The King Tide

The King Tide is a 2023 Canadian drama thriller film, directed by Christian Sparkes.

The film is set in a small island fishing village where a child turns up who has special, mystical powers, leading social order in the town to the brink of civil war as the residents disagree about whether the child was sent for a larger spiritual purpose.

Plot
Infant Isla turns up one day in a shipwrecked boat, and is adopted and raised by the town's mayor Bobby Bentham (Clayne Crawford) and his wife Grace (Lara Jean Chorostecki), whose pregnancy ended in miscarriage shortly before Isla's discovery. However, it is soon discovered that Isla has healing powers to cure any ailment suffered by those who are near her, including Grace's mother Faye's dementia; swarms of fish also swim to her when she's in the water, thus protecting the town's food security because it guarantees that the local fishermen will always be able to catch fish they had long lost to larger commercial fishing boats from the mainland.

Bobby, Grace and Grace's mother Faye (Frances Fisher) exploit Isla's power by carefully controlling access to her, essentially cementing their own status as the most powerful members of the community, but alienating the town's doctor Beau (Aden Young) as Isla's power has left him unemployed and alcoholic. He spends his nights getting drunk, visiting Isla the following day to cure his hangover.

It is revealed that the island has been inhabited for generations by the same families, and they eventually became disillusioned with life on the mainland, consumerism and capitalism and shut themselves off from the outside world, becoming a Neo-Luddite colony. Bobby is especially concerned about the mainland becoming aware of Isla and her powers, believing that she will be taken from him to be tested on by the government.

One day, Isla and Beau's son Junior are playing on the island and come across a hive of wasps. Isla becomes distracted by how the wasps gather on her hand but Junior gets stung and becomes scared, prompting Isla to close her fists and kill the entire hive. Junior thanks her and asks if she is okay.

When one of the village's fishermen, Dillon, asks Bobby to take Isla out fishing, a group of kids including Junior are seen playing a game they seemed to have played often where one of the them eats poisonous berries, returning to Isla's house to be healed. One of the children, Phillip, eats the berries. The group rush to Isla's home but as she is not home, Phillip becomes gravely ill. Faye, Grace and Beau rush him to Beau's clinic while one of the other men is sent to fetch Bobby and Isla. Beau attempts to treat the child by pumping his stomach and performing chest compressions when he stops breathing but the child dies just as Bobby and Isla enter. Isla attempts to revive the child but is unable to, and the child's parents are left to grieve.

One evening while attempting to comfort Isla about Phillip's death, Bobby and Grace notice that Isla's healing powers have seemingly disappeared when Grace cuts herself while preparing dinner and it does not heal. Bobby then intentionally cuts his hand and notices that it too does not heal. They call a town meeting to discuss Isla's lack of powers and ask Beau to re-open his clinic. The apparent loss of Isla's powers and Phillip's death cause a rift amongst the villagers. Bobby wishes to cease Isla's visitations and potentially get her help from the mainland. The majority of the other villagers however resist this idea and Faye calls a vote on whether the visitations should cease or not, with the majority voting to continue the visitations, under the pretense of spending time with Isla to show their gratitude and love.

One night, it is revealed that a group of villagers regularly hold a support group, led by Faye, who is becoming the de facto leader of the island, despite her dementia slowly returning. Grace shares with Bobby her fear of Faye's impending decline if Isla cannot heal her.

Dillon returns to Bobby one day and tells him that the fishing yields have been too low, especially after having to give up their entire catch the day of Phillip's death, implying that they need Isla to help them. Bobby re-iterates that there is nothing they can do, and tells them to return to their boats and fish more.

One night, Grace notices that Isla's healing powers return but only when she is asleep, and she shows this to Bobby. Bobby tells her that they must keep this a secret. After Faye has a bout of dementia, Grace, in a moment of weakness, takes her to see Isla at night, and Faye too realizes afterwards that Isla has her powers, but only when asleep. She later speaks privately with Bobby, giving him her stash of Temazepam from before they closed off the island, to drug Isla so that they can take her out on the water and fish, in order to survive the coming winter.

Meanwhile, Phillip's parents, Frank and Nancy, have become disillusioned with life on the island and secretly plan to build their own boat from parts of their house and leave the island with their surviving daughter, Susan. Beau discovers this, and he shares with them that he too wishes to leave the island with Junior. Frank tells Beau that they will leave in a few days, and they have space for two more people on their boat.

