Sea Fever

2019 Directed by Neasa Hardiman

The crew of a West of Ireland trawler—marooned at sea—struggle for their lives against a growing parasite in their water supply.

Hermione Corfield Ardalan Esmaili Olwen Fouéré Jack Hickey Elie Bouakaze Dougray Scott Connie Nielsen Dag Malmberg

Alternative Titles

躁海袭击, 躁动之海, 海热, 深海擴散

thriller horror science fiction

95 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★ 6

Imagine an X-Files episode that was just what happened before Scully and Mulder showed up to investigate.
Review by DirkH ★★★½ 1

I really enjoyed this. Often the best films are those that are not confused about what they are and don't try to be anything else but that.
Sea Fever is a single location monster movie, inspired by and (sometimes too) heavily borrowing from many of it's big brother predecessors. Which is absolutely no problem as it gives us a taut and highly enjoyable film.
The characters are given to us in broad strokes, but enough for us to care about what happens to them. The monster is interesting and beautifully designed. But what works best is the claustrophobic nature of the setting, giving that wonderfully tense sensation of inescapable dread.
All in all, if this type of movie is your thing you really should check it out.
Review by Paul Elliott ★★★

Mostly establishing its anxieties and uncertainties out of character-based tensions than from the terror in the ocean, Sea Fever is a rather enjoyable and sombre monster movie. It's writer and director, Neasa Hardiman, has unintentionally given rise to a film that almost talks directly to our contemporary global emergency, where the adversaries are practically invisible and where people are required to begin a quarantine situation.
For the duration of its run time, it's a substantial little monster movie which competently demonstrates that it's budgetary restrictions are not a problem by conveying more through suggestion than what is displayed, and by building the apprehension in a slow-burning manner, which works well within its isolated setting, the film experiments with a variety of practical strategies to generate an effectively chilling low budget horror thriller.
Review by Jacob Knight ★★½ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Frustrating, as this hints at being a Stuart Gordon-influenced creature feature that's riddled with glowing beasts and gross body horror, but ends up playing it too classy for its own good. In short, once the eyeballs started exploding, it's disappointing that the director was like "you know what we need now? A lot of debate and hand-wringing" instead of just letting faces melt into a parasite-infested sea. *Shrug*
Review by Tony the Terror😼🏳️‍🌈 👻 ★★★★ 4

Anyone who follows me on here knows I love underwater horror so I always get pretty giddy when I stumble onto a new one. In spite of going a little too hard at a friends birthday last night and paying for it severely all day, I still managed to stay upright after work long enough to watch this and I’m glad I did. It was storming like crazy outside which made the mood ideal.
This actually takes place mostly on the surface of the water, but it still counts to me. A fresh faced and socially awkward scientist joins a a very weathered fishing boat crew (Connie Nielsen is borderline unrecognizable) and the next thing you know they’ve discovered a…
Review by Mark ★★★½

I must have a soft spot for oceanic horror. One of my first "top 10" lists covered tropical horror (boxd.it/8YK4w). I guess I have Lovecraft to blame.
Sea Fever starts as a slow-burn with an ensemble cast that plays their roles as "understated" deep sea fishers but picks up the pace once they get stranded at sea.
The plot is convoluted and meanders a lot in the second half, but the overall concept is solid and significantly more entertaining than one of the other oceanic horror movies of 2020, The Beach House.
Review by marcricov ★★½ 2

Strong performances aside, what’s most disappointing about Neasa Hardiman’s nautical sweat-box isn’t that it suffers from a clear identity crisis or that it promises more nail-biting sequences than it delivers, but the fact that it gets flooded with too many ideas and we, as an audience, never really know how to feel about all the aquatic craziness going on.
Part viral-horror part sci-fi fantasy, there are some great moments to be found on board this damaged vehicle of a movie, but the constant drift between a variety of genres leaves the emotional weight of its murky narrative ultimately drowning in its own ambitions. It just needed to commit to a sole purpose - to scare, to enthral, to teach, to…
Review by Austin Burke ★★★½ 1

👍🏻65%
YouTube review - Click HERE
2020 list - Click HERE
Sea Fever is one of those films that managed to drop at a time where it hits harder than the filmmakers could have ever imagined. This is the ultimate quarantine movie. Not that I recommend watching this in quarantine, but it’s a film that actually deals with something similar to what we are dealing with. The stakes are (obviously) much higher here, as there is a parasite wreaking havoc on this crew. The obvious comparisons are going to be to The Thing and Alien, and those are as perfect as you can get, but this film never quite reaches those heights. It absolutely captures the claustrophobic feeling that it is going…
Review by Hungkat ★★½

If you feel unwell, please stay quarantined. How many times do they have to tell you that?
Review by Lebowskidoo🍿😷🍁 ★★★★ 1

Nothing like a movie about isolated folks fighting an infectious parasite that blows out out your eyeballs to really take your mind off the current worldwide pandemic.
Review by Fred 🇵🇷 ★★★ 8

