I couldn’t say what it is about mermaids specifically that inspires movies and television to use them as a vehicle for exploring human identity, but of all the mermaid content out there today, I reckon Scales is tops. If nothing else it’s original, which is more than I can say for most mermaid things, other than The Lure, which relates to Scales only in that they both have mermaids in them.
Scales feels “new.” It certainly has a point of view, and honestly, if you told me that this movie came out in the 1960s and was only recently retrieved and restored for circulation, I’d probably believe you.
You can read my full review for Paste Magazine.
A Constant Visual Feast 