a vibe than a strict category.
The mermaid is truly “other.” A mystery in a sleek and dangerous form: free but trapped, enticing but deadly.
In many older stories, the mermaid is a wild thing eager to yield. She can’t wait to give up nature for the cold walls of a castle. Horror today has way less patience for old social norms, though—and way more interest in self-determination. It was a relief in this month’s books to see mermaids much more likely to bite than walk on glass for the sake of wearing a pretty dress for a boy.
Books
I grabbed the audiobook of Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant back when I was moving house. It was pretty big, so I figured it’d last me a week. Friends, I tore through it in two days. It’s a total sci-fi/horror B-movie romp with a small splash of fantastic watery body horror.
The Deep and Chlorine were also excellent, both using mermaids as a vehicle to talk about otherness and trauma. And Lure by Tim McGregor was such a pleasant surprise! I expected cheesy splatter horror, based on the cover; instead, I got a carefully crafted Gothic folktale set in an isolated fishing village, all told from the perspective of a deliciously flawed narrator.
The Salt Grows Heavy left me conflicted.
On the one hand, what a stunning premise: Leaving her daughters to finish devouring a kingdom, a vicious mermaid mother allows a mysterious plague doctor to join her journey as she departs.
On the other hand, Khaw stumbles with character development. No specific emotional wound drives the mermaid, our protagonist; this story belongs much more to the plague doctor. I felt the same issue undermined this author’s other novella, Nothing But Blackened Teeth.
Still, it’s only a three-hour audiobook, and Khaw’s imagination here is vivid and chilling, on full display. Expect dense vocabulary but phenomenal imagery.
By way of my TBR list, I’ve got to get to Mira Grant’s Rolling in the Deep, the novella that eventually became Into the Drowning Deep. I’m also really intrigued by Things in Jars. I’ve been told it’s horror-adjacent: In Victorian London, a female sleuth dives into the macabre world of fanatical anatomists and crooked surgeons to investigate a kidnapping.
Art
“Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom” (1876) by Ilya Repin. In the Russian epic poem, the musician Sadko impresses the Sea Tsar enough with his performance that the Tsar insists Sadko choose one of his 300 daughters to marry. Taking the advice of a saint, Sadko holds off until the very last one. You can see the wounded pride in the rejected daughters at the front of the line.
“Mermaids” (~1879) by Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky. Slavic water nymphs, or rusalki, emerge from a forest stream, riding the mist and moonlight into the night sky.
“Mermaid in a Goldfish Pond” (~1920s) by Franz Hein.
Mermaid Mary Beth (@mermaidmarybeth on Insta and Facebook) made this stunning “glowing eel” tail. You’ve got to check her profiles out, where you can actually watch her swimming with it. Something about her being in a swimming pool makes it all the more surreal to me.
Film
Pet Shop of Horrors was originally a 1990s Japanese manga written and illustrated by Matsuri Akino. It’s elegant and darkly weird, focusing on the mysterious Count D, the owner of a strange “pet shop” in the heart of Chinatown. In the 20-minute animated episode “Delicious,” a grieving widower arrives to collect a rare fish his wife had allegedly ordered before her tragic death . . . only to find the “fish” is a mermaid who looks just like her, down to the engagement ring on her finger.
“The Lovers” is a dark fantasy about the budding tension between a seafood chef and a siren. Set in the Philippines, this short film demolished its Kickstarter campaign and should be complete soon, hopefully this year! The one-minute trailer alone is worth watching.
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