Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

Don't trust the water (any of it).

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 12, 2019

Western cinema has held a fascination with mermaids since at least 1948 when films such as Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (co-scripted by Nunnally Johnson and starring William Powell), Miranda, and even Tarzan and the Mermaids were released to the masses. Ron Howard's Splash (1984), starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, is likely the most popular live-action movie featuring a mermaid. The mermaid in Eastern cinema is something of a neophyte. Moscow native Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy's fifth feature carries the misleading title of The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead (Rusalka: Ozero myortvykh). The titular figure isn't really a mermaid since it doesn't have a tail or any fins. It's more like a shape-shifting water nymph or a succubus. The film's plot derives from a Slavic mythical tale. Legend has it that in Russia drowned unwed girls transformed into evil mermaids lurking in rivers and lakes. The prologue shows Father (Igor Khripunov) and his wife (Nadezhda Igoshina) on their lake dock. The couple detect a malevolent presence and the woman is devoured abruptly by a sub-aquatic creature. Two decades pass and bearded Father has become a recluse who seems to do hermetic art. The widower has a daughter, Olga (Sesil Plezhe), and a younger college-aged son (Elfim Petrunin). The latter is referred to as Roman Kitaev in publicity materials but goes by "Roma" in the translated version of the film I watched. Roma is a handsome, sinewy swimmer engaged to Marina (Viktoriya Agalakova), a svelte blonde. Roma's best friend and swim partner Ilya (Nikita Elenev) holds a surprise bachelor party at the same cottage that befell Father's wife. Ilya has hired a couple strippers but an apathetic Roma is unresponsive to their advances. Instead he decides to take a dive in the lake and that's where his troubles begin.

Three friends who will find that staying out of the water is hard.

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead moves at a brisk pace and is beautifully photographed by Anton Zenkovich. Podgaevskiy gradually builds tension by making the water monster a ubiquitous force. One or more characters can see it at one time but then it turns into a roaming apparition, making it difficult to know where it will strike next. It seems to infiltrate the kitchen pipes and shower nozzles of the men's locker room. Podgaevskiy borrows from Leone by magnifying the dripping faucet in close-up. Editor Anton Komrakov and the sound effects crew utilize sound bridges and continuity editing to perfection. The screenplay (by three writers) doesn't do as good a job of explicating characters' decisions. For example, why doesn't Marina call a plumber after going through so much trouble monkeying with the pipes underneath the sink? Why doesn't anyone call the city to inquire about the dire shortage in overall water supply? These criticisms aside, Mermaid: Lake of the Dead boasts an attractive cast, wondrous (albeit gloomy) cinematography, and taut editing with some pretty effective jump-scares that make it a highly cinematic and enjoyable experience.

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead arrives on North American Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory and Shout! Studios on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. It comes with a slipcover, a thick and sturdy BD case, and reversible poster art. This is the horror/fantastical film's third high-def release, following WVG Medien in Germany and Wild Side Video's recent edition in France. It appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1. The Scope presentation is very pleasing with no visible flaws. The brightest scenes are in Marina and Roma's kitchen (see Screenshot #s 10 and 17). Colors delineated within the bowl of fruit, dish towels, and the magnets/stickers on Marina's laptop are solid and well-defined. Interiors also have an amber quality as seen in the shot above where Marina works on Olga's hair. The chlorine water in the Olympic-sized swimming pool is crystal clear. There's an iridescent, aquamarine tone to the shower stall in #12. Nighttime exteriors have shades of navy, teal, and turquoise. Capture #3 looks like an emerald forest in the background with trees and reeds emitting dark green. The opening stickfigure animation seems to glide in water with almost a 3D effect. The feature sports an average video bitrate of 34000 kbps while the whole disc carries a total bitrate of 45.85 Mbps.

The 87-minute movie has a whopping twenty-eight scene selections.

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream supplies four audio tracks: an English dubbed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2666 kbps, 24-bit), a downsampled English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1717 kbps, 24-bit), the original Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2706 kbps, 24-bit), and a Russian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1793 kbps, 24-bit). The uncompressed Russian 5.1 mix served as the basis for this review and I regard it as the film's most authentic presentation. Dialogue is consistently crisp and clearly enunciated. Each sound effect is given the discrete treatment on the surround channels. A footstep or door opening, for instance, is distinctly heard on one of the satellite speakers and more pronounced than other sound ambience. Raindrops are evenly spaced across all channels. There's a moment when Maxim Fadeyev's musical underscore rises to a crescendo and the fronts accent those high notes. Christina Koshleva sings the closing pop song, "I Dreamed of Love." The vocal is well-balanced across all the speakers.

Scream includes both English subtitles and English SDH. The main menu only includes an option for the regular subs. If you want the SHD, you'll need to access them via your remote. They include additional information registered from the f/x and identify the speaker by the character's name in brackets (see #20).

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• US Theatrical Trailer (2:01, 1080p) - this American trailer contains the dubbed English dialogue and is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead isn't the most original horror thriller/romantic fantasy but it exhibits a very polished production with lush and surreal visuals. I plan to check out more of Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy films as well as those with actor Efim Petrunin. Scream Factory delivers a reference-quality transfer and a very spatially active sound track. It would have been nice to get some featurettes and a making-of doc. A STRONG RECOMMENDATION for a worthy entry into the contemporary Russian horror scene.