Mermaid In a Manhole/"Manhoru No Naka No Ningyo" (1988 Short Film)

Genre: Horror/the worst movie I've ever seen
Directed by Hideshi Hino
Japanese w. English subs

0 /5


(Watch the Trailer Here)

The Deal...
Mr. Haydashi, a struggling artist whose wife has recently left him, seeks solace in his paintings. For inspiration, he secretly travels down into the sewer system, making art of darkness and filthy things. On one such trip, he discovers a mermaid that construction has displaced from her river home. Residing in the sewer, the mermaid has contracted a horrible skin infection, and it is clear that she is slowly dying. Determined to do all that he can to save her life, Haydashi takes her from the tepid sewers to his small apartment where she may live out the last few days of her life comfortably, in his bathtub. Haydashi cares for her and paints her portrait as the infection quite literally eats her alive.




Did Rights:
Surprisingly, there are several "did rights" in this movie. The sets are very believable and detailed, and the makeup and prosthetics are surprisingly good. The makeshift mermaid is much better-looking than I had expected. She appears to have actual, glistening scales, and there is no disappointing fabric-flopping effects when she flips her tail and the like. On the contrary, it appears that in certain scenes they've utilised an actual fish's tail to give the illusion that the actress is, in fact, a living, breathing mermaid.
Hideshi Hino also does a nice job of smoothly integrating the mini-plot of Mr. Haydeshi's downstairs neighbours into the story without making the neighbours' characters a central or even secondary focus.

Did Wrongs:
This movie is horrendous. Horrible. Appalling.
If you feel that you have seen "bad" movies in the past, I assure you, you have seen nothing like "Mermaid In a Manhole". I am almost reluctant to review it as I am anxious to put it behind me and forget that it exists, let alone that I ever took the time to view it.
If you are still considering taking a gander at this movie, be forewarned: It is a B-movie in all of the worst respects. This is not a "horror movie"; this is low-budget violence pornography. "Mermaid in a Manhole" is nothing but a conglomeration of violence, puss, worms, gore, gore, and long, drawn-out scenes and closeups of gore. The shooting is horrible, the acting is horrendous, and did I mention that there is an excess of gore?
The mermaid's infection oozing multi-coloured puss looks absolutely ridiculous, her suffering is obscenely over-dramatic, and the sound-effects that accompany scenes of violence are almost comical (think the effects in an episode of transformers from the same era, only applied to a man wielding a knife, or a woman vomiting worms). I felt that I was watching a super gory, super stupid 1980's music video, minus the soundtrack.
There is nothing artistic about this movie. There is not even anything substantial to this movie. Imagine the worst, most excessively violent movie that you have ever, ever seen or even imagined, x100, plus a couple bucketfuls of worms and a mermaid. That is "Mermaid in a Manhole." I have never seen such utter garbage in my life. I'd rather watch "Book of Blood" several times in a row than ever see this movie or anything to do with this movie again.


My verdict is that I cannot in good conscience give this movie any stars. That would be offensive to any of the horrible movies out there that actually attempted to have a plot or some kind of meaning, and did more during production than purchase several hundred buckets of fishing bait, mix them with fake blood, and dump them on the floor in several 4 minute long sequences.
= SO F%@#ING BEHEADED.