Offseason Despite Creepy Musical Choices Never Rises Above Bland Horror

by DarkSkyLady

Offseason, written and directed by Mickey Keating, is about Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue), who receives a mysterious letter and travels with friend George (Joe Swanberg) in tow to a closed-off island and winds up trapped. There are pros and cons to Offseason. It has some creepy music, some of which will remind you of old western films. But a lot of the events, or rather people’s actions, do not make much sense. As you watch there’s a lot of “but why would you” traipsing through your mind as Marie especially traipses onscreen. 

Going to an island, when a storm is about to close off the islanders, should be met with a hell no or a “let’s come back later”. Despite this the duo press on because Marie’s mother’s grave has been destroyed. Why that matters so much that a person would put themselves in an unknown situation is anyone’s guess. Especially when it’s clear from the flashbacks Marie has of her and her mother, that theirs was a contentious relationship. 

They look for the caretaker, immediately splitting up and soon end up struggling to find each other, which takes up a lot of time. This film has so many flashing neon red warning signs that it’s impossible to understand the motivation of these two city dwellers. Perhaps they feel that whatever connections or power they have in the city will bleed over into any situation, no matter how far removed they are from that sphere of influence.

When Marie starts to remember stories her mom told her and how she didn’t want to be buried on the island, yet somehow her will was changed to reflect the opposite we are yelling “why did you go there then”. Yes, the story is somewhat unbelievable; however, this should always be the horror caveat because it would save people from making nonsensical choices, what if they’re telling the truth? Once you’ve established the worse case scenario if they are, that would lead to different choices. There will always be poor choices in horror, but gone is the time where audiences are okay with the protagonist making ridiculous choices. It’s the equivalent of the girl who trips, her legs are fine but instead of getting up to run, she crawls along the ground. Make it challenging—for the characters as well as the audience. 

The directing is good, as there is a clear purpose behind the shots and angles chosen. It does help to build tension; however, the story doesn’t support it. So many aspects of the film had the potential, but since the story isn’t strong combined with weak characters, it can’t shine beyond mere moments. The music, especially the saloon music in the bar and the music on their car ride to leave the island, are hands down dreadful in the best way. The music in the flashback also has a haunted quality, though less impactful than the previous music in the film. The most unoriginal portion is the musical score for scary scenes. Ominous, foreboding or jump scare string music has been done to death. 

The time frame that they have to leave before the bridge goes up would have been terrifying if the rest of the story had worked harder to get us invested in the characters. There’s one scene where I had to resist screaming, as Marie sees the older woman, Ms. Emily, she encountered at the cemetery and tries to talk to her. Meanwhile the lady is simply staring at her with completely white eyes, and Marie stands there asking repeatedly what’s wrong with her. You run, you don’t stand there trying to get a response when she hasn’t said anything. So what was the point of the scene? It inspires annoyance rather than fear by the end of it.