Sea Fever

Sea Fever is a 2019 science fiction horror thriller film written and directed by Neasa Hardiman, starring Hermione Corfield, Dougray Scott and Connie Nielsen. The film follows the crew of a marooned fishing trawler, who find themselves threatened by a parasitic infection.

This article is about the 2019 film. For the 1931 play, see Sea Fever (play). For the poem by John Masefield, see Sea-Fever.

Sea Fever
Promotional poster
Directed byNeasa Hardiman
Produced by
Written byNeasa Hardiman
Starring
Music byChristoffer Franzén
CinematographyRuairí O'Brien
Edited by
  • Barry Moen
  • Julian Ulrichs
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Signature Entertainment (United Kingdom)
  • Wildcard Distribution (Ireland)
Release date
  • 5 September 2019 (2019-09-05) (TIFF)
  • 24 April 2020 (2020-04-24) (United Kingdom and Ireland)
Running time
95 minutes
Country
LanguageEnglish

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2019. It was released on video on demand (VOD) in the United States on 10 April 2020 and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 24 April 2020. It has received generally positive reviews, with several critics comparing the film's plot to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plot

Siobhan, a scientist studying faunal behavioral patterns, purchases a place on the fishing trawler the Niamh Cinn Óir, manned by a crew of six: skipper Gerard, his wife Freya, ship's engineer Omid, Johnny, Ciara, and Sudi. As they set off, the Coast Guard alerts them that their planned destination, which is rich with fish, is in an exclusion zone. Unbeknownst to the others, Gerard takes them into the zone anyway; he needs a large haul of fish on this outing to keep the ship. As they travel through the zone, the ship runs into an unknown, shoal-like object which stops the boat. Omid discovers strange breaches in the hull which exude a blue-green slime. The crew suspects barnacles, and as Siobhan possesses the only diving gear onboard, Gerard sends her armed with a knife to cut the boat free. Underwater, she discovers the tentacles of an enormous bio-luminescent organism far below adhering to the boat. Thinking it may be a newly-discovered form of giant squid, the crew attempt to capture it with their net, but the creature proves too heavy. While releasing the net, Johnny cuts his hand on the rope, which is covered in the same slime.

The crew sees another ship on the horizon, and Gerard, Johnny, and Siobhan row to it to seek help. Once onboard they find the entire crew dead from suicide inside the cabin, with one of the men appearing to have had his eyes scooped out. Gerard instructs the others not to speak of this discovery, calling it "sea fever" and insisting the other crew merely went mad. Upon their return to their own ship, they discover that the creature has released them. Lowering their nets, they make large catch of fish, and the crew is in high spirits.

That night, Johnny begins to exhibit uncharacteristic behavior, including wanting to go for a swim. Suspecting a fever, Siobhan performs a medical diagnosis on him and discovers movement in his retinas. As he is washing his face, Johnny suddenly goes blind and his eyes burst, releasing minuscule organisms that slither down the drain and enter the ship's water system. The crew rushes to save Sudi, who is taking a shower. Sudi suffers numerous cuts over his body as the waterborne creatures bite him, and Johnny dies from his injuries. Checking their water filtration system the crew find that their entire water supply has been contaminated by the small creatures, who Siobhan realizes are larvae of the larger creature. Gerard pilots the ship towards home as quickly as possible.

Disinfectant and UV light both fail to kill the larvae in the ship's water. As a last ditch effort, Siobhan and Omid electrocute the trawler using the ship's arc welder, apparently sterilizing the boat's water supply and preventing further infection. However, Siobhan insists that when they arrive at port, they self-quarantine on the trawler for a further 36 hours before returning to shore: if any of them have already been infected, they risk introducing the infection to the public. When Sudi dies from the infection, and the crew refuses to quarantine, Siobhan disables the trawler by entangling the propeller.

The crew checks their eyes for the parasites. Siobhan, Omid, Freya, and Ciara show no signs of infection, but Gerard is clearly infected, and after a heartfelt goodbye Freya mercy kills him by slicing his throat. Ciara goes insane and attacks Siobhan, only to fall to her death. As Ciara dies, a parasite emerges from her eye, revealing her to have been infected. Now with only Freya, Siobhan, and Omid remaining, Freya decides to take the rowboat and try to make it to shore to double their chances of being found.

Siobhan and Omid discover that one of the larvae in the ship's water tank survived and has become a larger creature, which eats through the ship's hull to return to the ocean. The trawler begins to sink. Siobhan and Omid use alcohol to ignite a fire on the Niamh Cinn Óir and then abandon it on an inflatable boat. Omid, who cannot swim, falls overboard, and as he thrashes he is seized by the adult creature. Siobhan rescues him, but cuts her bare hand on the creature's tendril, becoming infected. As a rescue helicopter, alerted by the fire, approaches, Siobhan dives into the water, swimming down towards the bioluminescent creature.

