All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Mention mermaid movies and most 90s and early-aughts kids will rattle off one movie in particular: Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Its message may have been in some ways, erm, questionable. (Who needs a voice to lure a love interest when you’ve got gams?) But it’s also the movie that, in 1989, brought Disney animation back from the brink of ruin and inspired legions of us to play mermaids in the swimming pool.
Impactful as it may have been, the Disney-fied retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s (much darker) fairytale is a far cry from historic depictions of mermaids. Most sea-faring cultures around the world feature some version of merfolk in their folklore, and they aren’t exactly Dinglehopper-loving Ariels. From Atargatis, the (accidentally) murderous Assyrian goddess-turned-mermaid, to the sirens of Ancient Greece that lured sailors to watery graves, most mermaids of myth are deadly, deceptive creatures. And there are plenty of mermaid movies that lean into that.
Whether you’re looking for something light and fun or movies that paint mermaids in a more mysterious light, we’ve rounded up the 19 best mermaid movies to choose from.
1. The Little Mermaid (2023)
The live action Little Mermaid is finally here, and we've all been obsessing over Halle Bailey's turn as Ariel (and Jonah Hauer-King as her Prince Eric). The 2023 cinematic delight breathes new life into an old story: Bailey's Ariel yearns for a different life, and finds adventure, drama, and romance on dry land… but what about the devious plans of sea witch Ursula (played by Melissa McCarthy)? The new film makes some changes from the original, and the result is a more nuanced Ariel (and Eric!) and a more fully-realized story. Plus, the visual beauty of the movie will keep you rapt as you follow this aquatic coming of age story.
2. The Thirteenth Year (1999)
“Cody’s not just growing up… he’s growing fins!” So reads the tagline for this Disney Channel Original Movie about an adopted teen who, on his 13th birthday, begins to sprout scales and soon discovers that his birth mother is actually a mermaid. It’s a coming-of-age story that makes a not-so-subtle nod at puberty and the unexpected ways our bodies change during it, and it’s also the product of a particularly good time for Disney Channel Original Movies. (Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, Smart House, Don’t Look Under the Bed and The Thirteenth Year all came out in 1999!)
3. Mermaids (1990)
Okay, okay. We realize that, rather than being a film about mermaids, this movie got its name for featuring Cher in mermaid costume for all of five minutes. (But, we mean — Cher! In mermaid getup! What a gift.) In this dramedy, Cher plays an offbeat, sex-positive single mom who’s constantly moving her two daughters, Charlotte (Winona Ryder) and Kate (Christina Ricci), from town to town. In contrast to her liberated mom, Catholicism-obsessed Charlotte is bent on becoming a nun, and the performance earned Ryder a Golden Globe nomination.
4. Aquamarine (2006)
Emma Roberts, JoJo, and Sara Paxton star in this teen flick about two best friends in Florida who, while enjoying the last days of summer vacation, discover a mermaid in their pool. The mermaid, Aquamarine (Paxton), tells the girls that she’s run away from home in order to escape an arranged marriage. If she’s really going to get out of it, though, she’ll have to first prove to her mer-dad that true love exists. So, the duo set off in pursuit of helping Aquamarine woo the local lifeguard, Raymond.
5. Killer Mermaid (2014)
A group of friends’ carefree summer vacation in the Mediterranean goes awry when they discover an island that’s home to an abandoned military fort — and host to something a lot more sinister in its waters. Those expecting a campy Killer Creature movie, in the style of Sharkenstein or Mansquito, may be let down; we honestly wish that’s what Killer Mermaid was. But if you’re a fan of slasher films and, separately, of mermaids, it’s probably worth seeing the two combined!
6. The Shape of Water (2017)
The Creature From the Black Lagoon-esque amphibian at the heart of Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy film may not technically be a merperson. But this Oscar-winning, unconventional love story, about a mute janitor who falls in love with a so-called monster held at the Cold War-era lab where she works, falls sufficiently within the mysterious aquatic critter realm to work.
7. The Water Will Carry Us Home (2018)
Pop culture renderings of mermaids have, for too long, looked largely one way: young, thin and white. That formula will, thankfully, be ditched in the highly anticipated Little Mermaid remake, with Halle Bailey cast as Ariel. But for anyone seeking stories that center Black mermaids before that movie hits screens in 2023, check out the short film The Water Will Carry Us Home. Created by artist and filmmaker Gabrielle Tesfaye, it tells the story of enslaved Africans thrown from the ships that ferried them across the Middle Passage. In the water, they are met by mermaid-like Orishas, deities within the Yoruba religion of West Africa. (Done watching? Read about the similarly mermaid-esque Yemaya, the Ocean Mother Goddess of the Santería religion whose roots also go back to Yoruba.)
8. Splash (1984)
Allen Bauer (Tom Hanks) is saved twice by a mermaid. The first time Madison (Daryl Hannah) saves him, he’s an 8 year old vacationing with mom and pop in Cape Cod. The second time, it’s 20 years later and he’s something of a New York bigwig who works in — of all things — wholesale fruits and vegetables. This time, Madison falls in love with Allen and decides to follow him to New York, where plenty of shenanigans ensue. After you watch the original, check out the made-for-TV sequel, Splash, Too, which was received super well by critics. (It wasn’t.)
