She Creature

For the 1956 film, see The She-Creature.
She Creature

DVD
Written by Sebastian Gutierrez
Directed by Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring Rufus Sewell
Carla Gugino
Rya Kihlstedt
Jim Piddock
Reno Wilson
Mark Aiken
Theme music composer David Reynolds
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Lou Arkoff
Colleen Camp
Stan Winston
Cinematography Thomas L. Callaway
Editor(s) Daniel Cahn
Running time 91 minutes
Production company(s) Creature Features Productions, LLC.
Distributor Columbia TriStar Television
Release
Original release
  • December 20, 2001 (2001-12-20)

She Creature (originally billed as Mermaid Chronicles Part 1: She Creature) is a 2001 television film starring Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino and Rya Kihlstedt and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez . It is the first in a series of films made for Cinemax paying tribute to the films of American International Pictures.[1] The films in this tribute series reused the titles of old American International Pictures films, but are not remakes of the earlier films.

Plot

Circa 1900, in Ireland, two carnies, Angus Shaw (Rufus Sewell) and his wife Lillian (Carla Gugino), abduct a mermaid (Rya Kihlstedt) and try to smuggle her into the United States. As their ship appears to lose its way, the mermaid begins to show a deadly, carnivorous side. One night during one of their carnival shows, Mr. Woolrich (Aubrey Morris) visits the sight, having heard that a mermaid will be on show, only to find it was just Lily (Lillian) impersonating one, as were most of the other attractions. When met by Angus and Lily, Woolrich showed his relief at this, and they offered the old man a ride home at his mansion situated on top of a cliff overlooking the sea. As they conversed, Woolrich showed them written documentation of mermaid sightings throughout history, of their whereabouts at the Forbidden Islands and of their dangerous nature, and as Angus and Lily seemed to become tired of the subject, he showed them a real beautiful mermaid chained inside a 3/4 full water tank which he had caught back in his admiral days, and explained how she had killed his wife. Naturally Angus and Lily were utmost amazed, and when Woolrich sensed Angus' thoughts of taking the mermaid to add her to his circus, the old man reprimandingly disagreed. When they returned back to the circus campsite Angus began to fill his mind with ways and means to take the mermaid and the massive profits she would make him compared to the meager ones he was making with his current circus shows. So with the help of Gifford (Mark Aiken) and Bailey (Reno Wilson), two men working with him, they went back in the dead of night to Woolrich's mansion and broke in, only to be caught by him as he pointed a pistol at Angus' neck. Angus tried to explain the idea but Woolrich would hear none of it since such a plan would bring dire consequences should the manipulative mermaid be given the opportunity to return back to sea. When Bailey, one of Angus' men, pointed a rifle at Woolrich, the latter began to feel a heart-attack coming on, when he tried to attack Bailey with a stick but was thrown on the floor in self-defense, and the thud killed the old man. Angus then shot the panicking mermaid with a strong sedative and they stole her away. On that same night the crew took to the docks to a ship heading to the United States, hiding the fact that they had a mermaid with them. Lily was not at all agreeable with this whole situation, but Angus used as many reasons as he could find to ascertain her all was for the better. Bailey was placed as security outside the mermaid's room, and the voyage began. During the voyage a bond between the mermaid and Lily formed. One night a drunken Miles (Gil Bellows), a crew member of the ship, cornered Lily after having recognized her from the past when she lived in London as a woman of easy virtue calling herself Maryanne who stole his possessions, which she did to other sailors before him. In this part of the movie it becomes known that Lily was barren, and that the mole between her breasts seen as she disrobes for the night (which was previously mentioned by Miles as he described Maryanne to Lily) does in fact show proof that Lily and Maryanne were the same person. Lily feared this since she wished to keep her past away from Angus' knowledge, and during that night the crew found the intoxicated mermaid tangled in their nets, and whilst Angus bribed his way out of trouble with Captain Dunn, the mermaid spat out Miles' ring on the floor in front of Lily who was at the time present after the crew who put her back in the water tank left the room. Lily was becoming worried, and she tried to explain all of this to Angus who feared Lily was somewhat becoming unwell due to the long journey on board the ship. As she found and read Woolrich's documents, it was written that a mermaid would go on for three weeks without nourishment...yet this mermaid somehow managed to go on living after much after! Also, it seemed that this mermaid had strong psychic powers, reading the minds of others. The day after Lily tried to force out the truth of what happened that night of the mermaid abduction from Bailey, who was not very good at being secretive or dishonest! She angrily showed Angus she knew the mermaid was not given by Woolrich, but that he had stolen her. Lily could feel that the mermaid was taking hold of her mind, and tried to set her free whilst Bailey was off guard, but he caught them in the act and tried to stop it. Unfortunately he ended up eaten by the mermaid. Lily was locked by Angus in their room, and during her time alone she found out that she had become pregnant with Angus' child! She found a way to unlock the door and again visited the mermaid's quarters...and found her in full human form which happens on a full moon. Lily then understood why the mermaid did not run away when she could have done easily. When the crew found them they savagely took the mermaid on deck and ravaged her whilst Lily cried for them to let her go. Lily was then taken to her room after falling from faint, and Angus and Gifford tried to calm down the situation as they took the captain to his room and talked with him. He seemed to be out of his mind as he confessed that the mermaid made him do that which he did not want to do, and then committed suicide with a pistol. Slowly a storm began to close in on them whilst on open sea, and they ventured close toward the Forbidden Islands which way further from their track, and hence it became clear that the mermaid took the ship towards the habitat of herself and her sisters. An even more surprising fact was that she suddenly took an extremely monstrous form, spined all over her body, which thus meant that the mermaid was the Queen, and that she took the ship and sailors in order to provide her clan with nourishment. After having killed all the sailors, she threw the lumps of human flesh into the sea as the mermaids feasted on it. Only Lily was spared, and was found on board by a passing ship a fortnight after the frightful event. Lily remained silent out of respect towards the Queen of the mermaids, and when the time came she gave birth to a daughter, whose eyes glowed red like those of the mermaid...which meant she might have given birth to the next Queen...

Cast

Release

it was released on DVD on 6/5/01

Reception

Awards and nominations

See also

References

  1. ↑ She Creature - Dvd
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