'Resident Evil' Director Zach Cregger Says He's Open to an 'Aquamarine' Horror Movie With Sara Paxton as a Deadly Mermaid

Twenty years ago, Aquamarine gave audiences a mermaid who wanted to find love, two girls determined to help her, and a summer at the beach they would never forget. Sara Paxton played the title character opposite Emma Roberts and JoJo Levesque, and it is about as far from a Zach Cregger horror movie as you can get.

That distance may be exactly what makes the idea so entertaining. Cregger, who is married to Paxton, has spent the last several years finding frightening turns in stories audiences think they understand. Now someone has asked what would happen if he got his hands on his wife’s most famous mermaid role. Cregger says he is open to turning Aquamarine into a horror movie with Paxton returning as a deadly mermaid. During a podcast interview promoting Resident Evil, the filmmaker was asked about fans calling for him to put a sinister spin on the 2006 fantasy. He said he and Paxton had never discussed making it, but responded, “I’m not opposed to that."

Could ‘Aquamarine’ Really Become a Horror Movie?

The original movie, based on Alice Hoffman’s book, follows friends Claire and Hailey after a storm deposits Aquamarine in a swimming pool. She needs their help proving that true love exists, and the girls have their own reasons for wanting her to succeed. Its story revolves around friendship and an extraordinarily helpful mermaid, which leaves plenty of room for Cregger to imagine what a far less friendly version might do.

Paxton would hardly be a newcomer to horror if the idea ever went beyond an interview. She appeared in The Innkeepers and the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left, giving her experience with darker material after playing Aquamarine. A return to the character two decades later could also be a very different proposition from remaking the original movie with someone new in the role. There is already another Aquamarine project in development, though it is heading in a different direction. Disney+ and Disney Channel have ordered a pilot for a series centered on Coral, the daughter of Aquamarine and Raymond. Roberts is set to return as Claire, while Jake McDorman will reprise his role as Raymond. Paxton’s involvement in that project has not been announced.

For now, Cregger’s version remains a wonderfully strange hypothetical. He has given no indication that he is writing, directing, or developing an Aquamarine horror movie, and Paxton has not weighed in on the pitch. But if she ever does want to trade Aquamarine’s romantic quest for something considerably more dangerous, Cregger is at least willing to hear the idea out.