Reviews
[Review] ‘Sea Fever’ is a Smart Character Drama That Subverts Aquatic Horror Tropes
There’s a moment near the end of the first act of Irish horror film Sea Fever that makes it clear to audiences just what type of film it is. Strange colored barnacles have begun appearing on the lower deck of fishing vessel Niamh Cinn Oir, creating unusual circles that have altered the boat’s physical texture. These circles have a gooey, mushy consistency to them – a gentle probe of the finger can push right through, which is exactly what a character does, despite the uncertainty of what lies beyond.
One of the thrills of watching horror films is waiting for the scare(s) to come. In this instance, writer/director Neasa Hardiman is well aware of those expectations: she keeps the camera trained on the hand and the strange circle, the music crescendos and… nothing. Hardiman resists the easy impulse to rip off an appendage in the most satisfying denial of expectations possible. Because that’s what Sea Fever is: a subversion of conventions, a zig when other (more conventional) films would zag and, above all, a smart film.
Sea Fever tells the story of smart, blunt, introverted grad student Siobhán (Hermione Corfield). Early in the film she is ordered out of the lab and into the real world by her professor. Siobhán specializes in behavioural patterns and her responsibilities aboard the trawler are to photograph and analyze their catch for abnormalities. Unfortunately for her, the crew are proper sea farers, which means that they are both extremely pragmatic and superstitious, particularly in regards to her red hair (which is bad luck on a boat).
Trouble looms when Captain Jarrod (Dougray Scott) discovers that the area he had planned to scour for fish is part of an exclusion zone. Unbeknownst to his wife Freya (Connie Nielsen) and the rest of the crew, he silently takes them in anyways – the crew is in a compromised position financially and they need a payday.
Almost immediately the ship becomes caught in…something. Shortly thereafter the mysterious barnacles appear and a cursory (terrifying) underwater investigation by Siobhán suggests they have been ensnared by a giant luminescent creature lurking deep below the surface. A mysterious boat on the horizon and a sick crew member soon raise the stakes as the crew must decide what they are willing to do – and sacrifice – in order to get home alive.
To casual viewers the description likely sounds familiar, evoking a variety of water-based horror films such as Leviathan, Sphere, The Abyss and even Virus. And yet Hardiman regularly seeks out ways to subvert the expectations that those other films have instilled in viewers. Early in the film attractive deck hand Johnny (Jack Hickey) and Siobhán have a meet cute as he helps her aboard the Niahm Cinn Oir, but Hardiman’s screenplay immediately dismisses the idea of a romantic coupling when Siobhan takes an interest in the handiwork of the ship’s engineer (Ardalan Esmaili).
There is a disaster aboard the N-29, the other boat that Jarrod, Johnny and Siobhán visit in search of answers, but it’s not an opportunity for cheap jump scares. Similarly, there is an infection that begins to creep through the crew, but the victims, the symptoms and the reactions are atypical for this kind of tale.
Considering the title of the film refers to a kind of sea-based insanity that befalls crews trapped for long periods of time in close quarters, as well as the paranoia that accompanies the spread of the infection, it would be reasonable to assume that Sea Fever will eventually turn into a full-on murderous brawl for survival. But while there is a certain level of disagreement, the film never descends into warfare; Hardiman opts instead for tension and level-headed arguments.
The film’s conflict comes from a place of desperation, but the characters never cease to be less than real people – they’re not simple caricatures who lose their minds when their safety is threatened. They bicker, they attempt to rationalize their situation, and they plot, but they don’t suddenly become homicidal killers. Sea Fever refuses to go the easy, familiar narrative route of simply turning characters into monsters; Hardiman would rather make them face the human realities of their situation. This often means that the film is more of a high concept character drama than a horrific monster mash.
That is not to say that Sea Fever doesn’t still have fantastical elements, though. The barnacles are revealed to be caused by bioluminescent tendrils that have suctioned themselves to the boat. The tendrils are revealed to be attached to the larger monster that resembles a glowing squid. Blue goo regularly oozes from the porous patches onto the deck and is tracked about the ship ominously. And the infection has more than a few icky body horror symptoms, including a legitimately shocking and unexpected demise for one character early in the film.
Ultimately Sea Fever is a subversive, intelligent, adult aquatic horror film that prioritizes characters first and foremost. Writer/director Hardiman has crafted a smart film that is aware of the conventions of the subgenre and leans into those tropes as often as she eschews them. The film looks great, it has unexpected developments and there is plenty of mystery in the mythology, which has elements of both environmental allegory and government conspiracy.
While Sea Fever may not be the madcap monster aquatic horror film that some audiences anticipate going in, the result is far more introspective and thought-provoking.
This is one that will stick with you.
Editor’s Note: This TIFF review was originally published on
Reviews
“AHS: Delicate” Review – “Little Gold Man” Mixes Oscar Fever & Baby Fever into the Perfect Product
‘AHS: Delicate’ enters early labor with a fun, frenzied episode that finds the perfect tone and goes for broke as its water breaks.
“I’ll figure it out. Women always do.”
