After receiving a mysterious letter, a woman travels to a desolate island town and soon becomes trapped in a nightmare.
“Offseason” is a mostly goofy, not so spooky tale presented through a series of chapters. Despite featuring a pretty tropical island setting seeped in endless fog, the editing and script are way too clunky to be engaging.
The film opens with Ava (Melora Walters), a mother warning her daughter Marie (Jocelin Donahue) not to bury her on “the island” and never to return there. Keating attempts to evoke unsettling feelings with choppy slo-mo and sudden screams but it feels like a cheap “Twin Peaks“ knock-off. Otherwise, the cinematography’s haunting nautical aesthetic rips off John Carpenter’s “The Fog.”
Marie is called back to the mysterious island because her mother’s gravestone was vandalized. Her annoying boyfriend George (Joe Swanberg) accompanies her because who doesn’t love a trip to the cemetery? It’s tough to believe a person would embark on a journey to investigate a matter that’s more suited for the state. Things are immediately ominous and any sign of subtlety is jettisoned overboard.
I was hoping for an old-school moody picture like “I Walked with a Zombie” or “Isle of the Dead” but I know that’s a tall order for modern filmmakers. “Offseason’s” kooky characters and script are laid down way too thick to be fun. For obvious reasons, themes of isolation have been a popular theme in 2021 but the execution here is half-baked. After about forty-five minutes, I was begging to get off the island, and maybe you should stay away as well.
“Offseason” recently had its World Premiere at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival
