The 5 best mermaid movies that aren't 'The Little Mermaid' (including 'Undine' and Tom Hanks' 'Splash')

"Undine" isn't the mermaid movie you expect. 

Unlike Disney's 1989 classic "The Little Mermaid," there are no seashell bras, singing crabs and shimmering fins in Christian Petzold's German-language film (in theaters and on demand Friday). Rather, the indie drama is a dark and enigmatic reimagining of an age-old European folktale, about a female water nymph who falls in love with mortal men, but to tragic and sometimes violent ends. 

Set in modern-day Berlin, the story follows the mysterious Undine (Paula Beer), a water spirit-turned-historian who's dumped by her boyfriend, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), in the opening scene. "If you leave me, I'll have to kill you," she warns him. Johannes continues to haunt Undine even as she falls for another man, a diver named Christoph (Franz Rogowski), and the new lovers plunge into an ill-fated romance that is equal parts seductive and surreal. 

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