From MerPeople to The Boogeyman, Should You Add These To Your Watchlist?
From mystical mermaids to haunting boogeymen, should you check out these otherworldly shows and movies? Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado weighs in.
Crater
If you’re a fan of The Goonies or other classic films of the 80s, you’re gonna have a lot of fun with Crater.
It follows a group of friends who live on the moon in the year 2257 and go on one last big adventures before one of them is sent to live on a Utopian-style planet that is 75 years away. The cast is full of rockstars, including Isaiah Russell-Bailey, McKenna Grace, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi, and Selenis Leyva.
It’s a heartwarming and nostalgic space road trip that packs an emotional punch as it tackles the ideas of grief and moving on. All in all, it’s a great film to watch as a family.
Crater is streaming on Disney+.
MerPeople
MerPeople will have you hooked from the first minute as people dressed as mermaid run screaming from a pool in search of eye wash after swimming in too much chlorine. The four episode docu-series explores the fascinating world of underwater performers who have turned their love for the mystical sea creatures into real-world careers.
We follow Morgana Alba, a no-nonsense ex-circus performer who runs the Circus Siren Pod; Mermaid Sparkles, a mermaid who struggles to get past her own insecurities; Chè Monique who champions being a fat, Black mermaid; Eric “The Mertailor” Ducharme, a serious performer and tail-maker who opens his own aquarium; Tristan, the Red River merman who is getting a second chance after battling drug addiction; and Mermaid Blixunami, a nonbinary merm with dreams of stardom.
All of the subjects are on different levels of their mermaid journey as they audition for jobs, share how mermaiding has helped them through personal struggles, run mer-businesses, and even compete to be crowned King and Queen of the Seas in the Bahamas. You learn about the impact of the OG mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs and see how dangerous being a mermaid can really be. It’s also exciting to see how inclusive the mermaid community is becoming when it comes to race, size, gender, and sexuality and that it’s being highlighted in this documentary series.
The series is charming as it introduces us to this unique, magical, inclusive, and kitschy world, but could’ve gone further in tackling deeper questions around its subjects.
MerPeople is streaming on Netflix.
The Boogeyman
You’ll never look at doors the same way again after watching The Boogeyman.
Based on a short story by Stephen King, the horror film finds a family dealing with a terrifying entity that preys on them and their greatest suffering. It explores themes of grief and loss and how that darkness can consume people.
While there are some spooky jump scares and a great performance from Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher, it’s a solid film that doesn’t reinvent the genre. It lacks an exploration of the lore of the sinister creature haunting this family and there are scenes that seem a little too convenient in a way that dismisses other ideas that have been introduced. Chris Messina and Vivien Lyra Blair also star.
The Boogeyman hits theaters on June 2.
Yellowjackets Season 2
Has Yellowjackets taken a huge step down after an addicting first season?
The minute I started the first season of Yellowjackets, I knew it was gonna be a hit. From its stellar ensemble cast to its gruesome effects to its fan theory prompting storylines…and the fact that there’s something for everyone. Is it a survival epic, a psychological horror, a coming-of-age drama, a supernatural occult series? It was all of that and more.
Getting into season 2, they start off strong especially as we follow our young cast in the wilderness. We get a lot of answers and see how quickly the girls fall into madness and desperation out there. The weak link this season is the story around our adult cast, which is unfortunate because you have such power players in those roles. But the reality is this season just felt like a set up to get the adult cast all together again. It started to feel really formulaic, like this season was filler to set up something in a third season. I just hope they haven’t run out of steam already.
Yellowjackets season 2 is streaming on Paramount+.
