Song of the Siren

***Song of the Siren*** is a 2018 Atlantican horror musical film directed by Agnes Klimczuk, starring Veronica Danielson, Paulina Nielsen, Nicholas Nelson, Irving Scott, Joe Chao, and Olga Helene.

The film is a dark retelling of *The Little Mermaid*, chronicling two carnivorous mermaids who find work at a New York City strip club and begin to possess differing opinions on the lives of humans, garnering some inspiration from Klimczuk's experiences as a teenager in 1980s New York City.

*Song of the Siren* had its premiere in January 2018 at the New York Film Festival, later receiving a wide release to audiences worldwide on 16 February 2018. It received critical acclaim for its aesthetics, costuming, soundtrack, and genre-bending plot, which incorporates horror, romance, musical, and fairytale elements. The performances of Danielson, Nielsen, Nelson, and Helene also received immense praise from critics.

## Plot

In 1984, Rose (Helene) and Robert Klimkowski (Scott) are a married couple who perform as a rock band called Nosedive along with their 20-year-old son Joey (Nelson) in New York City. While at a beach in Queens one night, two mermaids come ashore and attempt to lure Robert and Joey into the water. After Rose intervenes, she brings them to the strip club in which the band is regularly employed as entertainment.

At the club, the two mermaids introduce themselves as Lyria (Danielson) and Sirena (Nielsen) to the strip club's owner Mr. Wu (Chao). Seeing them as a business opportunity, Mr. Wu employs the two mermaids as strippers at the club due to the fact that they do not have functioning genitalia while using their legs, and thus cannot be taken advantage of by customers. Rose takes Lyria and Sirena back to their home in Brooklyn, and the two girls begin to live with them. As Lyria and Sirena continue their jobs stripping, they become more and more popular amongst customers. Eventually, Mr. Wu overhears them seducing a young man with their singing voice, and employs them as backup singers for Nosedive. Their success continues to grow as singers, and within months Mr. Wu makes Lyria and Sirena the new lead singers, forcing Rose into a career as a backup singer for them. While Rose and Joey are supportive of the girls' success, Robert becomes angry with the changes they have brought in his life.

While living with Nosedive, Lyria begins to become infatuated with Joey. After attempting to seduce him, he rejects her advances as he does not see her as a human, and thus feels uncomfortable developing relations with her. Upset with how her tail is holding her back from living with humans, Lyria begins to despise being a mermaid. Concerned, Sirena tells Lyria of stories regarding mermaids removing their tails after falling in love with a human, only to regret it forever. Lyria ignores Sirena's warnings and begins looking for a way to become fully human. Lyria later meets Gill, the lead singer of a punk rock band and a former merman who gave up his tail in order to begin a relationship with his current girlfriend. When Lyria reveals to him that she's in the same situation, he warns her that if she falls in love with a human, and that human then marries someone else, she will dissolve into sea foam. Understanding the conditions, Lyria agrees and Gill takes her to a witch (Clemmings) in order to have her tail permanently changed into legs.

After discovering that Lyria has permanently transformed into a human, Sirena feels abandoned and flees the apartment in anger. As mermaids who do not receive love must feed off of human hearts in order to survive, Sirena goes to an expensive lounge and seduces a wealthy married man. Going back to his apartment, they have sex before she bites the heart out of his chest and eats it, killing him. Sirena returns home late into the night with blood on her face, and is noticed by Robert, which raises his suspicions of the two girls. A few days later, Robert watches a news story about a wealthy businessman being murdered due to his heart being ripped out of his body. Putting the pieces together, he accuses Sirena of being a murderer and demands that Rose throw her and Lyria out of their apartment. When she refuses, having begun to view the two as daughters of her own, Robert knocks them unconscious and throws them into the sea.

The following night, Robert fights with Rose and Joey about him disposing of Lyria and Sirena. Sensing Joey's trauma, they corner Robert while he's in a secluded alleyway and feast on his heart, killing him. They return to the apartment the following morning, and Lyria begins a romantic relationship with Joey. As time goes on, Sirena grows more concerned with Lyria's infatuation with Joey, especially when he befriends another human musician girl named Elisa (Olivier). During an argument, Joey discovers that Lyria was responsible for the murder of his father, and he breaks up with her, later beginning a relationship with Elisa.

Five years later, Joey and Elisa marry. Gill and Sirena tell Lyria that the only way to prevent herself from turning to sea foam is to consume the heart of Joey, murdering him in the process, and she must do so by sunrise the day after their wedding. Shortly before sunrise, Lyria greets Joey, preparing to eat him, but she cannot bring herself to do it. They share one final dance before she turns to sea foam in his arms. Distraught, Sirena tears out Joey's heart and eats it before retreating into the ocean, while Rose watches in horror.

## Cast

* Veronica Danielson as Lyria
* Paulina Nielsen as Sirena
* Olga Helene as Rose Klimkowski
* Nicholas Nelson as Joey Klimkowski
* Irving Scott as Robert Klimkowski
* Joe Chao as Mr. Wu
* Boris Reznikov as Gill
* Lucie Olivier as Elisa
* Bojana Clemmings as Coralia, the Sea Witch

## Production

Principal photography began in New York City in March 2017, later wrapping in June 2017. Reshoots were done in July 2017. All underwater scenes were shot in a studio in Nassau County.

## Release

*Song of the Siren* had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on 5 January 2018. It later received a wide release on 16 February 2018, opening to markets in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia.

## Soundtrack

All songs are performed, written, and produced by The New Romantics on the official soundtrack album. Performers are listed per in the film. An album featuring The New Romantics' performances was released as well, titled *Siren*.

### Charts

 Australian Albums (ARIA)
 Californian Albums (RIC)
 Canadian Albums (Canada Music)
 Dixie Albums (RIDL)
 Texan Albums (TRI)
 UK Albums (OCC)

## Reception

### Box office

*Song of the Siren* grossed $64.6 million in North America and $24.4 million internationally for a total gross of $89 million on a production budget of $6.7 million, making it a box office success.

### Critical

*Song of the Siren* received critical acclaim from movie critics. On review aggregator *MovieCritics.com*, the film received an overall ranking of 88% of an "A-". Many critics praised the film's aesthetics, costuming, soundtrack, and genre-bending plot, which incorporates horror, romance, musical, and fairytale elements, in addition to the performances of Danielson, Nielsen, Nelson, and Helene.