Sea Devil (2015) Analysis

Introduction

Sea devil is a “political” horror movie that is about a father and a daughter going to America illegally by a fisherman’s boat, but when it turns dark they have to face a mysterious monster.

Camera work

Long shot of the boat, where we see it mostly dark; showing how they are terribly isolated.

Mid-shot to close up of fisherman’s back; not showing his face and making his transformation a mystery.

A low angle shot of the bottom of the boat, potentially a POV shot the monster in the water.

We get the mid to close up shot of the fisherman’s back, not seeing anything, and then we get a frontal view of the face to see it dried up and broken. Showing him as mad and contaminated.

We get a long shot of the boat from under the water directly under the boat, signifying the point that the characters are trapped and isolated as the environment around the boat is just dark.

We get a mid-shot of the father looking left and right and we pan with him to see nothing but water, this highlights how the two characters are isolated.

We get a high angle of the father’s hand rowing the boat, showing that his efforts are worth nothing.

The last shot we get is an over the shoulder shot of the daughter’s shoulder where we see the monster rising from the water and it turns to a wide shot of what the monster looks like.

Editing

Starts off with text, giving exposition about the story.

Font is very messy and looks informal, connecting to the idea of them being outlaws.

Cut to black changes it from the first act to the second act.

Short shots and cuts quicken the pace, showing three points of view (the fisherman, the guy on the boat and the monster).

Cut to black shows that the second act changes to the third act.

Sound

Music changes to some sort of reggae, establishing a relaxed tone. This juxtaposes the overall tone of the film as well as the lighting.

Music almost dies out completely, showing how the careless tone has gone into the background.

The sound of the man caressing his face with someone else’s hand is very audible, making it very uneasy.

The music is gone now and a light, repetitive thumping is heard instead, connoting a feeling of being chased or the sound of a heartbeat.

Eerie sounds are added here and there as to add suspense and build up to a climax.

When we get a mid-shot to close up of the fisherman the music becomes distorted to the place that it’s barely recognisable. Showing how the fisherman has lost his sanity and being overcome by a disease.

Near the end there is no music, signifying peace.

When seeing a close up of the father’s hand we hear the light thumping again, with the sound of screaming coming up again. The sound of screaming builds up again, becoming quite loud when we see the monster come up.

Mis-en-scene

Lighting becomes dull, making it very dark when it reaches night time. Adds to the dark and gritty tone of the film.

Everything is dirty and loose, giving the sense that the people who own the boat don’t care about the conditions of it all that much. Adds to a sense of unease.

The man who got onto the boat has practically got all of his limbs cut off and has a lot of barnacles on him, connecting to the idea that he was in the water eroding. This makes him odd and scary. He also asks to be put back into the water, like he was a fish out of water.

The fisherman twitches and shakes when we see him in a mid-shot behind his back, showing that he has started to go insane.

The fisherman’s tone changes, instead of it being friendly it is serious, showing how the tone changed.

We see the fisherman’s hand damaged, showing the progression of his sickness.

We see the fisherman’s face dried up, giving this creepy look like the person isn’t human, showing that the sickness has taken over the fisherman.

The guy says, “She’s coming for me” and then pulls the gun from the fisherman to his own head. This is showing that the guy would rather die than face “Her”. Making the antagonist terrifying.

The fisherman falls back into the water, showing that the two characters (the father and daughter) are now alone and also showing how a happy and sane man was able to go insane to the point of suicide because of the antagonist.

Conclusion

Sea devil is a good horror short. It utilizes sound very well as to create a sense of being chased yet never being able to escape. The camera work and mis-en-scene really do well to connote the idea of being isolated and trapped, which also connects to the idea of not being able to escape from the monster. The use of editing to establish the sudden change of tone (and act) really makes the whole movie neat and orderly. The mis-en-scene also creates this gritty and dark tone, which fits well for a horror.

Politically the whole film is about raising awareness of how immigrants who attempt to cross over to another country are being killed. The monster is a metaphor for the immigrants who drowned because of boats that weren’t sail worthy, where the smugglers kill themselves and the immigrants die. The uninvited guest is the harbinger of doom for the boat which could be a metaphor for decay of the boat. The virus could be a metaphor for how one ignores the decay as they are too lazy, don’t have enough money or have no choice but to ignore as they need to carry on to survive (the man rowing the inflatable boat and we see the monster, the man ignores the decay of his boat and dies in the end because he has no choice). The fact that the daughter never spoke may highlight how the children are the most affected by the travel that immigrants take. The isolation that is set up by the film could highlight the isolation that immigrants tend to go through when travelling from one country to another, showing how most immigrants die alone.

However this short could also just be a short about a monster chasing a fishing boat at night and it just so happened to have immigrants on. The problem with the political side of it is that it doesn’t give a resolution; it just shows you what happens. In some ways it would make more sense for it to be political and in other ways for it to just be a short film.