The Lure

This genre-defying horror-musical mash-up—the bold debut of Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska—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 Smoczyńska’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-fueled 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.

Film Info

  • Poland
  • 2015
  • 92 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.39:1
  • Polish
  • Spine #896

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • High-definition digital master, supervised by director of photography Kuba Kijowski, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New program about the making of the film, featuring interviews with director Agnieszka Smoczyńska, actors Marta Mazurek and Michalina Olszańska, screenwriter Robert Bolesto, Kijowski, composers Barbara and Zuzanna Wrońskie, sound designer Marcin Lenarczyk, and choreographer Kaya Kołodziejczyk
  • Deleted scenes
  • Aria Diva (2007) and Viva Maria! (2010), two short films by Smoczyńska
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by novelist, playwright, and storyteller Angela Lovell

    New cover by Sam Spratt

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • High-definition digital master, supervised by director of photography Kuba Kijowski, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New program about the making of the film, featuring interviews with director Agnieszka Smoczyńska, actors Marta Mazurek and Michalina Olszańska, screenwriter Robert Bolesto, Kijowski, composers Barbara and Zuzanna Wrońskie, sound designer Marcin Lenarczyk, and choreographer Kaya Kołodziejczyk
  • Deleted scenes
  • Aria Diva (2007) and Viva Maria! (2010), two short films by Smoczyńska
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by novelist, playwright, and storyteller Angela Lovell

    New cover by Sam Spratt
The Lure
Cast
Kinga Preis
Nightclub singer
Michalina Olszańska
Gold
Marta Mazurek
Silver
Jakub Gierszał
Bass player
Andrzej Konopka
Drummer
Zygmunt Malanowicz
House manager
Marcin Kowalczyk
Triton
Credits
Director
Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Screenwriter
Robert Bolesto
Producer
Włodzimierz Niderhaus
Coproducers
Jarosław Sawko
Coproducers
Piotr Sikora
Line producer
Andrzej Besztak
Director of photography
Kuba Kijowski
Music and lyrics
Barbara Wrońska
Music and lyrics
Zuzanna Wrońska
Arrangement
Marcin Macuk
Arrangement
Barbara Wrońska
Production designer
Joanna Macha
Editor
Jarosław Kamiński
Sound designers
Maria Chilarecka
Sound designers
Marcin Lenarczyk
Costume designer
Katarzyna Lewińska
Makeup artist
Janusz Kaleja
Special effects makeup artist
Tomasz Matraszek
Choreographers
Kaya Kołodziejczyk
Choreographers
Jarosław Staniek

Current

Giving Teeth to Old Myths in The Lure

Giving Teeth to Old Myths in The Lure

Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska talks about the myths and fairy tales that inspired her to conceive the mermaids in her debut feature, The Lure.

The Lure: One Is Silver and the Other Gold
The Lure: One Is Silver and the Other Gold

Two singing mermaid sisters take 1980s Poland by storm in this extravagantly mounted musical-horror hybrid.

By Angela Lovell