Receive this earth and know my journey! An independent romp through the much and the myre of the bayou? And it’s not an episode of Scooby Doo? Sign me up!
Deeply mystical and surprisingly dark, Erzulie is a brand-new horror creature feature courtesy of director Christine Chen. Her handling of a nautical nemesis is to be praised as a swamp mermaid goddess turns frightening really quickly thanks to the meddling of four longtime friends.
Needless to say, their reunion goes awry in all the worst ways possible. This is, after all, a creature feature and, in that manner, Erzulie does NOT disappoint.
But before the story of friends reunited happens, audiences are given a snippet of danger courtesy of some dumbass teens floating down the river and causing all sorts of embarrassments for their unlucky dates. Don’t worry, though. They are quickly dealt with by whatever it is that lives just below the surface of the muddy waters. Once all the crackers are dealt with, the river - at least by the local authorities - becomes OFF-LIMITS.
The girls - Wendy (Courtney Oliviér, Natural Disasters, Intrusions), Zoe (Fay Smalling, Scare Package, Infinity Baby), Violet (Elizabeth Trieu, No Loss, No Gain, #Slaughterhouse), and Allison (Haley Raines, His Stretch of Texas Ground) - don’t listen much to the warnings, though. They want to float the river. That’s what they came for and that’s what they’ll do. They’ve been through a tumultuous time lately and now, on this trip, they want to do whatever they want to do.
Damn the consequences! And, oh, yes, there WILL BE blood and lots and lots of screaming.
Our warning lights might be going off, but not theirs. Even a stern warning from a local resort owner’s son (Jason Kirkpatrick in a fine role for his character acting chops) isn’t enough to keep them from the river. They have spirits to conjure. Call them out, girls!
And what awaits them is something beyond the film’s micro-budget limitations. Sure, the creature is kept under wraps for a while, but the drama plays well and provides more than enough chills and spills and deadly kills to prove its worth in the halls of modern horror, even if its toxic waste angle is not explored to its full potential. This is a slasher that arrives turnt up!
Even if the film spends the first half hour in the doldrums of exposition with only a couple of good jolts and attention-grabbing violence, the storyline, co-written by Camille Gladney, bounces back with a chilling handling of a Haitian voodoo goddess and a protector of women and children and the killer mermaid (played by Leila Anastasia Scott) is a non-stop treat.
A Kamikaze Dogfight and Gravitas Ventures release, Erzulie - make sure you pronounce it correctly (or else!) - will be streaming on digital platforms on June 7th. Time to get swampy, True Believers!
MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 86 mins
Director: Chris Addison
Writer: Christine Chen; Camille Gladney
Cast: Zoe Graham; Alexander Biglane; Jason Kirkpatrick
Genre: Adventure | Fantasy
Tagline: It's Time for the Tables to Turn.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor: Kamikaze Dogfight and Gravitas Ventures
Official Site:
Release Date: VOD June 14
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: A reunion between four friends quickly goes awry when they find themselves face to face with ERZULIE: the swamp mermaid goddess in director Christine Chen’s frightening mermaid horror feature ERZULIE- in theaters and on VOD during May and June.
