Review: Sea Fever
Blu-ray & Digital HD: Sea Fever (2019)
Graduate student and oceanographer Siobhán (Hermione Corfield) boards an Irish trawler in preparation of studying some aquatic lifeforms. Little does she know that the tables are about to be turned on who will be the dominant species.
Immediately putting the crew in a state of unease due to her being a redhead (two seafaring superstitions of who not to allow onboard include females and redheads), the tension mounts even more as an unidentified object makes contact with the boat while out at sea and begins to eat into the hull.
At first thought to be some strange kind of barnacle, its true form, along with its deadly intentions, are slowly deduced by an ever decreasing crew as they battle against this destructive parasitic invader.
While all of the above may well begin to read like a cgi filled “peril on the seas” monster movie that you’ve seen many times before, Sea Fever rises above them by concentrating on the characters rather than the “monster”. Each person on the boat is given time onscreen to allow for empathy to be built for them, which makes for a bigger emotional hit when things begin to turn south.
Moments of peril and violence are spaced apart and mostly come out of left field, but with an ever increasing sense of dread and danger always prevalent and building with each passing moment.
Set entirely on the trawler, the sense of claustrophobia is palpable as the situation they find themselves in escalates, but writer/director Neasa Hardiman does a superb job of never leaving the viewer finding any of the shots dull. In fact it is the quieter scenes where the true feelings and personalities of all onboard are expressed, usually around the dining table or deep in the boats hull, which make what follows afterwards all the more poignant.
Forget any previous water bound “monster” movies that thoroughly disappointed (Underwater I’m looking at YOU), Sea Fever shows that less can most definitely result in more.
Sea Fever is released on 24th April 2020.
Review by Dave from a streaming link kindly supplied by Signature Entertainment.
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