While on leave in a seaside town, Johnny develops an attraction to a young woman with dark hair. He discovers that she works as a mermaid in the local carnival. After experiencing some bizarre events, Johnny starts to suspect that she might be a real mermaid who kills people during the full moon.
Dennis Hopper's sailor suit was slightly darkened so it would read as white on film. During production, Hopper was spotted by military police who threatened to arrest him for wearing a dirty uniform. Dennis Hopper insisted on not using a double for the scuba diving sequence. The club patrons in the opening scene, in the Blue Grotto Bar, were friends of the crew. They appeared because there was no money in the budget to hire extras. The seagull's beak was wired shut to prevent it from injuring the actors. The film's original negative is owned by Nicolas Winding Refn. Peter Lorre was approached to play the role of Capt. Murdock, but the filmmakers couldn't afford the salary he demanded. The screenplay was expanded from a short story called "The Secrets of the Sea" by writer-director Curtis Harrington which was finally made available in its entirety in 2013 in Harrington's posthumously-published autobiography, "Nice Guys Don't Work in Hollywood." Writer/director Curtis Harrington had a lifelong obsession with the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, which surfaced in many of his films. The story was inspired by, and the title "Night Tide" was derived from, Poe's poem "Annabel Lee."
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