The movie takes place in Warsaw, where a pair of glamorous sisters at their nightclub begin their lives. Now, they seem to be different from each other, as one seeks to love humans, and the other thirsts for food for the residents of the mysterious city.
If you're only going to watch a single '80s-themed musical-horror mermaid cannibal comedy this year, The Lure should be the one. And rest assured that whatever the rumoured remake of Splash offers, it won't be able to top this for sheer weirdness.
In a multiplex universe in which the fantastical is now commonplace, The Lure compels us to take a bite with a cinematic temptation that is refreshing, unpredictable and somewhat dangerous.
The Lure is a bit of a mess, both narratively and in terms of gruesome gore. But it's a supremely sexy, and exceedingly watchable, fish tale that's different from everything else on the menu.
There is no continuity in narrative or character and it's all shot in an elliptical, heavily stylized, gaudily lit (much of it looks like it's shot through an algae-filmed aquarium) collage.
A woozily entrancing mash-up, shimmying by itself in the corner of the horror-musical canon and sure to earn quizzically appreciative stares from genre enthusiasts.
It is, in a word, bonkers, but it's the kind of stylish and delightful bonkers that makes you revel in its excess, and I'll take as many movies like this as we can get.
A nod to politically correct species reassignment surgery livens the third act, but the film eventually sinks under the weight of its own silly excess.