By Eric Ortiz (@EricOrtizG)
Fishmonger (2023) is a short film that has been shown this year at some of the coolest genre film festivals, specifically Fantastic Fest, Sitges and Mórbido Fest.
It’s a peculiar black-and-white creature movie, set on an Irish island. The protagonist is Christie (Dominic Burgess), who receives the news that his mother (Mari Weiss) is about to die. According to local religious beliefs, if Christie remains single, his mother will end up in hell. His options to save her soul are limited: he must marry the only single woman on the island (Penny O’Brien) or take his own life.
From this premise, American filmmaker Neil Ferron takes us into even weirder territory, involving Sinead (Donnla Hughes), a female fish creature who, in exchange for some semen, could grant Christie a wish. In Fishmonger there is absurd humor, grotesquery, an improbable love story – with a moment straight out of a musical –, but also a really bleak outcome. I talked about all of this with director and co-writer Ferron.
Eric Ortiz (EO): You’re from the United States, but Fishmonger is an Ireland-set short.
Neil Ferron (NF): I am definitely American but was raised in an Irish American family. My grandma was a very proud Irish American woman. She would talk a lot about how our family came from Milltown Malbay, in County Clare of Ireland, and would tell us stories of the old country and selkies, which is this seal-like creature in Irish mythology. Then I was actually lucky enough to get a scholarship and go live in Ireland for a year.
I refer to Fishmonger as a mutated Irish folktale told by a west coast boy who grew up watching Pee Wee’s Playhouse and listening to folktales from his grandma.
EO: Where did the mythology of the unmarried son come from?
NF: We’re a Catholic family so there’s guilt, there is pressure. My mom and everyone in our family would love it if I would get married, there is a real sense of that being a very good thing.
It was actually day two of our shoot, I was taking a break and I pulled out my phone and I saw that my godmother sent me an email. I don’t think she had any idea that we were shooting a movie about marriage pressure and she was just like, “hey Neil, I just wanted to tell you, by the way, I have your grandmother’s engagement ring and if you ever want to use it, it’s waiting for you.” It was just out of the blue and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing. It was a very sweet email but she was definitely like, “hey, don’t forget we really like your girlfriend and we think that you should maybe do it already.”
Marriage pressure is a real thing in my family and heightening it to a level of dark humor was a part of Fishmonger in a big way.
EO: Tell me more about the black-and-white style.
NF: I really loved two types of films. One of them is the Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, live-action cartoon type of approach. Then I also really loved Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and these epic things.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) is Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, 1948) in bright color. It’s about a bicycle but it’s really about a human being, their soul, and how you are supposed to face the world.
Fishmonger is mashing those two together in terms of giving the black-and-white epic a more silly energy. It’s just putting together the two things I love the most.
EO: What about the stuff related to the sea?
NF: I grew up in Seattle and we’re just surrounded by water there. When I lived in Ireland, it’s stunning and beautiful, but it felt a lot like Seattle, where it’s like these big, aggressive, rocky beaches, and this cold ocean.
I love going swimming in Seattle with my friends who are from a tropical part of the world, because you jump in and they’re horrified, they’re like “what is this water? It hurts me.” And you’re like “right, that’s swimming,” it’s like a painful experience to jump in the Pacific Ocean. That’s what I grew up with, I love the rocky coastlines and seagulls. It’s my home.
EO: How was the process behind the creature?
NF: The notion was that there was a time when Sinead was sexy and young, she liked being able to give out wishes and take semen from these fishermen. But then, as the years went by, it got old for her and she started to feel like maybe she was being used by and using other people. So when Christie meets her, she’s given up on herself, she’s really sealed her heart off in a lot of ways.
That feels very similar to things that I’ve gone through, in terms of maybe living out a life that is not authentic to who you are, and then maybe finding yourself in a state of depression, having to find love again.
That was something that we also wanted to work into the creature design. At one point she was beautiful and seductive, but that was a long time ago, that was a different era in her life.
I wanted everything for Sinead to be something that creates sympathy. I love the humanness of creatures. They teach us about who we really are.
EO: The twist at the end is very grim.
NF: If you made it this far into the interview, stop reading now if you don’t want a spoiler…
The notion that the whole wild story is a fantasy that Christie has before he dies at the end of the rope, when I wrote that it seemed like balancing out how happy the ending had gotten. Then weeks later I realized that it was a response to my uncle Tom killing himself in 2017. He was a really special person to my family, such a special weirdo. When I found out that he shot himself, it just broke something inside of me. It’s still something that I’ve been processing.
I think a part of what Fishmonger and the ending is, is me wanting to imagine that he had one last fantasy, one last wild, silly tale, because he was someone who loved Monty Python, he was just this kooky, strange guy. It felt too empty and sad to not try and give something to him, in that last moment. It’s a reimagining of my uncle Tom’s death, or an extra element to it, that I hope could be true, that he experienced a moment of joy in his final moments.
I also wanted to open up a discussion, so many suicides happen and no one will talk about them. It’s a comedy but I wanted to have Fishmonger be the opening of a door for myself and for others to say “suicide is real.” The world is a dark place, we don’t always get happy endings. I wanted to acknowledge that as well.