Oct. 24, 2026

Countdown To Halloween!  Sci-Fi Horror Pick #3 “Sea Fever”

Countdown To Halloween!  Sci-Fi Horror Pick #3 “Sea Fever”
Countdown To Halloween!  Sci-Fi Horror Pick #3 “Sea Fever”
Intimate Knowledge
Countdown To Halloween!  Sci-Fi Horror Pick #3 “Sea Fever”

We are revealing our favorite sci-fi horror hits: from aliens to creepy technology to unexplained contagious parasites, we’ve got some winners for you to watch. Every weekend we are counting down to Halloween, giving you our top recommendations for guaranteed horror movie hits. There are so many sub-genres in the horror movie category, each Saturday and Sunday we’ll highlight our top movies within that category.”

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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday, October 24th. This is our last weekend and our last Saturday before Halloween. Get those horror movies in. And this Saturday, we are excited about the genre we have for you. Sci-fi horror. And the first recommendation we have for you is a throwback to the Alien movies. The Thing movies of old. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. A fun find. We love, love, love this movie. And we love that we, it's rare that we are discovering movies that, wait, where did this one come from? This one came out of nowhere for us. Yes.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: And the reason why it might come out of nowhere for anybody who is hearing about it for the first time is that it was supposed to be a big theatrical opening. Yes. on April 10th of 2020. And yes, everything, the world was shut down. They were supposed to have this big partnership with Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest, but the coronavirus changed those plans.

00:01:15
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy to think, and when you see the movie, you see big time talent and big budget. Actually, it looks like what you just described.

00:01:24
Speaker 2: Exactly. So instead, they had like a a virtual pay-per-view live stream premiere. They had to do that. And look, so it didn't fall on a lot of people's radars, including ours. So coming in number three for our sci-fi horror pick on this Saturday before Halloween, Sea Fever. And you put it perfectly. It's like aliens meets the thing meets Jaws. And it really has so many cool elements to it. There is a bit of a slow build, but It's wonderfully acted. The scenery is compelling. And you're left to, you're kind of growing further and further on the edge of your seat. Like, what is happening here?

00:02:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, the anticipation. I mean, when you think to Alien, the thing, and as most people have seen those, think about the Kurt Russell, the thing, old school, where you have a group, a crew that's kind of trapped in one area, whether it's a spaceship, they were at a compound, this one's on a ship to where nobody can escape. And there's a danger lurking and we have to figure out what it is. We don't even know what's the threat. It's that whole setup, that scenario, which is exactly what's in the alien and the thing. And there's something about that. There's no escape.

00:02:40
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:02:40
Speaker 1: And you don't even know what you're running from. Yes. Yes.

00:02:43
Speaker 2: And it's like in this picturesque, it feels like, what was it, off the coast of somewhere deep in the Atlantic. Let me read the synopsis for everybody. They put it much better than I usually do. Solitary marine biology student Siobhan enters a week on a ragged fishing trawler, miserably at odds with the close-knit crew. But out in the deep Atlantic, an unfathomable life form soon ensnares the boat. As members of the crew now succumb to a strange infection, Siobhan must overcome her alienation and win their trust before everyone is lost. So it's that good.

00:03:22
Speaker 1: It's that good, and soon as it You start seeing the actors, and you go, where do I know her from? And you go, where do I know him from? It's that kind of movie. This is really, really well acted. And the lead, like, her, I guess, robes her brilliance as her character's brilliance, having to be really smart, but also being standoffish. She carries something about her character and its mood. She wasn't like a badass. but she was a intellectual badass who saved everybody.

00:04:01
Speaker 2: She was a critical thinker, and she's a redhead in this movie, and it's very funny because that plays a prominent role in the superstition of the crew. Her name is Hermione Corfield. You might not know the name, but you know the face. She's in Mission Impossible. She's in Star Wars, The Last Jedi, and the one I really know her from, we haven't talked about this, another great backwoods horror film, Rust Creek. She's the main girl who starts out running and gets taken by these crazy people. So she's had some stellar movies in her resume and in her lineup, and she is an amazing actor. The other one, Connie Nielsen. You'll remember her from Wonder Woman, from Gladiator. She's the love interest of Russell Crowe. She is the wife of the ship captain and the co-owner of the boat.

00:04:49
Speaker 1: She seemed to me to be the one in charge of the whole movie.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: She kind of did.