The day after taking a drugged Isla out fishing, the villagers gather to process the fish and eat together. Beau talks with Bobby and Bobby confides to him about drugging Isla, and that he wishes to take her off the island. Beau shares with him Frank's plan, and tells Bobby that they can take Isla and him, but not Grace. Faye witnesses this conversation from afar, and becomes suspicious.

That evening, Beau returns home to find Faye in his kitchen. She tells him that she found Junior watching TV on a television set that Beau had kept hidden. They have a thinly-veiled conversation about each other's motives, and Beau feigns loyalty to Faye and the village, telling her that he will stay with her as she succumbs to dementia, which offends her. Faye leaves as Beau drinks from a whisky bottle, but falls over and sees that Faye has laced the whisky with the same poisonous berries that killed Phillip. His house is soon mysteriously set ablaze while the villagers watch helplessly.

Frank and Nancy use the distraction of the fire to leave the island, and Bobby takes Isla to meet them but discovers that he is too late and that they have already left.

The next day, Dillon sounds an alarm on the island as they spot a police boat approaching the island. He fetches a revolver that he had stashed, and he and Bobby rush to greet the boat at the marina. The police officer introduces herself and a Social Services agent, Emily, and explain that after Frank and Nancy reached the mainland, they have come to check in on Isla as they had a complaint about her welfare.

Bobby takes them to his house, while Dillon defiantly observes, and the entire village gathers at the house. Emily goes into the house to speak with Isla while outside, tensions arise as the police officer notices Dillon becoming confrontational and asks him to back off. Inside, Isla assures Emily that she is fine, despite confirming that her parents sometimes argue. As Emily moves to exit Isla's bedroom, Isla tells her that she is supposed to say "Many thanks to Isla" as she leaves, which alerts Emily.

Separately, Junior inspects the police boat, finding a shotgun. He then uses the radio to ask for more people to come, and runs off towards Isla's house.

Emily returns outside just as Dillon and the police officer continue their confrontation. Other villagers begin to surround Emily and the police officer, while Bobby futilely attempts to defuse the situation. Dillon and the police officer both draw their guns on each other, while two villagers grab and restrain Emily. The scuffle startles the police officer who accidentally shoots Bobby in the chest, and Dillon shoots and kills her.

Faye, Dillon and other villagers rush Bobby inside. Bobby desperately asks Faye to fetch Isla but Faye forces him to swear fealty to her before she will get help. He agrees, and Faye goes upstairs with a glass of water spiked with more Temazepam.

Upstairs in Isla' bedroom, Grace and Faye restrain Isla and attempt to force her to drink the water. Junior comes out of the closet, brandishing the shotgun and telling them to leave her alone. He shoots Faye as she moves to snatch the gun from him, and Isla screams and shuts her fists just as she did when Junior was attacked by the wasps.

Isla opens her eyes and slowly walks out of house, revealing that she has killed Junior and her mother, everyone in the house, and everyone on the island. She walks slowly back to the cliffside she used to go to with Junior, and watches as multiple police boats arrive at the island.

Development
The cast also includes Ryan McDonald, Emily Piggford and Michael Greyeyes. The film was shot in Newfoundland and Labrador in fall 2022.

Release
The film had its premiere in the Platform Prize program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11. It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 'World Cinema' section and was screened on 7 October 2023.

It was awarded Best Feature and Best Editor at the 2023 Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It is set to have a limited theatrical release on April 26, 2024 in Canada and the United States.

Critical response
Jared Mobarak of The Film Stage wrote that "with potent performances and a gorgeous, textured aesthetic, The King Tide proves a mesmerizing experience above and below its surface. The camerawork keeps the horrors that unravel mostly to our imagination so we can continue to look at reactions rather than results. The terror here isn’t in just how powerful Isla is, but in what an infected groupthink that loses its grip on decency is willing to do in her name to unwittingly push her into discovering the full breadth of those abilities. When is enough finally enough? When does protection become harm? Because the love they all have for Isla isn’t for her; it’s for the people she’s allowed them to become."

Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "whether the characters are forthright or devious, all the performances are in sync with the rugged seclusion of the setting, as is the rustic-meets-old-timey aesthetic of the production design (by Adriana Bogaard) and costumes (Charlotte Reid). Against the wild natural beauty, calls for “solidarity” are coded warnings against dissent, and promises of “a safe place” are, as Beau drunkenly and accurately declares, a load of crap. But whatever punishment he faces, he’s made sure to give two wide-eyed kids a glimpse of a bigger world."

Literary devices and themes
The film employs many literary devices and themes such as magical realism, lost paradise and Neo-Luddism, the rejection of technology and globalization.