Off Season (2009) User Reviews

Pretty Darn Creepy

[venusboys3 · 7/10 · 23 March 2013]

This short is only 12 minutes long but it works its spell very efficiently. It's gruesome without being gory and spooky without overt FX or creatures. Even before the weirdness kicks in there is a sense of something not being right. The man and his dog are already cut off from society, seemingly by choice. He could be a decent guy, he could be a criminal on the run... I liked that there's no attempt to explain his situation beyond his breaking into houses to steal appliances and booze. His only notable quality is his love for his dog. There are a number of other questions left unanswered, which I liked... such as: What's up with the dog's fascination with that house?... and what was going on that night? The implications elevate the material into the realm of the weird. It did make me jump at one point and coming up on the end I had a genuine sense of dread. The ending is the only bit that didn't sit well with me... it was a bit too clever (ala Tales From The Crypt and similar) for my taste in light of what had gone before and seemed unlikely. I think it truncated a lot of the subtle/careful buildup with an easy out (similar to how I felt about the last bits of Yellow Brick Road). I would have preferred something more ambiguous that somehow echoed some of the strange mystery surrounding the place. As it is that ending could exist without ANY of the other elements. Still, it's an excellent little scare film and well worth a watch if you get a chance to see it.

Off Season for film too perhaps

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 26 March 2016]

This one here is a 13-minute live action short film from 7 years ago written and directed by Jonathan van Tulleken and as this one scored a BAFTA nomination, it may be his biggest success so far. But sadly, this does not make it a great watch. I will not deny that it is a fairly atmospheric little tale, that the lead actor does an okay job and that the ending was somewhat unexpected, but the story here was just not particularly interesting and they clearly went for cheap thrills instead of giving us a plot that has us at the edge of our seats. I personally do not recommend checking it out. Even for such a short film, it had moments during which it dragged. Thumbs down from me and the awards recognition here is really questionable.