9. Peter Pan (1953)
Every rendition of Peter Pan includes mermaids, given they’re one of Neverland’s resident creatures. In Disney’s animated version, the Peter Pan mermaids are portrayed as flippant but essentially harmless, despite one of them confessing to having tried to drown Wendy. (All in good fun, of course!) The 2003 live-action remake with Jeremy Sumpter lets them be a little more menacing, though, in keeping with the way Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie described mermaids in his 1911 book.
10. Blue My Mind (2017)
Similar to The Thirteenth Year, Swiss director Lisa Brühlmann uses the mermaid motif as an analogy for how unsettling it can feel to navigate puberty’s unexpected, seemingly unaccounted for bodily changes. In Blue My Mind, Mia (Luna Wedler) is a new girl at school who finds herself facing physical transformations she couldn’t have seen coming. The story straddles the line of coming-of-age drama and full-on body horror film, and it’s definitely a lot darker than its Disney Channel Original Movie equivalent.
11. Lu Over the Wall (2017)
This Japanese anime film tells the story of Kai, an angsty middle schooler with a rock band who one day finds himself exploring Merfolk Island. There he meets Lu, a Ningyo girl; often translated as “mermaid,” the Ningyo are fish-like creatures in Japanese folklore that, if caught, bring misfortune and storms. The preteen duo discover that music helps turn Lu’s fin to legs, and off they set on adventures about town. Bonus: It’s one of the few mermaid movies on Netflix!
12. Lady in the Water (2006)
In this M. Night Shyamalan-directed psychological thriller, Cleveland (Paul Giamatti) rescues a young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) from the pool of the apartment building where he’s superintendent. Turns out, she’s a water nymph hailing from a place called the Blue World, and she’s here to save humanity. Be warned: the movie has a whopping 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so you may want to temper your expectations accordingly. Having turned just $2 million in profit, it’s not exactly the Sixth Sense director’s best-received movie. But, water nymphs!
13. Mermaid: Lake of the Dead (2018)
This Russian horror-fantasy movie is inspired by Slavic mythology. According to legend, unmarried girls who drowned would turn into evil, mermaid-like entities called Rusalkas, doomed to haunt rivers and lakes. In Mermaid: Lake of the Dead, one such mermaid slash ghoul falls in love with an unsuspecting dude, Roma, and is bent on dragging him to her underwater lair for eternity.
14. Sabrina Down Under (1999)
Fans of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are probably at least familiar with its sitcom-y older sister, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, starring Melissa Joan Hart. That series spawned a few made-for-TV movie specials, including Sabrina Down Under, which sees Sabrina and Salem head to the Great Barrier Reef in a bid to save a mermaid colony from pollution and capitalism. Also, Sabrina gets the hots for a merman named Barnaby.
15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
The fourth movie in the Harry Potter franchise was likely the introduction to mermaids as nefarious, un-Ariel-like entities for a lot of us. (To note: It’s not actually mermaids living in the Black Lake but selkies, the Irish and Scottish folklore equivalent.) In the book, J.K. Rowling describes them as having grey skin, yellow eyes and broken teeth — no seashell bras happening here!
16. The Mermaid (2016)
This movie made a major splash — we had to go there at least once — when it was released in China, breaking multiple box office records. In it, Shan, a mermaid, is sent by her people to assassinate Xuan, a playboy and big-wig property developer whose sonar technology is destroying underwater life. The assassination plan backfires, though, when the pair end up falling in love.
17. Miranda (1948)
The moviegoing masses in the 40s ate up this British comedy film, in which a middle-aged man goes fishing (his wife, who doesn’t like to fish, is obviously The Worst) and winds up catching a beautiful young mermaid, Miranda. She holds him prisoner underwater, eventually releasing him when he promises to take her back to London with him. To solve the whole fins conundrum, they put her in a wheelchair — which means Miranda did the mermaid-in-a-wheelchair thing long before Bette Midler and Lady Gaga started arguing about it.
18. Mermaids: The Body Found (2011)
This Animal Planet mockumentary caused something of an international stir when it was released — mostly because the fact it was a mockumentary, and not a true story, wasn’t something Animal Planet super readily advertised at the time. In this two-hour sci-fi special, a team of scientists investigate a groundbreaking discovery they’ve made on a beach in Washington: the washed-ashore body of a mermaid.
19. The Little Mermaid (2018)
Halle Bailey's The Little Mermaid isn't the only live action Little Mermaid adaptation on offer — there’s always the 2018 live action version. In this retelling, a mermaid princess is tricked by a wizard slash circus ringmaster into parting with her soul, dooming her to perform in the circus, away from the ocean, forever. A reporter, Cam (William Moseley of The Chronicles of Narnia), and his niece discover her and, believing her to be a real mermaid, hatch a plan to save her.
