Thank you. Slice of Sci-Fi Hello and hi, welcome to another Slice of Sci-Fi. I'm Summer Brooks and we are here today with writer-director Tyler Kornack, whose new dark comedy slash horror movie Mermaid will be in theaters April 8th. Hi, Tyler. Hi, Summer. How are you? Nice to meet you. Pretty good. This was totally not what I was expecting. I was expecting more comedy, but I got more black comedy, which is also a good thing. um yeah you wrote this you directed it but you also did some uh music comp uh composition for it too what what was the the inspiration the the need to just put all of your creative efforts into this story um you know it was it was just it was just so much fun it was so much fun i mean Like while I was writing it, I was just trying to figure out just tonally what I wanted to do. And writing can be very tricky sometimes and difficult. So it was just it was almost like a tool to sort of set up tone for me. I have like a little recording set up for music and stuff like that, that I just do sort of a therapeutic thing to ease my mind. And then I started making things that just sounded sort of mermaidy. and I was like, oh, this could be the score. So it was a really nice and fun thing to be able to do while I'm writing the script. It's like, oh, this musical part could go into here and just play around with both at the same time. And then, of course, having some of this stuff on set, some of the music to play on set was really cool. And yeah, the actors really appreciated it too because it sort of set up the dark sort of tone I was going for. So it was really just, it was very creatively satisfying to do. And I had a lot of fun doing it. It got me away from writing whenever I needed to and just let me feel things more, I guess. Well, the music has a very trippy feel. So it's like on the surface, it's kind of bright and trippy and kind of, you know, mentally loosey-goosey. But there's also a dark undertone in it, kind of like the movie. I thought that parallel was kind of just fascinating. I'm like, yeah, there's layers to this music and it matches what's going on in this movie. I'm very, very curious about that. So what was the intent with Doug's journey with the mermaid? Yeah, you know, I think the story to me is like, you know, it is a mermaid movie, But I was really trying to tell a story about a guy who's an outcast of the world. He's just as much of a fish out of water as she is. And it's about loneliness. And this guy, he's been locked up in this house for years. There's sort of no one to check on him and no one to sort of talk to. And he's in the aftermath of his dad passing. He's just sort of stuck there in life. And that, you know, I wanted to I wanted to tell that story about a fish out of water who finds a who finds a fish out of water. And once I discovered that, that I wanted to do that in Florida, it was like, how can I put in these sort of Florida trophy characters and surround him with this sort of oddball, dry, dark comedy? And, you know, setting was such a huge thing, too. I I just always wanted to tell a story in a beach town in Florida. I love beach movies and I just, I, it was all these things sort of came together and then including the music as well. It was like, they become like this cohesive thing where if the music takes the lead in things, sometimes you create a tone and it was like all these things sort of meshing together. And yeah, I think, I don't know if I answered your question, but I sort of went off the books there, but. Well, the, yeah, that there's, there's many levels to Doug's journey. He's a, he's a divorced dad he's trying to do right by his daughter his wife is kind of a typical florida housewife yeah tampa chick okay there's a good one and he's just trying to get by and it's he's not having a good day and then this mermaid literally falls into his lap and he's trying to, you know, he has an affinity for fish, and so he's trying to take care of her, and shenanigans ensue and the levels of empathy he shows while also dealing with his shall we say painkiller addiction there a very very contrast in styles And I thought that was a level to Doug's core character that you don't typically see. And like I said, this is a very Florida movie. I mean, you hear the jokes about, you know, Florida, man, or just Florida man. And it's like, yeah, this is a very Florida story. And your attention to detail for the mermaid, the costuming. Talk about what went into designing the mermaid. and it's not a real spoiler because you know five minutes in you find out there's more than one uh yeah the costumes and the designs of their shape and the way they move talk about that a little bit yeah you know i just wanted to be i wanted it to be uh just what would this actually be if you found it like after all these these old legends of people out at sea and you know from christopher columbus they used to talk he used to they used to journal about seeing mermaids out in the ocean, these lonely sailors, um, which I think are man, they ended up being, some people think they were just manatees, but, um, what would they really look like? What would they actually physically look like if they were scuffed up by the ocean? And what if they weren't so pretty? I mean, the ocean is such a big place. It's so, there's so much we don't know about it. And, um, I think that's sort of where I, with the design, I sort of came from that angle. And I think just from a comedy angle too it's it's way funnier to me to have somebody like johnny um the only thing he could communicate with is this this fish animal not not like a pretty siren it would have been it wouldn't have been as funny to me or contrasty to to have him communicating with just a beautiful siren in the tub um i think there's way more humor in it if he's just dealing with this animal and it's way more florida that way so telling telling the team like this thing should be florida it should be you know kind of maybe a little bit beautiful by the end but just just not not a good looking reader as doug says in the movie she's not the easiest on the eyes but you know yeah was there anything in particular you wanted uh your your special effects team to pay attention to like the the way the the fins moved or the way her her scales looked anything in particular that you need to have yeah you know I think color was important um I wanted it to be brown and gray and a little bit maybe a little bit of blue so there's a little bit of magic in it and um it was really just what would the ocean do to to any any creature that's out there if it was out there for its entire life if it's fighting things off and it's scuffed up and um like or the gills and stuff where would the gills go like i always thought it would be more interesting up here on the neck which is what we ended up doing in the film and this is like 95 practical in the movie like the suit is the suit and that's what you see in it and um it was just such a process to watch them put that thing on every day and avery potemri who who was you know the main mermaid in the film had to sit in that chair and then sit in a tub for for hours and i just think she just did such a great job acting like this this strange animal you know um so yeah it was and i also didn't know what the mermaid was going to look like until we started shooting because i was i was working with this other company on it for four months beforehand sort of designing it and that sort of fell through last minute right when i was leaving to go start shooting the movie so what what was four months ended up being 10 days and um mark villalobos and his entire team created this crazy thing in 10 days where there was this moment where I walked into the trailer to look at it for the first time. I'm like, all right, well, here's the mermaid in this movie called Mermaid, whatever's behind the store. And then I was like, oh, great, they nailed it. So it was just so much fun collaboration and people bringing things together. And it was the best. What was the actress's name, Avery? Avery Potemri, yeah. She's a dancer. Ah, okay, that explains some of the movements. In my opinion, if she can stand hours in the makeup chair, she probably could follow in Doug Jones' footsteps. