The Block Island Sound

Coastal horror isn’t really a thing.  I just made it up.  But genre films set on the edge of the ocean have a distinct vibe all their own.  2009’s The Beach House or Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass (2021) are just a couple of recent examples that take advantage of that threatening expanse of open water to isolate its characters with almost existential terror.  And the McManus Brothers’ The Block Island Sound (2020) is an excellent low-budget companion piece, lifting more than a few ideas from The X-Files to craft a clever extraterrestrial-influenced family drama born out of the deep.

Siblings Harry and Audry are at odds over what to do with their father, who has been making mysterious nighttime boat trips with no recollection of the event.  After finding him washed up on the beach, Harry’s begins having the same mental blackouts accompanied by powerful visions ordering him to provide “sacrifices” to something out at sea.  At a loss how to help, Audry tracks down another victim of the same delusions who suggests the cause is not of this earth.

 

Content-wise, The Block Island Sound could pass as a spec-script for the further adventures of Mulder and Scully, right down to the third act exposition by a crazy guy in a trailer.  But rather than killing time with red herrings and hotel rooms, the McManus brothers focus on the long-standing family drama.  It’s a wash either way, since neither are very compelling.  But it’s the mood the film creates which lingers, propped up by ominous shots of the Atlantic that make the ocean an antagonist all its own.

 

Deliberately paced and beautifully shot, the technical elements help distract from some of the weaker elements of the film which includes way too much emotional backtracking (and a cameo from triple-threat Jim Cummings is over way too soon).  Once the central menace becomes clear, however, things get more interesting. The money shot is an abduction at sea created with low-key special effects impressive in their simplicity.  Even the overdubbed epilogue, hammering home the film’s message, works better than it has any right to.  The Block Island Sound is working-class coastal horror with a side of family trauma.

 

Synapse Films lifts this one out of the streaming channels and onto a 4K Ultra-HD that really makes the most of the bleak visual palette.  Extras include a group of bite-size featurettes on the effects, casting and production process along with behind-the-scenes footage and a co-director’s commentary.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more