A Florida man at rock bottom finds a wounded mermaid in this offbeat drama with dark-comedy and horror edges, which plays its strange premise with more sincerity than spectacle.
What is Mermaid about?
Doug Nelson, a Percocet-addicted Floridian whose life has come apart, is at his lowest point when he discovers an injured mermaid in the water. He shelters her at home, names her Destiny and quickly slides from fascination into a drug-hazed, one-sided attachment that pushes him further into decline rather than pulling him out of it. The film leans into the impossibility of the pairing rather than smoothing it over: Destiny is a wild creature of the sea, and nothing about her belongs in a bathtub in a run-down house. When word of his secret gets out, the people around Doug see an opportunity in the mermaid, and he will stop at nothing to keep her out of their hands, which forces him to decide what he is willing to give up for something that was never really his to keep.
About the cast
Johnny Pemberton leads as Doug Nelson opposite Avery Potemri as the mermaid Destiny, with a supporting cast that includes Kevin Nealon, Kirk Fox, Tom Arnold, Robert Patrick as a drug supplier who takes an interest in Doug's secret, Kevin Dunn and Devyn McDowell as Doug's young daughter. Writer-director Tyler Cornack keeps the ensemble small, which lets the central pairing carry most of the film's 106 minutes rather than splitting focus across a wider cast.
Context & significance
Mermaid stories tend to fall into one of two modes: a sweeping fantasy or a smaller, stranger character piece. This one sits firmly in the second camp, more interested in the mismatch between its two leads than in building out a mythology around the sea. The film premiered at SXSW in 2025 before a limited theatrical run in 2026, and it moves through its central idea without padding the fantasy elements, which keeps the focus on the relationship rather than on world-building.
Watching Mermaid on Ktime
Mermaid is free to watch on K-Time with an account login, no purchase needed. It is available with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, part of a catalog built for Farsi-speaking viewers who want the option to watch in their own language rather than relying on the original audio alone.