Sea Fever


Sea Fever is a 2019 science fiction 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.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2019. It was released on video on demand 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, they are warned by the Coast Guard that their planned destination, which is rich with fish, is in an exclusion zone. Gerard, unbeknownst to the others, takes them into the zone, because 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

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

Release

Sea Fever had it world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September 2019.
On 9 April 2020, the film was made available for viewing via an online live stream hosted by distributor Gunpowder & Sky's label Dust. The film was intended to receive a theatrical release on 10 April 2020, but instead was released on video on demand on that date in the United States. It was released on VOD in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 24 April 2020 by Signature Entertainment and Wildcard Distribution, respectively.

Reception

Sea Fever has received generally positive reviews, with several critics drawing comparisons between the film's plot and the COVID-19 pandemic. 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." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
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." Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times noted that, when the film premiered at TIFF, "many viewers read as a metaphor for climate change Nowadays, the lessons in this imaginative and gripping film seem to have multiple applications." 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". 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."
A. A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave the film a "B-", writing that "Sea Fever tackles with almost too much restraint All the same, there's no denying that the movie eventually reaches a confrontation of disturbing relevance." 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." 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."