MAY #1: The Lure

              Happy May Day! I hope you and yours celebrated with a solemn procession to the beach to set a cop on fire. Me, I celebrated by listening to The Wicker Man soundtrack and watching a different horror musical featuring nudity – The Lure!

              Going into this one, I expected a spooky-singy confection light as seafoam, sparse on plot and heavy on style and nonsense. That’s not a complaint; I love those kinds of films, though I know many audiences see atmosphere and think emptiness, or are impatient with pretty-for-pretty’s sake. And while this movie does go off on plenty of musical tangents, especially in the frothier first half, there’s way more here than I expected.

              As much a coming-of-age flick as a monster movie, the film follows two young siren/mermaid-types, Golden and Silver. On route to America, they decide to stop over in Poland and end up joining a nightclub band, where their mermaid tails are a big hit with the patrons. Everyone seems pretty blasé about the existence of mermaids, even as they’re naïve about the dangers these pretty young things can present.

Usually a bad sign, guys

              Silver is wide-eyed and romantic, radiating a genuine innocence and enthusiasm for the human world even when she flashes her nasty teeth. Golden, her more sinister sister, holds her head at a Wednesday Addams angle and exudes the menace of a Crucible-era Winona Ryder. (Editor’s note: Quoth my girlfriend – it’s us! No wonder I identified so hard with Golden). Silver wastes no time falling for Mietek, the band’s shaggy-haired no-good bassist. Golden would rather eat boys than kiss them and ends up hanging out with a punk band featuring other sea people, amongst other side quests.

              The girls start out as a closely coordinated pair, two halves of a whole, but conflict emerges as Silver looks for love and Golden looks for her next meal. The film takes a third act turn into heartbreak and loss that’s way more effecting than your average horror movie. The balance between stylistic flourishes and emotional core is unusually strong, thanks to two compelling lead performances and a storyline that brings its surrealism to the service of character rather than sacrificing plot for prettiness. Everything in this film feels full of love and care, from the animated opening credits sequence to each artfully arranged shot

              Musicals can seem self-indulgent, but I couldn’t imagine this film as anything but. Singing is part of the sirens’ power and Silver's voice turns out to be a major plot point, so the hypnotic, psychedelic musical numbers are an appropriately on theme. Most of the musical numbers serve a purpose – setting the vibe of the club, displaying the girls’ enthusiasm for city life, letting us inside Golden’s hungry head or Silver’s yearning heart. Occasionally they’re just for fun, but I like fun. I worried that this one would be little more than a series of music videos – I shouldn’t’ve feared. The Lure is open to so many possible readings. It is simultaneously about female adolescence, sexual awakening, sex trafficking, queerness, heartbreak, and loss. I had high expectations going into this film, and it was more than I dreamed. May all my May picks be so rewarding.

Vibecheck: Sexy, decadent, glittery, sexy, and oh yeah, bitey.

Scare Factor: More fun, atmospheric, and emotional than out-and-out scary, but there are still plenty of blood splatters, ripped-out hearts, and gristle, plus one slice of bonesaw gore that made even me wince.

Pairs Well With: See, on the one hand, this is the only weirdo glitterpunk killer-mermaid musical I know of, and perhaps the only one that will ever exist. But it still reminded me of many things! The Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, part of the same contemporary wave of international feminist prestige horror, is also a moody, stylish meditation on monstrous women that hits complementary notes. In terms of aesthetic, chic and colorful French slasher Knife + Heart is similarly stylish and sexy. The Lighthouse would make for a fun mermaid-themed double feature, and there’s even singing, albeit of the drunken variety. For a non-horror pic, I couldn’t help but think of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which also uses its musical numbers to invoke surrealist landscapes and character interiority, while it’s more thrift-shop-punk to this movie’s glam and gloss.

But how gay is it? Golden shares a kooky night of passion with an older lady cop (at least, she says she’s a cop?) Meanwhile, Golden and Silver’s relationship could be read as literal sisters or an erotically charged friendship. So, quite gay, is what I’m saying.

Girlfriend’s Corner: Sara described the plot of this movie to me, and it seemed like it might be a trans allegory, maybe? That would be neat. Anyway, when I was a five-year-old girl I was terrified of The Little Mermaid – I hid behind the couch because I was so scared of watching it. I do not think I would have enjoyed watching this movie, in which the mermaids are not little but, instead, are normal sized. (Editor’s note: Girlfriend became very emotional at the thought of The Little Mermaid, because it contains the word little, and she is very attached to little things)