Offseason Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Offseason Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 7, 2022

Any film with a mystery at its core should at least start off strong, and Mickey Keating's Offseason does just that by introducing us to Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue), who's travelling to the small island community of Lone Palm Beach after her mother Ava's burial site is vandalized. With her boyfriend George (Joe Swanberg) along for the trip, she's told that Lone Palm Beach is closed for the season but is allowed in due to her particular circumstances. Upon their arrival during a heavy rainstorm, Marie and George are given a rather chilly greeting by the locals, who are reluctant to even provide a location for the cemetery caretaker who summoned her in the first place. As the storm grows in intensity so does the mystery of the small town's residents, including an elderly florist named Miss Emily (April Linscott), and it's not long before Marie and George realize they might be staying in Lone Palm Beach longer than expected.

Armed with a darkly foreboding atmosphere, a decent premise, and even a few stylish touches like chapter title cards, Offseason shows early signs of life as a rare low-budget horror-thriller whose reach doesn't exceed its grasp. Aside for the knee-jerk response of, you know, not immediately going to a strange and distant town to fix a broken tombstone (she's dead, it can wait a few weeks), the film's setup creates a mostly air-tight emotional blanket that mixes curiosity and dread, intensified by an early flashback revelation that mother Ava (Melora Walters) wanted no part of Lone Palm Beach to begin with. With each unsettling visit to sparsely populated stores and restaurants, as well as the discovery of a few twisting dead-ends, the curious case of Marie and George feels like a Twilight Zone-esque labyrinth worth getting lost in, even though its two leads -- especially the latter -- aren't given much of a compelling backstory.

How disappointing, then, that Offseason ultimately fails to live up to its potential with an almost totally formless and disappointing second half that trades in its compelling lead-off narrative for horror clichés and revelations that don't make much sense. While its story never goes completely off the rails, the film's lackluster conclusion and epilogue feel like a total side-step rather than an organic or at least original extension of what came before. Offseason manages to score a few style points and at least breaks up shadowy second-act Silent Hill exploration with a few flashbacks that dig deeper into the mother-daughter relationship and Ava's final wishes, but it doesn't add up to much more than maybe half of a great attempt at filmmaking. (And if you can only manage half, at least make it the second one.)

There are some who might be more impressed with Offseason's small-town mystery, of course, even though the film's mostly lackluster critical reception -- including the theatrical review by our own Brian Orndorf -- echoes almost the same sentiments. For the curious, though, RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray serves up a movie-only disc that leans on the film's capable A/V merits, although a few well-placed extras may have helped the film's case somewhat.

Offseason Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Offseason was clearly made on a tight budget, and to its credit most of its visual limitations are hidden fairly well by a dark atmosphere and careful compositions. The end result is rendered faithfully well on this single-layer (BD-25) Blu-ray from RLJ Entertainment, whose 1080p transfer checks all of the usual boxes for a solid home video presentation with a few very small exceptions. For starters, shadow detail and black levels are rendered accurately more often than not, showing a full range of natural contrast values despite some obvious boosting and post-production trickery while rarely succumbing to mild banding and posterization. Color levels and saturation are also a highlight, with much of the film talking on a muted and cool appearance only broken up by bold cross-lighting, occasional flashbacks, the colorful epilogue, and a few boosted primaries that only border on unnatural during a handful of fleeting moments like the red spotlight seen in screenshot #15. Overall, a solid presentation that serves its source material well.

Offseason Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Offseason's active sound design -- which was singled out as a negative in Brian Orndorf's theatrical review -- is likewise replicated faithfully via this DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, which comes in strong during several unexpected moments but otherwise serves up a fitting and almost predictable sonic atmosphere. From the original score by Shayfer James -- which digs fairly deep into low frequencies on a few occasions -- to plenty of obligatory jump scares, the mostly front-loaded soundstage nonetheless wanders and outright jumps to the rear channels when the situation demands it, and sometimes even when it doesn't. The end result is indeed a bit overcooked but nonetheless entertaining in its own right, with a few built-in shortcomings that can likely be traced back to the original source material.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature.

Offseason Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with dark cover artwork, a matching embossed slipcover, and no inserts of any kind. No bonus features are included either, but you can watch the theatrical trailer here.

Offseason Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mickey Keating's Offseason is a low-budget horror-thriller that starts off reasonably strong, serving up a compelling mystery set in a dark and mostly secluded environment. Unfortunately the script and most of its second half don't hold up their end of the bargain, robbing an otherwise solid film of any real staying power. The result might play better for some folks than others, but its limited lasting appeal -- combined with a total lack of extras on RLJ Entertainment's otherwise decent Blu-ray -- make this more of a "try before you buy" disc than a true hidden gem.