Two mermaid sisters get a job at a cabaret, and while one seeks people’s love, the other wants to devour them.
Unique approach towards an unexpected genre. The Lure is a gory and brutal musical that mesmerises. When it came out, it shocked certain audiences, as very few could have envisaged a horror/musical of that sort. Interestingly, the same year, I got the same feeling from Bone Tomahawk (2015), a horror/western that shocked fans of both genres as, again, who would have thought this “marriage” could work? But is The Lure as effective?
I have a feeling that horror fans will not be particularly thrilled. On the other hand, I’m not sure musical fans will give it a go either. Needless to say, Hans Christian Andersen’s fans will sit this one out, too. Who is it for, then? My guess is for cinephiles, lovers of the different, the daring, and the unconventional. The Lure is for those who delve into the mise-en-scene as much as they delve into montage, but also combinations of narrative techniques. Having said that, a musical is comprised of only two major elements: dancing and singing. And I found neither compelling enough.
So, while the story’s originality and dare win points, both fall significantly short. My question is, then, why make it a musical in the first place? For the sake of different? Director Agnieszka Smoszynska has used plenty of nudity and gore, but I didn’t find her lens as daring (as intended?). My favourite sequence was after the domestic, where everyone falls into limbo. Overall, though, I failed to engage with Silver’s and Golden’s predicament.
To conclude on a semi-positive note, though, everyone’s acting is solid even though they could have achieved much more if the singing and dancing had a more pivotal role and more effort had been put into the choreography.
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