"No sleep. One fella loses it."
"Spreads like wildfire."
Sea Fever may call to mind the familiarity of past creature features but where it breaks away from the pack is through its women who take center stage and elevate the film around them. Hermione Corfield, Olwen Fouéré (previously seen in Mandy) and Connie Nielsen all do fine work with their complex characters and make the film's unfolding drama feel grounded. Nielsen, in particular, stood out to me; partly because I've been a fan since her underappreciated work on Boss and partly because she dons an impeccable Irish accent in this despite hailing from Denmark. Of course, another woman, the one behind the camera, Neasa Hardiman, deserves praise in her own…
Review by Luca ★★★

This would have worked much better as a TV episode. The concept was cool, but it really did not need to be an hour and forty minutes long. It was very reminiscent of “creature of the week” shows like Dr. Who or The X Files, and could have easily been an episode for a show like that rather than a Reuter length movie. It just didn’t have enough depth to justify its runtime.

Recent reviews

Review by KangMyoungGyu ★★½

미지의 생물...
기생충으로 인한 사람들의 탐욕과 행동들...
Review by JesseKV ★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Starts off as a promising sea monster flick, but there is very little suspense through the middle third as the crew comes under attack...a few silly crew decisions later and we're left with a total dud of an ending
Review by Natt 🌈 ★★★★

The underwater visuals were fantastic. Great lead, cool creature. I really loved this. Aquatic horror has been my shit lately. 🌊
Review by ghostlybbyx ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Imagine seeing a mans eyes explode and then getting angry at someone for suggesting that you should stay isolated to make sure ur not infected 🥴
Review by Jon Ursenbach ★★★½

That was a pretty good extended cold open of The X-Files!
Review by Gunther76 ★★★

Inspired by Covid 19 before there was even such a thing which is remarkable when you think about it! Was ok, nice and goopy in some parts but we really need a big rubbery aquatic monster again I feel
Review by Marcos Luiz Fernandes ★★

No Brasil, Contágio em alto-mar. Terror que resvala em questões ambientais, mas morre na praia.
Review by Sam 🍃 ★★★★

Yes yes yes. I really enjoyed this, less about the fear and more about the characters handling of fever, superstition, science and loyalty. A really tight script with realistic characters. When people talk about something feelings so Hollywood it loses its integrity; whatever the opposite of that is, is what this movie achieves. There is no exaggeration or overdrawn peril, these characters act like real people and it kept me hooked. Extra kudos for the female characters in this movie, who are not sidelined nor defined by their relationships with other characters. I really appreciate the realism this movie aims for (despite its horror premise).
Review by mosquitodragon ★★★★

I've watched a few aquatic horror movies lately, and have been defending them much more than is probably healthy - shouting an impassioned appeal on the behalf of Underwater and Deepstar Six out into the indifferent abyss, as it were. It's just a weird obsession I seem to have developed.
Anyway, I found myself delving into these depths yet again this month, with little Irish indie horror film, Sea Fever. This is a completely different kind of film to those I have been boring you all to death on this January.
Well, it's an underwater monster movie, so maybe not all that different on the surface (oh God, will these puns ever stop, I'm not even trying now, I swear!)…
Review by ADyingAtheist ★★★

Sea fever... it happens.
Sea Fever shoots its shot a little bit too early; the antagonistic sea-born beast is revealed surprisingly early in the runtime, with the horror of the rest of the film instead being the result of human tensions and a fear of redheads, more than anything else.
That's not necessarily a bad idea, redheads are pretty spooky, but Sea Fever never leans hard enough into the concept - The Thing, this is not - and instead sags pretty hard in a slow middle. It does have a surprisingly competent protagonist, a rarity in horror films, but even she succumbs to Dumb Person (tm) tropes by film's end.
All in all a decent enough time that could have done with another couple of rounds in the writer's room.
Review by Ovejero ★★★½

Sea fever (2019 Irlanda, terror, ciencia ficción, intriga)
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La tripulación de una embarcación irlandesa pierde su rumbo en alta mar. Su vida corre peligro ya que un parásito ha hecho acto de presencia en su suministro de agua.
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Tenía esta película en la recámara hasta que oí al gran @moi_gascon recomendarla en su podcast @losjinetesdelapodcastlipsis (que si no lo habéis escuchado estáis tardando) y dije, vamos a darle. Grata sorpresa, sin ser la octava maravilla del mundo y sin grandes alardes, solo con un tripulación en alta mar y un barco pesquero chiquitito podrás pasar 1:30 de entretenimiento. No tiene nada malo, facilita de ver y disfrutable. No es la mejor en este sector pero tampoco para no…
Review by PapoDeCinema ★★

O acúmulo de cadáveres não concede ao filme urgência, principalmente em virtude da pouca habilidade de Neasa Hardiman para articular os aspectos da linguagem.
Crítica completa de Marcelo Müller:
www.papodecinema.com.br/filmes/contagio-em-alto-mar/