Why the story?

Come on people! Why didn't they just parody the hell out of western movies in true McFarlane style? An ineffective mix of some brutal and bold humor drowned in an uninteresting and righteous love story.

I feared worse

There's the inevitable movie cliches. The main gum-chewing hero was annoying as hell. But I like how his character changed as he was given responsibility, and the movie features plenty of well done and good looking battle scenes. Yet none of it really stuck as I left the theater.

Horror redefined

More than the great acting, masterful built-up, gruesome imagery and deep, lasting sensation of dread, I guess it is more important to point out that this movie makes most other horrors seem like bland, generic, jump scare crap. This is unique, fresh and it still haunts me to this day.

Nicely done, but minimal

It's lovingly made and compelling throughout, but it is suffering somewhat form the minimal story. Sometimes this leads to a pleasant slowburn pace, but at other times it is struggling to fill up time, with events that seems irrelevant for the overall story.

Reli horror story with pleny of class (and monologues)

Very atmospheric, with a calm but steady pace, a slow but addictive built-up of mystery and loads of interesting characters. Many tend to talk in long, long, monologues which impresses at first, then starts to feel unnatural, then slowly become too much and even get in the way of the finale.

Too presumptuous for it's own good

I can appreciate the detailed depiction of this era and it's sea battles, but this movie insists it is a 'real' pro movie with an overload of cliche movie tricks like slow-motion, too much pretentious music and lord knows how many sub-bass boom sounds - sometimes for no reason at all.

A mixture of overly dramatic cheap cinematic tricks and shallow acting

Highlights of the movie are the battles at sea, which are rather convincing. Perhaps also somewhat interesting in terms of historical information about this legendary dutch admiral, or for people familiar with the locations this movie was filmed ( I recently visited Vlissingen myself).

A weird failure

Is this REALLY the best mermaid story they came up with? It is ludicrous, strangely paced and uncomfortable throughout. It's like the makers were so increasingly ashamed of this movie that they tried bury it up in increasing levels darkness. The frequent 10/10 scores on IMDB are a deep mystery.

Tasty shocker, but not all ingredients match

Likable because it is original and pleasantly bizarre, but I found the events to unlikely to really be shocking, and the mix of humor and horror isn't for me. Like sweet and salt.

Cheeky fun

A remarkable and witty comedy with pleasant colors and humor, funny characters and a cheeky story. A nice surprise.

A well thought out and intriguing horror

The simple setup gradually unfolds a lot of depth, symbolism and metaphors without being pretentious. Uncanny without cheap tricks, with a spot-on atmosphere. The finale is spectacular too; no matter how bizarre it was, it somehow made sense.