'Offseason' Review

Arlington TX

14 March, 2022

7:26 PM

Description

By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report March 13, 2022 Horror maven Mickey Keating returns with a surreal thriller that employs an island setting to generate chills in "Offseason." Scream queen Jocelin Donahue ("The House of the Devil") plays a young woman summoned back to her mother's burial site after someone desecrates the grave. She discovers a sealed-off community, creepy locals, an incoming storm, and plenty of supernatural phenomena. Islands and horror go hand in hand. From Lucio Fulci's "Zombie" to John Carpenter's "The Fog" and the so bad it's good "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things," trapped on land surrounded by water adds points to a film's fear factor. Throw in the folk horror element to add impending doom and the story could write itself. How many times have you heard the line "This place is cursed" spoken by creepy locals? Get ready to hear it again. Donahue, who earned modern-day scream queen status with a slew of roles that include "Doctor Sleep," "I Trapped the Devil," "Insidious: Chapter 2," and "House of the Devil" plays Marie whose late mother Ava (Melora Walters) is buried in a small island community accessible only via a drawbridge. Walters appears in flashbacks imploring Marie not to bury her on the island. She also delivers a blood-curdling scream which rivals Marilyn Burns' shrieks in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Ava's tombstone has been destroyed. After being notified via letter, Marie with her boyfriend George (Joe Swanberg) in tow, rushes to the island cemetery to survey the damage only to be greeted by a bridge sentinel played by Richard Brake who refuses to let them pass, citing the tourist town is closed until next season. Brake, a genre mainstay, was terrific as hellish Mr. Big in last year's Blumhouse flick "Bingo Hell" directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.