00:04:52
Speaker 1: You're saying she wasn't the captain. I thought she was. The whole movie, she seems to be the one in charge of that.

00:04:58
Speaker 2: Maybe she is. Maybe that was sexist of me to assume that her husband was.

00:05:02
Speaker 1: Oh, no, no, no. I thought you were seeing it there. I don't know. It was just she plays. And again, she's more of that, we remember from Wonder Woman, right? As the head of the Amazons. She's that kind of powerful. She has a wave. I like that actress a lot.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: Yes, and then you have a crew of guys that I wouldn't know any of their names, but they were all just so believable, so good. The engineer is great.

00:05:24
Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: The engineer is awesome. And Nisa Hardiman, she directed episodes of the Netflix mystery thriller series Untamed. She's the director of this film. So she didn't have a lot of credits to her name, but this was a good one. It's an hour 30 minutes, which is our sweet spot. And Rotten Tomatoes, this one shook me. Critics, 87%. Not a surprise. It's so good. The audience gave it 47%. What?

00:05:56
Speaker 1: Slow.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: That's the only thing I can think of that it takes a little while for the mystery to unravel. But if you're into... There is such a sweeping... energy to this movie where you get caught up in the environment that they're in and figuring out what's happening. And maybe people just want nonstop action. That's always when the audience gives it a lower score and we liked it. I always think it's because it's a little bit of a build. The critics' consensus reads as follows. If Sea Fever never quite heats up as much as it could, it remains an engrossing, well-acted sci-fi thriller with effective horror elements. You don't know what's below. And it's really, really, I actually thought the special effects were awesome because it looked like it was part jellyfish, part alien, part sea creature. You just couldn't tell what this thing was that attached itself to the boat.

00:06:57
Speaker 1: And it was cool that you didn't know and you couldn't figure out and you go through the whole movie almost. You don't know what you're fighting or they're fighting or you don't know what to be scared of. And then people start dying and dying pretty horrifically.

00:07:09
Speaker 2: In the worst of ways. I mean, there is.

00:07:11
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

00:07:12
Speaker 2: We won't give it away. But the way you die when you get infected with whatever this sea creature, this thing below, actually is emitting and putting into the ship, you're not going to believe it until you see it. And then to think that you're anticipating being on this boat, dying in the same way that you just saw your crew member die, that'll scare anybody.

00:07:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is an unexpected. This is a fun find. And you could tell I was surprised by it. Like, why is this movie not on our radar? And why is this movie, did it go straight to streaming? It makes sense. This movie is a big problem. Almost a big screen movie in a lot of ways. Yeah, this is a big budget. It looks like a big budget movie.

00:07:55
Speaker 2: Yes, and that was what they were supposed to do. Like I said, they had this whole big rollout in the theaters. They had all these plans, and then COVID changed it. And interesting, in the times that we were all in when this movie came to streaming, it reflected in a lot of ways how we all felt trapped inside. There is something that's spreading. Like, interestingly, this was thematically, without them even knowing it when they were making it, on brand at the time it came out. If there had only been a way to go to the theaters, maybe people wouldn't have wanted to see it because it was too close to home.

00:08:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is it? What's killing us? How do we stop it? Yeah, that was that whole thing.

00:08:32
Speaker 2: So maybe in a way it was very ill-timed because people might not have had the stomach. to process what this movie was showing because it was too similar to what we were all scared about. The Detroit News actually put this out at the time, The Power of Sea Fever. is that it's not explicitly about the ongoing health crisis, but it deals with themes and philosophical struggles that perfectly align with our present situation. Its timing is perfect, and it's elevated by that timeliness. But I wonder how many people would have wanted to watch it if they read the synopsis.

00:09:08
Speaker 1: Eh, you don't immediately, I don't know. I don't know if you immediately put it together, because it is, it's a sci-fi horror movie. I don't know. At the time, that's hard to say because a lot of what does happen has to do with being infected and things getting in your body that you don't know are even there until it's too late. And what's going to happen to me? And yeah, all that stuff's there.

