Offseason: Review

3rd July 2022

Mary Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue) is very close to her mother, so much so that when she gets a troubling letter, she immediately heads off to an isolated town where she believes she will find her. Taking along her friend, George (Joe Swanberg), they eventually find themselves in a small town where something doesn’t feel quite right. Realising that they may in fact be in danger they try to leave, but they find that getting out of there is easier said than done.

Offseason is a supernatural horror written and directed by Mickey Keating. Unfortunately, those familiar with the video game Silent Hill may see this story coming from a mile away and the vague script and cliché jump scares will surprise nobody.

Starting out in a suitably eerie way, Offseason introduces Mary’s mother as she seems to be talking about her experiences and offers a dire warning for whoever may be listening to her. However, this seems to be for the audience as well as whoever’s by her side, because if you even have the slightest interest in horror then you may want to turn back.

Apart from looking very good on camera and giving the audience that creepy feeling that everybody may not be who you believe, there really isn’t much else to Offseason to keep an audience entertained. The characters and plot are so thinly displayed that the audience will know exactly where this is all going, but they may not necessarily know why.

There are characters there to offer handy exposition at certain points throughout the film. However, by the time they have finished the audience may have more questions than they have answers, and not in a good way.

Doing what it can with a limited budget it seems that director Keating may know what to give an audience, but doesn’t really know how to make it a satisfying experience. The characters and plot are all there, but they just seem lazily borrowed from a half-remembered horror movie which doesn’t have enough depth.

Offseason may put audiences off if they can guess the ending in the first ten minutes, but at least it looks good enough so that you can focus on the visuals.

Facebook

Google

Twitter

We hope you're enjoying BRWC. You should check us out on our social channels, subscribe to our newsletter, and tell your friends. BRWC is short for battleroyalewithcheese.