American Horror Story is no stranger to remixing real-life history with ludicrous, heightened Murphy-isms, whether it’s AHS: 1984’s incorporation of Richard Ramirez, AHS: Cult’s use of Valerie Solanas, or AHS: Coven’s prominent role for the Axeman of New Orleans. Accordingly, it’s very much par for the course for AHS: Delicate to riff on other pop culture touchstones and infinitely warp them to its wicked whims. That being said, it takes real guts to do a postmodern feminist version of Rosemary’s Baby and then actually put Mia Farrow – while she’s filming Rosemary’s Baby, no less – into the narrative. This is the type of gonzo bullshit that I want out of American Horror Story! Sharon Tate even shows up for a minute because why the hell not? Make no mistake, this is completely absurd, but the right kind of campy absurdity that’s consistently been in American Horror Story’s wheelhouse since its inception. It’s a wild introduction that sets up an Oscar-centric AHS: Delicate episode for success. “Little Gold Man” is a chaotic episode that’s worth its weight in gold and starts to bring this contentious season home.
It’d be one thing if “Little Gold Man” just featured a brief detour to 1967 so that this season of pregnancy horror could cross off Rosemary’s Baby from its checklist. AHS: Delicate gets more ambitious with its revisionist history and goes so far as to say that Mia Farrow and Anna Victoria Alcott are similarly plagued. “Little Gold Man” intentionally gives Frank Sinatra dialogue that’s basically verbatim from Dex Harding Sr., which indicates that this demonic curse has been ruffling Hollywood’s feathers for the better part of a century. Anna Victoria Alcott’s Oscar-nominated feature film, The Auteur, is evidently no different than Rosemary’s Baby. It’s merely Satanic forces’ latest attempt to cultivate the “perfect product.” “Little Gold Man” even implies that the only reason that Mia Farrow didn’t go on to make waves at the 1969 Academy Awards and ends up with her twisted lot in life is because she couldn’t properly commit to Siobhan’s scheme, unlike Anna.
This is easily one of American Horror Story’s more ridiculous cold opens, but there’s a lot of love for the horror genre and Hollywood that pumps through its veins. If Hollywood needs to be a part of AHS: Delicate’s story then this is actually the perfect connective tissue. On that note, Claire DeJean plays Sharon Tate in “Little Gold Man” and does fine work with the brief scene. However, it would have been a nice, subtle nod of continuity if AHS: Delicate brought back Rachel Roberts who previously portrayed Tate in AHS: Cult. “Little Gold Man” still makes its point and to echo a famous line from Jennifer Lynch’s father’s television masterpiece: “It is happening again.”
“Little Gold Man” is rich in sequences where Anna just rides the waves of success and enjoys her blossoming fame. She feels empowered and begins to finally take control of her life, rather than let it push her around and get under her skin like a gestating fetus. Anna’s success coincides with a colossal exposition dump from Tavi Gevinson’s Cora, a character who’s been absent for so long that we were all seemingly meant to forget that she was ever someone who was supposed to be significant. Cora has apparently been the one pulling many of Anna’s strings all along as she goes Single White Female, rather than Anna having a case of Repulsion. It’s an explanation that oddly works and feeds into the episode’s more general message of dreams becoming nightmares. Cora continuing to stay aligned with Dr. Hill because she has student loans is also somehow, tragically the perfect explanation for her abhorrent behavior. It’s not the most outlandish series of events in an episode that also briefly gives Anna alligator legs and makes Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian kiss.
“Little Gold Man” often feels like it hits the fast-forward button as it delivers more answers, much in the same vein as last week’s “Ava Hestia.” These episodes are two sides of the same coin and it’s surely no coincidence that they’re both directed by Jennifer Lynch. This season has benefitted from being entirely written by Halley Feiffer – a first for the series – but it’s unfortunate that Lynch couldn’t direct every episode of AHS: Delicate instead of just four out of nine entries. That’s not to say that a version of this season that was unilaterally directed by Lynch would have been without its issues. However, it’s likely that there’d be a better sense of synergy across the season with fewer redundancies. She’s responsible for the best episodes of AHS: Delicate and it’s a disappointment that she won’t be the one who closes the season out in next week’s finale.
To this point, “Little Gold Man” utilizes immaculate pacing that helps this episode breeze by. Anna’s Oscar nomination and the awards ceremony are in the same episode, whereas it feels like “Part 1” of the season would have spaced these events out over four or five episodes. This frenzied tempo works in “Little Gold Man’s” favor as AHS: Delicate speed-runs to its finish instead of getting lost in laborious plotting and unnecessary storytelling. This is how the entire season should have been. Although it’s also worth pointing out that this is by far the shortest episode of American Horror Story to date at only 34 minutes. It’s a shame that the season’s strongest entries have also been the ones with the least amount of content. There could have been a whole other act to “Little Gold Man,” or at the least, a substantially longer cold open that got more out of its Mia Farrow mayhem.
“Little Gold Man” is an American Horror Story episode that does everything right, but is still forced to contend with three-quarters of a subpar season. “Part 2” of AHS: Delicate actually helps the season’s first five episodes shine brighter in retrospect and this will definitely be a season that benefits from one long binge that doesn’t have a six-month break in the middle. Unfortunately, anyone who’s already watched it once will likely not feel compelled to experience these labor pains a second time over. With one episode to go and Anna’s potential demon offspring ready to greet the world, AHS: Delicate is poised to deliver one hell of a finale.
Although, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, “How do you expect to be a good conclusion if this is what you’re chasing?”
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