Fantastic Fest 2009

After a failed suicide attempt, Dawn (Jodie Jameson) is sent by her psychiatrist on a trip to recuperate. She visits an old family flat in a remote apartment by the sea. Heavily sedated with medication and alcohol, she tries to decode her life through the pages of a journal. Walking on a deserted Norfolk beach she finds a dying mutant mermaid foetus. Initially repulsed, she becomes obsessed with it, takes it home and tries to resuscitate it. Dawn’s Swedish friend Milla visits at the weekend. While out drinking with Dawn, she catches a man at an unguarded moment and they end up in bed. In the cellar, the creature can sense the vibrations from the bedroom. Feeding off the sexual energy coursing through the flat, the creature strengthens and grows. After Milla leaves, Dawn checks on the creature in the cellar; it’s covered in a thin slime. Drawn to the smell, she tastes it and finds that it has hallucinogenic effects. Dawn’s life is about to get even stranger.

VENUS DROWNING is the third feature by independent British director Andrew Parkinson (DEAD CREATURES). It was shot on a combination of formats (Super16, DigiBeta, Dvcam, Super8 and Beta SP), to reflect the various states of Dawn’s mind as she struggles with grief, alienation and puerile sexual obsessions. Simultaneously a B-movie creature-feature, a psychedelic drug movie and a cringe-inducing erotic love story, VENUS DROWNING is first and foremost a story of two damaged creatures trying to survive in a hostile world.

Official selection at Cannes 2005, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2006, Neuchatel Internation Fantastic Film Festival 2006.