Written and Directed by Mickey Keating
Starring: Richard Brake, Melora Walters, Jocelin Donahue
Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
Currently playing virtually at SXSW

by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

I’m not a beach person. Not in the sense that I don’t like beaches (I do!), but in the way that beaches (and the ocean as a whole) often make me uneasy. They’re fun when it's bright and wonderful outside, but throw some clouds over the water? Some wind? Some waves? Well then, everything gains this ominous tone that unsettles something deep inside me.

I’m certainly not the only one who feels this way. There’s a reason why people always ask if you’re more afraid of space or the ocean. Obviously, my answer is the ocean. I find space lovely, but ultimately lonely. Not quite terrifying in the same way that the deep waters that sink ships regularly. 

Offseason isn’t a film about the ocean in particular. It’s about a beach town–an island beach town, to be specific. The kind of place where the only way out is a bridge, which gets flooded regularly. The kind of place that exists as this gothic, liminal space and closes down to tourists for the winter. It reeks of classic fairy tales, including all their weird, dark morals. Which is the exact vibe that writer/director Mickey Keating is trying to capture–a feat he does with precision.

When Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue) gets a letter from the caretaker of the cemetery, where her mother is buried, about some vandalism to the gravestone, she and her boyfriend George (Joe Swanberg) travel to the town to investigate. But the small town is moving into their offseason and the bridge that takes you from the mainland to the island is going up until spring. 

A few unsettling things occur before Marie and George decide to just leave the town. But they worry that they’ll get stuck in the strange little town, especially once Marie tells him about the story her mother told her before she died. It was a story of how the town came to actually be inhabited and it’s an Eldritch horror story that neither of them can quite believe. 

And it’s then that Marie and George’s deepest fears come true–they’re stuck on the island.

There’s a lot of fun being had in Offseason. It’s a film that takes its time with pacing. When it ramps up, it uses its few special effects in creative and interesting ways. It’s very purposefully in how it creates the small town, absolute nightmare fuel that it is. There’s a particularly creepy bit in the town history museum (a classic feature of weird east coast tourist towns), that really gets me. Plus, this film contains one of my favorite uses of a flare gun since the Remedy video game Alan Wake. Actually, this whole film has very similar vibes to that story, while also being a completely different story on a plot level. It’s a really creates a horror atmosphere that I, personally, dig more than most things in the genre. 

The only real thing that didn’t work for me was the score. There’s a piece of music at the beginning of the film, that plays over the opening film reel montage, that I really love. It feels like something Danny Elfman would write for a Tim Burton flick, and it’s a great vibe check for the rest of the film. I just wish the rest of Offseason sounded like the opening. Instead, it kind sounds a bit flat and generic for most of the runtime, while also being overly dramatic for the actual events on screen. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but as a whole the score doesn’t do the film any favors. Especially when the rest of the film is so carefully crafted. 

Which it is! Mickey Keating does such a remarkable job keeping the story tight, fun, and a wild ride, that I want to be in this world forever. I want to know everything about the town and the history of it. And yet, at the same time, I don’t want to know a single thing more. Keating balances creepiness and abject horror in the most delightful ways, coupled with really lovely cinematography and strong acting performances. I think Offseason is a Midnighter that I’m gonna think about often.