Customer Reviews

The Off Season

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

And neither, really, do good intentions. Regardless of how little money the filmmakers had and how little time to shoot, this is simply not a good movie. Budget and time constraints do not excuse poor plotting, bad acting and generally unimaginative direction.

The story - what there is of it - involves a couple who are renting a motel for an extended stay in Maine. After discovering someone's left quite a mess in the bathroom of the original room they were to stay in, they're moved to a different room. One that has secrets, causes nightmares and mood swings, where the telephone receives calls from VERY long distance. You know, it's haunted.

Underneath all of the poor execution, there's a decent film - maybe even a good one - trying to be made from this concept. Unfortunately it remains buried. The first thing noticeable in the story is the uniformly bad, BAD acting. The only person who turns in even a reasoanble perfomance is our lead actress. Everyone else is way below par, the lead actor especially. You'll also notice a script that isn't complete enough for a feature length film without having some pretty mundane moments extended for several seconds to pad the running time (how long was that one guy planning on giving the old landlady the finger?) which of course ruins the pacing. In fact the development of the story shows evidence of pretty awful timing. Questions about who's haunting the motel and why aren't really even raised until about the last 3rd of the movie, and the answers are then rushed on us as well. Dialogue is fairly tedious and at times outright horrible.

Still, there are a few inspired moments. The first dream sequence was somewhat eerie and had me thinking that this could be a decent film after all. Likewise the first phone call from beyond the grave, which includes a simple but great answer to a question of "What's your problem?"

All things considered, as I've said before about other low budget horror flicks (i.e., Malevolence) having your heart in the right place doesn't make it okay for your movie to be no good. And nowadays, especially after having seen what could be accomplished with just $7000 in Primer, the "low budget" excuse is wearing pretty thin. This film's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but it hardly qualifies as good.

This movie has a loveably amateurish quality. The actors lag along some of their lines, trying to maintain momentum through the bad pacing that's imposed on them. The action is riddled with horror movie clichés that echo The Shining or Psycho.

There's the cliché of the movie's premise itself. A young couple takes up residence in a small-town resort motel during the off-season so that the man can have the quiet he needs to work on his play. There's the cliché of the man's assurances that he's progressing with his writing, when in fact something else is going on with him. There's the cliché of the tension over what sort of assault the woman is going to face as she takes a shower.

In spite of these flaws though, I enjoyed the movie and would give it a mild recommendation. It has some genuinely spooky moments. But it's main success lies in its characters. The film is populated by some people with memorable personalities who really talk to each other. This makes it a lot more interesting than most of the slick, strictly action-packed major movie productions.

The elderly, slightly doddering motel owner won me over with her heartfelt regret at having supplied the couple with a stain-prone mattress for their unit. And the eccentric retired rodeo rider in the next unit is equally winning.

Actor Angus Scrimm (could that be his real name?), who plays the retired rodeo rider, brought his own unique contribution to the movie. He wrote the song he sings in nostalgia over his days on the circuit out West. Mr. Scrimm sings a snatch of this song in the movie itself. But we are treated to his full rendition in the DVD's Bonus Materials.

Listen to this last part of the "Making of Off Season" at your own risk. Mr. Scrimm's song is so irresistible, you won't be able to get it out of your head. He came up with a gem - a song that pokes fun at the cowboy mystique at the same time that it expresses a sincere enthusiasm for some of the off-beat pleasures to be found on the open range. There's a twist on "going Brokeback" here. When the singer's Mary is away from him in Tucumcari, he makes do. He kisses him "a prairie dog or two."

Those cute little prairie dogs will haunt you as much as the ghosts that inhabit the off-season motel.

This movie was a waste of 1 hour and 30 minutes of my life. I can not even tell you how bad it is. It is not even about ghosts really. A couple stay at a hotel, the writer gets drunk, moves to L.A. and leaves his girlfriends, who ends up getting sick and fired from her job. Thats the story. Along with the end where some ghost goes inside the girl. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY BUYING OR RENTING THIS MOVIE. YOU WILL TRULY REGRET IT IF YOU RENT THIS.

Poor Acting, poor Direction and poor continuity, trail you through some of the worst dialogue, and inept script I've seen in years. In the "The Off Season", everything is off including the season.

My wife and I watched it and laughed through all the whole thing. One scene comes to mind. Inside the motel room you can see it's pouring rain and the male lead goes outside and there's no rain in sight, but, you can still hear the pouring rain. He goes back into the room and the rain is back. Priceless.

My True Rating is 0 Stars. Rotten Movie.

I really enjoy indepedent horror films that try to break away from the common cenceptions of modern ghost stories. While almost succesful in doing this "The Off Season" falls a little short. When watching low-budget films I can usually forgive bad acting, but Don Wood is terrible. His performance is so distracting that it's a welcome relief whe his character leaves the story. While this film definitely has it's moments, the pacing tends to slow the action of the story to much and looses your attention from time to time. Worth a rent but if you're thinking about buying it you might want to leave this one on the shelf.

the young couple come to maine and rent a room in motel. the first room shown them the bathroom is covered in FECES... but they stay anyway and are given another room. the wife disovers a big bloodstain in the bed and doesn't wish to upset her husband so she quickly covers it with a sheet and lays down.


i mean....really!! IMPLAUSIBLE

Very slow, boring movie. It's more about the couple's relationship than anything else. Low budget is obvious and bad acting. The landlord couldn't even get her lines out right. Film appeared to be low quality.
Movie just sucked. It seems Lions Gate has many horror titles like this and they are all horrible. At least there wasn't a five minute lesbian scene in this one (see Slaughterhouse Massacre)
Rent to make fun of with friends, otherwise,avoid.

My wife and I knew we were in trouble when, still at the video store, we noticed the review on the DVD cover said "THE MOST HAUNTING FILM SINCE 'THE SHINNING'". Yeah, that's right. "THE SHINNING". My wife kicked me in the shins after we watched the film to see if it was true. Yep, it was haunting. My shins still hurt.

The only bright spot in the film was Mr. Scrimm and his believable character, and his 'Prairie Dog' song was beautiful, and it may be the most haunting thing I've seen since 'The Shinning'.

At least we got a lot of housework done while watching it in the background. "Thanks for doing the laundry".

I'm giving this one two stars - but one of those stars is for POTENTIAL. Not that the same team could do it better, but it actually seems to me that this one would actually make for a good Hollywood film (if rewritten and recast). OK - I know that sounds like a whole new movie. But, actually, this one does actually have some good moments. And the acting, in parts, is amateurish enough that is almost seems believable. As far as an OTS (off the shelf, as in video store) horror flick, this one wasn't as terrible as some of the reviewers might lead you to believe, at least in my opinion.

Just by way of background, and while other reviewers seems to prefer to reveal much of the story and plot, I think that sort of ruins the film in many cases. So, you'll want to look for other reviews and reviewers if that is what you are looking for...

The cover art is misleading. If you're expecting a zombie gore fest, you'll be sorely disappointed. If you're in the mood for a good, atmospheric ghost tale, you'll be very pleased. The mood is much more like Carnival of Souls - very eerie with people's lives slowly uravelling because of the ghosts. The performances were much better than one would expect from a straight to dvd horror flick. One scene in particular took me by surprise, with Ruth Kulerman as the landlady explaining some of the sad history of the hotel. That was flat out Oscar worthy. The Off Season won't replace The Changeling as my all time favorite ghost movie, but it was worth the money.