Set in the seaside town of Folkestone, Seagull is a film built upon secrets. Rose (Gabrielle Sheppard) has spent the last eight years living in isolation from the world. Her decision to return home causes shockwaves amongst her family who must all finally face up to the circumstances that led to her departure. Seagull is the feature debut of Peter Blach who serves as both writer and director for the film, and it’s one that relies on atmosphere and tension rather than using jump scares to keep the viewer entertained.
The story begins with Rose, a young woman living in isolation on a nondescript beach. Her only company are the seagulls who flap around her and a strange creature who may, or may not be, a manifestation of her inner thoughts and feelings. She’s been living this lonely life for what appears to be a while, but Seagull joins her as she makes the decision to return to the world. From here Blach switches the viewer over to Rose’s family; her mother Janet (Jessica Hynes), step-father Jeff (Adam Radcliffe), younger sister Violet (Rosie Steel), and eight year old Lily (Miranda Beinaut-Smith). The family are the type of people that could live on your street, the type who present as functional to the world, but behind closed doors are anything but. Janet is wheelchair dependent and likes to drink, Violet hates the world, but her step-dad most of all; Jeff is the general dogsbody, but shares a strong connection to his granddaughter Lily who in turn idolises the grown-up who dotes on her. All of them however, are obviously masking other issues and truths. The arrival of Rose causes some painstakingly constructed walls to begin to crumble.
Although never one hundred percent spelled out, Blach does heavily feature the circumstances that led to Rose leaving the homestead, via flashbacks. With Blach opting to stop short of concretely confirming suspicions, he opens events up for the viewer to infer and piece together, the end result always revolving around some unspeakable actions. In Seagull’s case, these events literally are unspeakable. With no one, Rose included, willing to discuss the past and how it has led to this present, everyone and everything is suffocating under the weight of the unspoken family trauma. As Seagull progresses, the air becomes thick and heavy with all this unvoiced pain. A scene during the final third of the movie is so weighed down by the imposed silence from everyone that it almost chokes the audience. Once some of these truths and emotions are uncaged they hit like a freight train. Feelings bottled up for an extended period of time do land with more of a kick and in Seagull they hit the viewer right in the gut, presenting some rather confronting and uncomfortable thoughts. It’s a heck of a trick that Blach has pulled off, most of this atmosphere comes purely from how he and co-writer James Abbott approached the story.
A case study in how not dealing with it can lead to even darker turns, Seagull is an absorbing film steeped in mystery that proves that sometimes home is where the horror is. Family trauma, grief, guilt and the power of the unspoken word, work together to make Seagull an uncomfortable but riveting movie, and one whose themes and revelations take hold and cling on for a while after viewing.
Seagull
Summary
Blach’s debut is a film steeped in mystery and thick with the weight of the secrets being kept by its characters. This uneasy feeling hangs in the air and makes Seagull an absorbing and occasionally confronting watch.
Seagull was reviewed at Grimmfest 2021.
