Mermaid review: An even freakier version of The Shape of Water with a potent message

Director Tyler Cornack dares to ask a peculiar question with his 2025 action-comedy-horror Mermaid: Who might find kinship or even love with a repulsive, monstrous mermaid in a world dominated by drugs and money? A man from Florida, naturally. The ensuing romance pushes the limits of good taste, even within the framework of Hollywood’s well-established beauty/beast romance, to serve a twisted take on Guillermo Del Toro’s already subversive The Shape of Water.