Cast

Production

Actress Toni Collette was originally chosen for the lead role.[3] However, scheduling issues meant she became unavailable, and she was replaced by Connie Nielsen.[4][5]

Release

Sea Fever had it world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2019.[6]

On 9 April 2020, the film was made available for viewing via an online live stream hosted by distributor Gunpowder & Sky's label Dust.[7] The film was intended to receive a theatrical release on 10 April 2020, but instead was released on video on demand (VOD) on that date in the United States.[7][8] It was released on VOD in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 24 April 2020 by Signature Entertainment and Wildcard Distribution, respectively.[8][9][10]

Reception

Sea Fever has received generally positive reviews, with several critics drawing comparisons between the film's plot and the COVID-19 pandemic.[11][12][13] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 6.79/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "If Sea Fever never quite heats up as much as it could, it remains an engrossing, well-acted sci-fi thriller with effective horror elements."[14] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[15]

David Fear of Rolling Stone gave the film three-and-a-half out of five stars, writing that, "amid the claustrophobic compositions and shadowy hallways and tick-tick-tick of inevitable sickness, Sea Fever goes from being a monster movie to an eerily timed example of pandemic horror."[12] Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times noted that, when the film premiered at TIFF, "many viewers read [it] as a metaphor for climate change [...] Nowadays, the lessons in this imaginative and gripping film seem to have multiple applications."[16] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian awarded the film three out of five stars, calling it "a low-budget effort with high ambitions, something that's hard not to admire".[8] Katie Rife of The A.V. Club gave Sea Fever a grade of "B", writing that, "while the film puts its influences way out front, its impressive execution makes it well worth the 89 minutes."[17]

A. A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave the film a "B-", writing that "Sea Fever tackles [its premise] with almost too much restraint [...] All the same, there's no denying that the movie eventually reaches a confrontation of disturbing relevance."[11] Devika Girish of The New York Times wrote that the film "seems unsure about its own shape, switching indecisively between creature feature, epidemic thriller and environmental drama without articulating any meaty ideas."[13] Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com gave the film two out of four stars, concluding: "You'll leave Hardiman's deck wondering why you aren't more rattled, or even seasick, while hoping for another genre flick from the clearly skilled director soon. Perhaps one that anchors into a deeper story this time."[18]

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References
  1. "Sea Fever". Cineuropa. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  2. Garcia, Eric Ortiz (9 April 2020). "Sea Fever Interview: Neasa Hardiman On Her Psychological Sci-Fi Thriller That Now Feels Even More Relevant". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  3. Kay, Jeremy (15 February 2018). "Toni Collette joins Neasa Hardiman's 'Sea Fever' for Epic (exclusive)". Screen Daily. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  4. Abbatescianni, Davide (15 October 2018). "Filming under way on new Irish sci-fi thriller Sea Fever". Cineuropa. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  5. "Connie Nielsen and Dougray Scott Join Neasa Hardiman's Irish Thriller Sea Fever". IFTN. 5 October 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  6. "Sea Fever". Toronto International Film Festival. 7 September 2019. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  7. Anderton, Ethan (2 April 2020). "Sci-Fi Horror Film 'Sea Fever' Will Have the First Ever Live Streamed Movie Premiere on April 9". /Film. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  8. Lee, Benjamin (8 April 2020). "Sea Fever review – sturdy, slimy sci-fi horror trawls for cliches". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  9. "Sea Fever". Signature Entertainment. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  10. "Irish sci-fi thriller SEA FEVER launches on digital platforms today". Wildcard Distribution. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  11. Dowd, A. A. (8 April 2020). "Sea Fever is the accidental zeitgeist horror movie of our isolated here and now". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  12. Fear, David (8 April 2020). "'Sea Fever' Review: From Monster Movie to Eerily Timely Pandemic Horror". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  13. Girish, Devika (9 April 2020). "'Sea Fever' Review: A Timely but Derivative Contagion Thriller". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  14. "Sea Fever (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  15. "Sea Fever Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  16. Murray, Noel (9 April 2020). "Review: Five new movies to watch at home (or not), ranked from must-see to skip it". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  17. Rife, Katie (2 October 2019). "Celebrated auteurs, Freddy Krueger drag, and exploding eyeballs: The best of Fantastic Fest 2019". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  18. Laffly, Tomris (10 April 2020). "Sea Fever movie review & film summary (2020)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
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