Erzulie: Review

28th May 2022

Four friends, Fay (Zoe Graham), Violet (Elizabeth Trieu), Wendy (Courtney Oliviér) and Ari (Diana Rose) meet up for a weekend to relax and forget their everyday lives. However, Wendy is obsessed with the idea that they should try and contact the goddess, Erzulie (Leila Anastacia Scott) who uses the appearance of a mermaid, but one like no other who devours any man who comes into her path.

Starting to get into the mood for fun, the women all start the ritual in hopes that something fun or spooky may happen – but nothing does. Disappointed but not surprised, they get on with their weekend and soon they learn things about each other, becoming closer than they ever were.

Then they hear a splash outside, where they find Erzulie laying in their pool. She sees the hearts of the women who have called her and wishes to give them their heart’s desires. However, Erzulie is in danger and soon the friends have to band together to save her.

Erzulie is a creature feature with a twist directed by Christine Chen and co-written by Camille Gladney. Starting out as the typical kind of thing you may find in a monster movie, Erzulie’s scene is set as four friends go away for the weekend to a secluded location. So far, so Evil Dead. However, time passes and as the film gets to know these characters, there seems to be things developing in some places and some that come out of nowhere.

For example, when Wendy realises the power that she has now that they have summoned Ezrulie, she says that she wants revenge on all the men that have wronged her. A tall order indeed, but something that is never followed up on and instead is ignored so that they can hide Erzulie from the men that want to kill her.

Similarly, Rhet (Jason Kirkpatrick) is the kind of villain one might expect in this kind of situation, but his motives are as two dimensional as his character and seemingly only appear because the movie needs a villain.

Ezrulie has a mixed message and one that it doesn’t seem to want to settle upon. On the one hand it could have been a good opportunity to explore feminism and what it means to get everything you want like The Craft. However, it feels too bogged down by its need for a monster movie.

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