I missed out on catching Sea Fever when it made its festival rounds in 2019 and COVID-19 made my hope of seeing it in a theater little more than a fever dream. As a lover of aquatic horror I was damn excited for this movie, and wanted to see it at the first possible chance. That chance presented itself in the form of film distributor Gunpowder & Sky’s SciFi streaming service “DUST,” which promised a live-stream world premiere followed by a Zoom Q&A.
I’ll admit that I was dubious, having never heard of DUST, or Gunpowder & Sky for that matter. In retrospect, I had no need for concern. DUST has a pretty great selection of SciFi Films, and Gunpowder & Sky has an impressive pedigree, including Villains, Lords of Chaos, Summer of ‘84, and Cam, among others. They’re also the folks who run Alter, which distributes a host of phenomenal short horror films (and a few features).
H.P. Lovecraft said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” While I approached this Live-Stream premiere with a hefty scoop of trepidation, it turns out it was wholly unfounded. Truth-be-told, I absolutely loved the premiere. While nothing beats the experience of seeing a film in theaters, it was wonderful having an opportunity to have a film-experience.
As best as I could tell, the streaming premiere of Sea Fever was live, with no opportunity to pause or rewind. The Q&A followed immediately after, even providing an amusingly candid glimpse at the actors and filmmakers as they acclimated themselves to the video-conference software. While the real-time nature of the presentation may sound oppressive, it did a good job of replicating the theater experience. I didn’t once find myself distracted by my phone, and I only left my seat to hurriedly use the restroom and grab a beer from the fridge (which, admittedly, is an improvement on the theater experience). It also offered the convenience of toggle-able captions, which I’m embarrassed to admit I used to handle some of the film’s thicker Irish accents.
As the COVID-19 shelter in place drags on, it’s nice to get little reminders of life outside the house. I’d gladly watch future Livestream premieres. The ongoing pandemic will necessitate them, but even after life returns to normal I’d love to catch an event like this for films that would otherwise be relegated to a strictly Direct-to-Video release.
As for the film itself, I enjoyed Sea Fever quite a bit. I’m a sucker for aquatic horror. I’ve seen Leviathan and Deep Star Six more times than I can count. I saw Underwater twice in theaters, and sat at the edge of my seat, grinning like an idiot for the entire film. Sea Fever presents a slightly different form of aquatic horror.
While the aforementioned films involve a monster plaguing a hapless cadre of seafaring victims, Sea Fever instead focuses on the aftermath of the crew’s encounter with the unfathomable. Rather than a slimy beast tearing a crew apart from the outside, Sea Fever is about a monster tearing a group of sailors apart from within, figuratively and literally. It’s less a monster movie, and more a seabound eco-horror in the vein of Harbinger Down, Black Mountain Side, and The Last Winter. It also shares more than a few elements with Eli Roth’s (and later Travis Z.’s) Cabin Fever.
Neasa Hardiman‘s Sea Fever follows Siobhán (Hermione Corfield), a socially inept marine biology student doing fieldwork on a commercial fishing ship. Siobhán’s analytical nature runs counter to her superstitious shipmates, who are as wary of her social inelegance as they are of her red hair (apparently redheads are bad luck for sailors, who knew). Stuck together on the ship, she slowly bonds with her shipmates, who largely forgive her strangeness. As we learn about the characters, we realize that Gerard (Dougray Scott), the ship’s captain, has ignored the boundaries of a somewhat mysterious “Exclusion Zone,” and steered the ship into dangerous waters.
What kicks off from here is a slow-burning infection thriller. The Exclusion Zone leaves the crew exposed to a mysterious parasite with deadly symptoms. As the parasite spreads through the ship, tensions rise, and characters are left untrusting of one another. It’s a fairly classic setup, but Sea Fever manages to feel particularly timely, even prescient, as the crew fights with the invisible threat of disease and the helplessness of isolation and quarantine.
Characters are forced to decide between their own well-being and the possibility of spreading the infection further. For a film produced in 2018-2019, some of the central arguments feel ripped from the current COVID-19-driven headlines. Watching it in a live-stream form, stuck at home on a Thursday night, I found myself slack-jawed at certain sequences, especially as the concept of quarantine comes into play.
Sea Fever isn’t without its flaws. As a slow-burn, it should reward its viewer’s patience; however, it has a few excellent horror sequences early on that aren’t quite matched later on. In spite of this, the first death sequence is absolutely spectacular. It could end up being one of the best deaths of the year. It’s also got some great, gooey creature effects, and a satisfying blend of practical effects and CGI. While the characters are largely believable, there are some baffling decisions. The most ludicrous of these involve characters sticking their bare fingers in mysterious goo. Still, these are minor quibbles that never took me too far out of the film.
As Sea Fever reached its conclusion, I became more and more thankful that I’d been able to catch it in its live-stream premiere. It was a perfect format for an infection film and added a level of immersion that the theater experience couldn’t. While I love the theatrical experience, it can be a challenge tracking down the screenings, especially with the proliferation of VOD. Often films like Sea Fever will have a nomadic festival run, followed by a day-and-date release in a small handful of theaters. It adds a level of exclusivity that seems antithetical to the communal nature of films. This live presentation managed to provide a similar experience at home.
While the live-stream has passed, Sea Fever is now available to rent on streaming services. And it’s well worth a watch.