The Lure

Mermaids take the stage in Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska’s horror musical, a cult classic in the making.This genre-defying horror-musical mash-up—the bold debut of Polish director AGNIESZKA SMOCZYNSKA— follows a pair of carnivorous mermaid sisters drawn ashore to explore life on land in an alternate 1980s Poland. Their tantalizing siren songs and otherworldly auras make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers in the half-glam, half-decrepit world of Smoczynska’s imagining. The director gives fierce teeth to her viscerally sensual, darkly feminist twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” in which the girls’ bond is tested and their survival threatened after one sister falls for a human. A coming-of-age fairy tale with a catchy synth-fuelled soundtrack, outrageous song-and-dance numbers, and lavishly grimy sets, The Lure explores its themes of emerging female sexuality, exploitation, and the compromises of adulthood with savage energy and originality.DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURESHigh-definition digital master, supervised by director of photography Kuba Kijowski, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrackNew program about the making of the film, featuring interviews with director Agnieszka Smoczynska, actors Marta Mazurek and Michalina Olszanska, screenwriter Robert Bolesto, Kijowski, composers Barbara and Zuzanna Wronski, sound designer Marcin Lenarczyk, and choreographer Kaya Koďż˝odziejczykDeleted scenesAria Diva (2007) and Viva Maria! (2010), two short films directed by SmoczynskaNew English subtitle translationPLUS: An essay by writer Angela Lovell