[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Night Tide (1961)

Dennis Hopper stars as a GI who meets a young woman named Mora on Santa Monica pier who works as a mermaid in a pier sideshow attraction and is homed by her adopted Godfather Captain Murdock. Murdock tells Hopper he thinks Mora is dangerous and killed her last two boyfriends...

Curtis Harrington's debut film clearly draws inspiration from Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) in the way it's ambiguous regarding the nature of the main female protagonist. Unlike Cat People, Harrington filmed his movie in the bright Californian sunshine which removes much of the horror film trappings and places the film solely in the realms of the fantastic although it is fairly atmospheric and has hints of both Lovecraft (A wonderful dreamlike sequence) and Poe (Annabel Lee).

I've always liked the idea of mermaids and sirens - both so underused in horror films - so i rather enjoyed this.

Indicator's lovely Nicolas Winding Refn overseen 4K restoration is a joy to the eyes.