It’s been happening so quietly that not a lot of people outside of diehard genre fans will have even noticed it’s taken place, but Irish horror has been undergoing a revolution, with Sea Fever just one of many acclaimed movies to have emerged in the last few years alone.
When you consider that such popular and well-received titles including You Are Not My Mother, The Hallow, The Hole in the Ground, A Dark Song, Grabbers, Nocebo, and many more have all emerged from a relatively small country in such a short space of time, it’s clear that there’s something spooky in the water on the Emerald Isle.
Writer and director Neasa Hardiman’s aquatic terror may have premiered before the pandemic, but it unwittingly became a parable for social distancing after releasing in April of 2020. Hermione Corfield’s Siobhán is a marine biology student cast out to the middle of nowhere on a fishing trawler, where a startling discovery instantly places everyone on edge.
A mysterious parasitic creature catches wind of their presence, and begins forcing the crew further and further apart in more ways than one after striking them down one at a time with an unexplainable affliction. Bolstered by a robust 87 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, Sea Fever has now parlayed its enthusiastic reception into streaming success at long last, with FlixPatrol revealing it to be one of the most-watched features on the ViaPlay global rankings this weekend, even if it’s definitely going to put you off going anywhere near the open water for a while.