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. The characters. How Florida did you feel you needed to make all? because there's some seriously, you know, it's like, okay, yeah, I could imagine that guy on a body cam video for a Florida crime scene. Yes, yes. Almost all of them. That's really where this project started from for me. Like, even I grew up where we shot this movie, and as a kid I would see these characters that, you know, If it like the guy at the bar with an insane fan telling crazy stories just being obnoxiously loud and ordering his drink at the beach bar as a kid i was even fascinated by that and just found it very funny like i just can believe that like these these people only exist in this weird subculture um and then you know there's characters like kevin nealon's character is like guys i grew up with in the neighborhood who had the corvette and they're divorced and really care about their car and they're good guys they're good honest american guys with their high socks and um you know that makes me laugh in a different way and um and then doug was like johnny's character is sort of a culmination of just you know i guess the the drug issues uh that that happened in florida as well so like that was covered and the wife uh played by Julia Larson, who's a fantastic actor. She was just like a lot of Florida women who enter these relationships with men. It's typically their second marriage, and they like their drinks. They like their drinks every day at 4 p.m. and hanging out in the driveway while he washes the car. It's like all these stereotypes I grew up being around that I sort of just surrounded Johnny with to tell the story. you know? So, yeah. What's, what's the joke? It's wine o'clock somewhere. Yep. There you go. So, uh, do you have any more Florida adventures, uh, on, on the book to, to, to write about someday? Um, right now, no, I don't. Cause I got my fair share of it doing this. And I said a lot about Florida in this, in my mind, at least. So I, it's not at the forefront, but that's not to say down the line, maybe something else would come up. But I got so much Florida in this that I'm like, all right, let's maybe take a step back from there a little bit. So next project, science fiction, horror, something different? Yeah, Aspen. No, I don't know. I don't know. I got a bunch of stuff happening. But yeah, I don't know what the next one that I'm going to write is going to be. We'll see. For people who are interested, is there a place where they could find your soundtrack for this? Not as of now. We were thinking about my writing partner and I also did the soundtrack for my, my first film, but boy that we got a release for. So we were thinking about reaching out to that same company. But I'm sure regardless, we're going to have it up on Spotify. once the movie is released and stuff like that. If you're in a melancholy, strange mood, you can throw it on and listen to it. Excellent. We'll keep an eye out for that to see where people can find the music if they want to explore more deeply into the ambiance of this story, Mermaid. Thank you, Tyler. Thank you. Thank you so much. for sharing this uniquely Florida vision, which is part empathetic, part horror. Well, thank you so much, Summer. It was nice to meet you. The movie is Mermaid. It'll be out from, I believe, Utopia on April 8th. We'll have links to where you can hear it on Spotify once that's up out there. Again, thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And we'll be back with more Slice of Sci-Fi right after this. Slice of Sci-Fi Hey, this is Summer, and I'd like to remind everybody about the Star Trek book I co-edited, Women Take the Con, an unauthorized Star Trek essay collection by women writers about the women of Star Trek, the original series. And I'm really proud of this. Hope you guys go check it out. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. The link is right here. my co-editor Rich Handley was instrumental in pulling all of the elements for this book together and we are really proud of this book so if you are a fan of Star Trek the original series support us check it out I thank you Rich thanks you Star Trek fans thank you Once again, the movie is Mermaid in theaters April 8th from Utopia Films. I think it's just Utopia. And it was an official selection at the 2025 South by Southwest Film Festival. It's gotten a lot of positive reviews. I enjoyed it. It's very quirky. The very Florida moments are, in fact, very amusing. A couple of sections just moved really slow for me and I realized that was trying to show that Doug was trying to be better than he had been as a person from him caring for the mermaid. and it just some some sections were just too slow for my tastes uh but the the special effects the the costuming on the mermaids the the the mayhem they inflicted on their uh human i'm gonna i'm gonna say targets for less than a you know lack of a better word was very, very well done. And the music that Tyler composed, along with the other incidental music, it's also intriguing, but also a little bit quirky in places. And I'm not sure who composed what, but it fits the movie. So that's always a good thing. But how about you? Does Mermaid sound like a film you'd go see? Have you seen it already? Share your thoughts. Call in. The number is 602-635-6976 or shoot me an email, summer at sliceofscifi.com. You can also come by the website sliceofscifi.com and leave your comment or question in the discussion section for this episode. You can listen to Slice of Sci-Fi on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Player FM, iHeartRadio Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and Spotify. And if you're listening on Apple or Spotify or following along on Podchaser, please consider leaving us a rating or a review and let folks know how much you are enjoying the show and maybe they should check it out for themselves. You can find us on Blue Sky at sliceofsci-fi.com. Still hang out a little bit on Twitter at Slice of Sci-Fi and we are also on YouTube at Slice of Sci-Fi there. Go check it out. We are adding more video content, some of the interviews, some of the discussions we're having. we're putting out on video as well to accompany this audio. We have a Discord server. 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