SXSW 2025 Review: MERMAID, A Florida Meth-Head Finds Love in this Absurd Comedy

Doug’s life sucks. He’s broke, strung out on meth, his ex-wife hates him, he owes money to some very dangerous people, and he doesn’t really see a way out. He’s at the end of his rope when he stumbles across something of a miracle, an injured mermaid just off the Florida coast. He brings it back to shore, determined to find a way to exploit it to get himself out of the mess that his life has become, but instead he becomes enamored of it, and will do anything to protect it in Tyler Cornack’s latest feature film, Mermaid.

In 2019, Cornack delivered one of the most bizarre films to hit the genre scene in ages with Butt Boy. After writing and directing a film about a man who discovers that he has the ability to swallow up his problems – in some cases, even entire people – with his butt, pressure to deliver something strange was surely pretty high. While Mermaid never quite reaches that level of absurdity, it definitely defies what an audience – even a genre one – would expect from a mermaid film, and that’s pretty impressive on its own.

With a surprisingly strong cast led by Superstore fan favorite Johnny Pemberton as Doug, Mermaid upends the mermaid myth and combines it with the gangster thriller to mixed results. Doug’s debts are growing, and it’s up to enforcer Ron (Robert Patrick) and his goons to collect. It’s tough to squeeze blood from a stone, and Doug doesn’t have the cash to pay up, but he does have something living in his bathtub that might just do the trick.

Men fall in love with mermaids all the time, it’s part of the origin of the myth, they are beautiful creatures who lure men to their deaths in the sea, but never like this. Cornack’s mermaid is hideous, a frightening reptilian beast with a face built for nightmares, but Doug loves it anyway, which only serves to amplify the anarchy of the film as the plot more and more ludicrous.

While the pacing of Mermaid doesn’t quite work – this 105-minute movie should definitely be under 90 – the gags often do. Doug’s increasingly codependent relationship with his mermaid lead to some truly bizarre absurdist comedy. The casting of Pemberton as Doug is one of the film’s strongest choices, no one does guileless dumdum quite like him, even as he tries to do the right thing, its obvious that he has no idea what that means.

Mermaid features additional strong casting across the board, from Kirk Fox as a club owner who enjoys shitting all over Doug, to Kevin Dunn as an unlikely villain with nasty designs on the mermaid, to Avery Potemri as Destiny, the titular mermaid, everyone here comes to play. Robert Patrick is particularly gripping to watch as the over-it gangster who has spent a little too long in the sun. There are no small performances here, Mermaid brings out the best in everyone.

A curious mix of crime thriller and theatre of the absurd, Mermaid is sure to confound audiences in much the same way that Butt Boy did a few years ago. Played almost entirely straight, no matter how insane the characters become, it’s a conundrum that it sure to alienate a lot of viewers, but those who get it will find a lot to love.