Film: The She-Creature (1956)
Alias: Ancient Mermaid
Type: Ancient/Mystical
Location: Ocean
Height/Weight: Slightly larger than an average human.
Affiliation: Neutral, leaning on Good
Summary: Everyone knows that we evolved from apes, but what is the missing link between man and the aquatic creatures that inhabit the oceans? A mermaid seems to be the automatic answer. And you'd be right. Oh, and this mermaid happens to be under mind control. Oi vey.
History: Local carnival hypnotist Carlo Lombardi always craved attention, but he was also incredibly sociopathic, keeping his young female assistant Andrea Talbott under lock and key and enacting murders left and right in a peculiar way. For Lombardi was capable of tapping into Andrea's mind and finding out who her relatives are, of which there were many. However, he took specific interest in Andrea's great-great-great-great-great-notsogreat-great-great-great-(10,000 greats later)-great ancestor: a prehistoric Mer-being capable of destroying all who stood in her way. Lombardi exploited this for his gain, hypnotizing Andrea so that her controlled conscious be transferred into the monstrous creature to kill all he disliked.
Notable Kills: The mermaid's first onscreen kill is her flipping a bed while someone is in it, killing him instantly. Another is scarring a teen couple into driving off a cliff.
Final Fate: After Andrea falls for kindly (and perpetually bored-looking) Dr. Ted Erickson, Lombardi finds great difficulty hypnotizing her, as she has grown more assertive with her new hope for freedom. This utterly botches the hypnotist's last attempt to use the mermaid, who refuses to kill Ted, and instead fatally wounds Lombardi. After gazing at her current incarnation, the beast leaves for the sea even as the police blast in her direction, never to be seen again.
Powers/Abilities: The mermaid has a near-impenetrable carapace, and has great strength. It is also something of a phantom, as it goes invisible on a whim.
Weakness: The beast can only be brought to life through Lombardi's unique hypnosis of Andrea.
Scariness Factor: 3-While the mermaid's design and power is intimidating even for b-movie standards, there's an odd humanity to be found in her at the very end. After offing her controller, she kneels down and just stares at Andrea for a good five seconds. It's almost as if she's reflecting on how her own hideous kind led to something so beautiful, and she can never be a part of it. Her sullen return to the sea only seems to reinforce this.
Trivia: -The most infamous case of a "real-life mermaid" came from master carnie charlatan P.T. Barnum with his Fiji Mermaid of 1842, which was just a dead young monkey's upper half sowed to the tail of a fish. In his own words, "a sucker is born every minute"
-Andrea's "reincarnation" is actually inspired by real life cases of what is called "Past Life Regression", which is often used as therapy or a source of enlightenment.
