Savant Short Review: She Creature She Creature Columbia TriStar 2001 / Color / 1:78 anamorphic enhanced / 91 min. / Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature Starring Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino, Jim Piddock, Reno Wilson, Mark Aiken, Fintan McKeown, Aubrey Morris, Gil Bellows, Rya Kihlstedt, Hannah Sim Cinematography Tom Callaway Production Designer Jerry Fleming Art Direction Peter Borck Film Editor Daniel Cahn Original Music David Reynolds Written by and Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Lou Arkoff, Colleen Camp, Buddy Epstein, Robyn Rosenfeld, Stan Winston Written and Directed by Sebastian Gutierrez
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson As part of the Creature Feature line of remakes of early AIP exploitation hits, She Creature can sport a dandy (and sexy) Stan Winston mermaid, with a couple of extra monsters thrown in for good measure. The acting is fine, and the photography rich and evocative, but neither the script nor the direction of this monster potboiler are exciting enough to avoid boredom. Synopsis: An Irish carnival promoter named Angus (Rufus Sewell) and his girlfriend/fake mermaid Lillian (Carla Gugino) visit a sea captain (Aubrey Morris) who keeps a real Mermaid, a dangerous murderess (Rya Kihlstedt), in a fishtank. Angus steals the exhibit and heads out for fame and fortune on an America-bound sailing ship. But as the murders stack up, Lillian begins to believe she's experiencing an unwelcome telepathy with the mysterious creature, whose personal plans don't include captivity in a circus. Touted as the best of its batch of cable TV Creature Features, She Creature has some good qualities, but ends up being less entertaining than its 1956 namesake, The She Creature. It was a ludicrous but charming tale of a hypnotized damsel, Marla English, and her prehistoric alter-ego summoned from the depths of the sea by crazed mentalist. What this soggy saga most resembles is the interesting but flawed Night Tide, with Dennis Hopper. That film was a Val Lewton-ish attempt to conjure up a possible mermaid ... this is a straight monster story. A promising opening introduces the convincing mermaid monster very impressively, upright in its tank, with its giant tail lazily spread across the glass. Veteran Aubrey Morris (A Clockwork Orange, The Wicker Man, Lifeforce) gives the mermaid mystery and credibility with his acting skill. But the carnies who steal it are less interesting, and although they're acted by the charming Carla Gugino (Spy Kids) and Rufus Sewell (Dark City), we care little about what happens to them. First off, they're thieves, but their compulsion is just the usual ambition to escape the working world and become somebodies. They're presented as such nice folks, even though both make bland confessions of unsavory backgrounds. When the murders start is when things get murky both in and outside of the sexy topless mermaid's fishtank. Most of the monster attacks aren't directly shown, except as hokey killer POV's. Who knows about the mermaid at any given time, and their attitudes toward it, are poorly delineated. The captain goes from outrage to acceptance to suicidal delirium with a total lack of motivation. The crew are gentlemen one minute, and unruly gang rapists the next. Since the mermaid has the ability to cloud men's minds, we're supposed to accept the inconsistent events, but as we never are given enough info to understand what 'rules' the mermaid monster follows, we can't enjoy or appreciate the plot. The 'unseen' killings are simply incoherent. It's as if we are watching Dracula's voyage to civilization, but don't know what vampires are, or why the rats are acting strangely. Fussy editorial gimmicks don't help matters. The continuity can fragment into attractive but meaningless mermaid pin-up art montages without warning. Too much action is kept offscreen, while we see too much double-exposed 'mentally warped' visuals that simply don't mean anything. When the mermaid runs amok for the finale as a traditional monster, there's neither suspense, nor surprise. There's a lot of talk about a race of mermaids in the Sargasso Sea (shades of Hammer's The Lost Continent, and just as much of a snooze) and an ending leaving an opening for more episodes of The Mermaid Chronicles, but we've since sunk without a trace. Columbia TriStar's DVD of She Creature is a fine 16:9 transfer that registers Tom Callaway's handsome photography well. The sound is also okay, although the score is unmemorable and there's not much of a wooden sailing ship feel to the soundscape. The volume of the feature track is very low, especially when compared to the bubbly menu audio. A cable-tv featurette is included to remind us that Stan Winston is both producer and head of the monster makers. The director appears here and seems very, very young. Stan Winston keeps the commentary track for himself and his effects supervisor Shane Mahan. Three-quarters of the crew list are various mermaid effects people. They did a fine job on a monster fit for a much more exciting vehicle than this; Ann Blyth has nothing to worry about. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, She Creature rates: Movie: Fair Video: Excellent Sound: Good Supplements: Commentary, Featurette, photo gallery Packaging: Amaray case Reviewed: March 19, 2002 [Savant Main Page][Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Go BACK to the Savant Main Page. Return to Top of Page