PLOT SUMMARY: After receiving a letter about her mother's grave being vandalized, Marie travels to a desolate island with George. Once there, she learns the dark truth about her family.
It isn't unusual to find a horror movie with a small town that has secrets. Like literally, be it even in horror TV shows, a small town has the most dangerous secrets one can imagine. And most of the time someone or the other in the town has conducted a black magic ritual either to save themselves or save the town from famine and disease.
So of course, Off-season has pretty much the same premise. There are a few changes here and there but otherwise Off-season is a pretty dull affair. Yes, it starts off well enough and develops curiosity but along the way, the movie which would have worked well as a short, drags and gets entangled within itself.
The main character is left running around the island and figuring out nothing and then the last scene is hardly a fitting end but a clichéd one.
OFFSEASON Movie Plot
The movie begins with a woman, Ava, on a bed and talking about nightmares and how they become your own, etc.
Then she lets out a scream and the scene changes.
Some time has passed and Ava's daughter Marie is living with George. She receives a typed letter informing her that her mother's grave has been vandalized.
George keeps asking if she's certain she wants to go to a desolate island but Marie isn't even considering not going. George appears rather reluctant as he accompanies Marie to the island.
Once they travel a long road, they come across the bridge man who warns them that they are closing for the season. It is pouring after all.
The couple is surprised: are they really closing up the island? The whole island?
Marie isn't ready to give up just yet and insists she needs to enter because she received a letter about her mother's desecrated grave. The bridge man uses a whole minute to ponder and then let's them through.
The bridge is lowered and the car moves forward along another long road.
Marie heads straight to the cemetery and finds the headstone has broken. She asks George to look for the caretaker but they can't find him anywhere.
They head to a pub because where else will they go and what else is there to do on the island where it is always raining?
Of course no one is any help to the newcomers. They guffaw and smirk when they ask the whereabouts of the caretaker.
Eventually Marie and George leave, and go around the island. George wants to leave the island before the Bridgeman closes the bridge but Marie isn't ready to go just yet.
Flashbacks show that her mother had told her she didn't want to be buried in the island. But after her death her remains are forcefully taken to be buried on the island and Marie is helpless to stop it even after she seeks legal aid.
She also remembers a story her mother told her about a man who almost drowned and then crawled out of the sea. There is some insinuation about some ritual performed to appease the demon of the sea.
Marie and George get separated for a while. The islanders are still aloof and keeping secrets.
Marie is aided by a fisherman who tells her the whole island us cursed and that the evil leaves everyone desiccated on the island. Every year someone had to stay awake and this year he stayed awake because he knew Marie would be lured to the island. He makes a remark about how she doesn't recognize him.
OFFSEASON Ending Explained with Spoilers!
He tries to help her escape but fails and dies. Marie runs away.
George and Marie find each other and decide to leave the island. But their attempts are thwarted. George becomes possessed by the evil and tell her that her mother's fate is going to be worse than hell. Marie manages to shoot him.
She is then accosted by the bridge man who holds her at gunpoint and leads her to the cemetery. Over there she finds her mother's grave open and her mother walking towards the sea.
The storm shows the evil figure. Marie's mother is dragged into the sea. Marie is shocked and soon her eyes turn white while the islanders stand behind her.
A flashback shows Ava telling Marie to make sure no part of her goes to the island after she dies because when her brother died, he came back after a few days. Marie had made a promise.
The epilogue shows Marie at the island, working as a florist. Two tourists come in and the woman remarks about the beautiful flowers. Marie says the shop was her grandmother's and that she would be proud. The woman then says she wished she could stay all year long at the island. Marie pretty much tells her she's being silly and that no one does that.
After the tourists leave, Marie stares at the camera and smiles.
The end.
The movie starts off well, gets increasingly convoluted in the middle and then ends on a tired horror trope.
Offseason is streaming on amc+
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