00:09:29
Speaker 2: I hadn't thought about that until I read that critical review. And I thought, wow, that does make sense in the timing of it. I can see why people would have thematically felt like it was reflecting, well, it was art reflecting life. When we come back, we're going to tell you what the audience thought of this, where to watch it, and why we believe it is a guaranteed horror hit. Welcome back, everyone, to our Sci-Fi Saturday. We have all of our sub-genres of horror movies for you on the weekends, counting down to Halloween. And yes, this is our number three Sci-Fi guaranteed horror hit. It's called Sea Fever, and you can find it streaming on Amazon Prime, on Tubi, and on YouTube. And of course, you can always rent it if you want on Apple or Fandango. I saw some audience reviews, and look, we mentioned that it had a bizarrely low, lower than expected Rotten Tomatoes score for the audience. But those who did like it, I thought they had some very interesting reviews. Tom L. said, intelligently written, well-acted, and expertly directed. Effective Oh, wow. with human relationships and interaction more front and center. So maybe, and I thought that explained. Like, even he was saying, okay, y'all who always want to watch Saw and Chucky and Jason and Friday the 13th, you might not like this one. It is an intellectual sci-fi horror, but I think if you go into the movie knowing that, you'll appreciate it.

00:11:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, this ain't that. Nobody's chasing folks around on this ship and killing them with a weapon of some kind. No, no, no. This is a different... They aren't even being hunted necessarily by an evil force. So it's not even almost a good versus evil battle going on. We think there's a monster. Yes, so that's a good heads up to have if you announce to everybody, ooh, got a horror movie. And everybody's thinking Slasher and somebody with a hockey mask is chasing everybody. This ain't that. They're going to be disappointed. You need to get everybody ready for what this is. And it is a crowd pleaser.

00:11:55
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. Horror F wrote it like this. Loved this movie. The characters and performances were legit. And the thought of being stuck on a boat with a parasite in the water is just terrifying. And that's it. I mean, that's what you do. You put yourself on that boat. And when they go, there's a point in the movie where they think that they've got help because basically they're stuck out here in the water. They're trying to, this is a family run boat that is seemingly on the financial brink of ruin. And so they need to go out and get this one last catch. And this is when they get stuck with this parasite. But they see another boat in the distance and they think, oh, help. We can get help. Thank God there's a relief. And what they find on that boat is... Well, that's when the movie takes a very dark turn.

00:12:45
Speaker 1: Here we go. Yeah, it's really good.

00:12:47
Speaker 2: I think that's the moment. So when you're watching it, when they see the boat, that's when you're about to put on your seatbelt because things really start to speed up at that point.

00:12:56
Speaker 1: Well, things get really, they take off from, you know this, when they start to try to figure out what is this coming out of the wall?

00:13:03
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:13:03
Speaker 1: Out of the hull of the ship. That part, yeah, that got a little gross. And yeah, the movie kind of takes off. And it does for you what, If Jaws had you looking around for fins coming out of the water, this movie has you like, what parasite is all around me as I'm in this water? It has you thinking about other stuff that could possibly get to you. It scares you about being in the water for a different reason.

00:13:28
Speaker 2: Any scratch, any open wound you may have, you are susceptible.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:13:33
Speaker 2: And look, we love this because this really was, I thought, first of all, such a unique story. This wasn't yes, it has all the hallmarks and elements of a horror movie, but I just thought it was so uniquely told. I've not seen something like this. Again, we love the thing, and to me, it's so reminiscent of that. Of course, that's when a research crew was stuck in Antarctica, so yes, we like to throw in bonus scenes our recommendations, and we like the original. The remake is pretty good too. I actually would say if you liked the original, I think you'll like the remake, but the original with Kurt Russell is so, so good. And if you like that kind of film, you will like Sea Fever. And so I think just having this combo of this mysterious creature, open water is always scary to me. You're on a boat, you look around, there's no one in sight, no land in sight, that feeling of being trapped. And then, yes, a spreading parasite. And I just thought it was visually stunning. I love it. It was like a cold. Did they take off from Ireland or the U.K.? It was somewhere on the other side of the pond.

00:14:40
Speaker 1: I don't remember where it was. But, again, the setting is they're all trapped and it's dark. And they're in the ship, in the little kitchen of the ship. And they're in these little places. It does feel claustrophobic. And the engineering room down there where so much goes on. The whole movie is set like that. And it is. I didn't know the whole theatrical release it was supposed to have. That makes sense now. You can tell this is a quality movie.

00:15:07
Speaker 2: Yes, it is. So it is a guaranteed horror hit for anyone who wants to get into the Halloween mood. We recommend number three sci-fi horror hit, Sea Fever. So with that, everyone... Stay tuned because our number two and our number one are coming up later on the feed. But until then, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.