Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
What would you do if you discovered a mermaid trapped in a net by the sea?
Directed and written by Jared Watson, ‘The Fisherman’s Wife’ is an offbeat horror short film about a fisherman and his uncanny encounter with a mermaid. What happens next, is completely unexpected.
Only about eight minutes long, the film opens on a dreary note, set in a dusty, yellowed seaside town where a lonely fisherman (T. Ryder Smith) examines his catch for the day. But as he walks along the shore, he stumbles upon a beautiful mermaid, gasping for breath. He does what most men might do – he takes her home.
Even before anything happens, just seeing the two of them together, a helpless female creature and a seemingly asocial man, was scary enough as a female viewer. The scenario is tense, and you know there are so many ways things could go wrong. So with that dark, depressing start, I wasn’t expecting to laugh out loud at the end. There are only three lines of dialogue in the film, but the last line is ridiculously hilarious, even though it’s delivered in a deadpan, matter-of-fact, “I really mean it” tone. The climax is morbidly dark and comedic. You’ll just not see the twist coming.
Basically, ‘The Fisherman’s Wife’ is a weird little horror film, with lots of symbolic meanings (if you really must draw some deeper messages), but with the kind of ending that could really divide viewers. If you end up laughing at the climax too, you’ll probably look upon it favorably. It’s less than ten minutes long, it’s available on YouTube (at least at the time of writing this review), so maybe check it out.
Rating: 3 on 5.
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