The documentary's director-host George Popov is a minor podcast celebrity in the popular genre of mythological history and the paranormal (this comes on the heels/cloven hooves of his Sideworlds: Haunted Forests of England). Close your eyes and Popov's narration of strange sea stories and legends does feel audio presentation, overlain by "visualizations." It is still well done, of its kind but expect no David Attenborough.
Branding their concept of paranormal fact-fiction interface as "Sideworlds," Popov and writer Jonathan Russell explain how human activity on the ocean has long invoked sensations of foreboding and the unknown, treacherous waters holding unseen alien life and occult secrets. The features divides into four topics: phantom ships (including the Flying Dutchman, though mythic origins of that iconic cursed ghost vessel are not retold), sea serpents, ghostly mariners, and mermaids/merfolk.
Viewers with cryptozoological leanings may be amused that in striving to be on solid ground in this last category, the filmmakers discard the fish-tailed-maiden fairytale notion in favor of a "documented" mermaid encounter, the 13th-century Abbot Ralph of Coggeshall's report of a mute wild-man creature brought up in fishing nets. He/it tolerated captivity at Orford for a time, before amicably parting. Typically, these supernatural tales do not end so happily.
There are no eyewitnesses or expert interviews (even as we hear sightings of Cornwall's sea monster Morgawr continued to 2002), just voiceovers to a lyrical selection of HD location footage, maritime drone overflights, and repurposed classical paintings and engravings. It is an omission (skeptics will say, one of many) that the yarn of a German WWI submarine mauled by a giant underwater beast was declared solved by the Daily Mail in 2016; surviving records show the damage was crew incompetence, not Godzilla.
Material strongly focuses on the British Isles and their Age of Sail culture, so it is odd that the filmmakers cite America's H.P. Lovecraft as a literary font of fantastic sea tales; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle could be just as apt a candidate.
What public library shelves would this educational documentary fit on?
Paranormal front-of-the-Dewey-Decimal-System public library shelves are friendly waters for the title, as are History and Travel.
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
History professors—particularly the British Isles and referencing seafaring eras gone past—could make use of this educational documentary if rigid scholarship is not an issue.
What type of classroom would this documentary be suitable for as an educational resource?
Younger classrooms drawn to paranormal podcasts may pay attention and learn things they might not have otherwise, though the slow, studied pace verges on somnolent for short attention spans. A strong optional choice for academic library shelves.