In the age of cell phones and Internet, filmmakers need to work especially hard to find ways to isolate characters in horror stories. 2021’s Offseason opts for literal separation from land.

Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue) learns that someone vandalized the gravesite of her mother Ava (Melora Walters). To investigate, she heads to the remote island on which her mother’s remains lie.

After she arrives with her boyfriend George Darrow (Joe Swanberg), Marie finds that the location self-isolates for the offseason, which means the bridges to/from the spot go up and won’t come down for months. Stuck in this place, Marie discovers oddness and potential terror afoot.

At its heart, Offseason aspires to become a moody piece ala something such as The Fog. Unfortunately, the end product favors style over substance.

Offseason often feels like an endless series of spooky shots in search of an actual story. It meanders and winds its way in search of meaning that it largely fails to find.

Really, we spend nearly an hour without much on which to hang our hats. Marie comes to the island and deals with eerie weirdness but not a lot actually occurs.

For the final act, the attempted horror ratchets up, but this tends to make Offseason feels like a different movie. Granted, it might become a more compelling alternate, as it displays elements of an actual plot, but the two parts nonetheless feel loosely connected at best.

Even when Offseason shoots for more overt horror in the last segment, it doesn’t succeed. The film tends to come across as clunky and awkward, as it doesn’t find a vivid way to explore its concepts.

Part of the problem stems from the movie’s extended exposition scenes. These crop up out of nowhere and seem like the sign of an unsteady filmmaker, one who worries that if he doesn’t spell out everything in detail, the audience will miss the point.

This becomes unnecessary, mainly because Offseason doesn’t come with much real subtext. The whole flick opts for text instead, so we don’t need extended sequences in which Morris the Explainer tells us the whole deal.

Some of the exposition also violates the movie’s main positive: the claustrophobic isolation of the island. Offseason favor flashbacks that offer more unnecessary exposition and detract from the potential fright that comes from the cruel disconnect on the main location.

Whenever we go to flashbacks, we leave the island and lose the sense of dread. Perhaps these diversions would become less of a problem if they served needed plot points, but since the narrative material they boast already feels obvious, they turn into a bigger concern.

Every once in a while, Offseason manages an effective moment or two. However, these come too infrequently, so the end product feels contrived, clunky, and without the fright it attempts to deliver.

Offseason appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, the movie presented pretty positive visuals.

For the most part, definition seemed good. Occasional soft spots emerged – and these popped up a bit more often than anticipated – but most of the movie provided appealing accuracy.

Jagged edges and moiré effects didn’t mar the presentation, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

In terms of palette, Offseason went with a heavy teal orientation, though it tossed some reds and ambers as well. Within stylistic choices, the hues seemed well-depicted.

Blacks were dark and dense, and shadows gave us good clarity. I felt pleased with this transfer.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, it offered a mostly typical horror movie soundscape. This meant a fair amount of creepy atmosphere and occasional “jolt moments”. Weather-related material also created engulfing information.

Along with good stereo music, the soundfield was able to open things up in a satisfying manner that embellished the story. We got a nice sense of various elements along with a useful sense of the spooky bits, some of which worked really well.

Audio quality was largely good. Music appeared full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy.

Speech was natural and distinctive throughout the film. Bass was loud a bit too loud at times, as the track mixed tight low-end with some overwhelming material. Other than that boomy bass on occasion, the mix used the speakers well and created a fine sense of the tale.

The disc opens with ads for Son, The Dark and the Wicked and The Owners. No trailer for Offseason - or any other extras – appears here.

A moody horror tale in the spirit of The Fog, Offseason boasts the bones of an effective tale. Unfortunately, it feels more like a sketchy collection of vaguely linked scenes than a coherent narrative, and it lacks the scary punch it craves. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio but it lacks bonus materials. Outside of a few effective moments, Offseason fails to hit the mark.