Fresh and Exciting

Don't Believe the Hype

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

My dad and I were at the local video store trying to find something to rent when we saw this. The cover made the movie look fairly creepy, and the comment on the back "The most terrifying movie since The Shining" (probably by the director's mom) made it look like a decent movie. We were wrong. This is the worst movie I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of movies. The acting is horrible, the camera quality is equally terrible, and I'm still not sure if I even fully understand the plot. But man was this movie entertaining. I love bad horror movies, but this one takes the cake. It was hysterical. We've got a homeless guy flipping the bird for 20 minutes....that had to be my favorite part. We have an old lady who apparently "forgets" to wash blood-stained bed sheets and leaves them in the hotel rooms. My dad and I were literally in tears throughout the whole movie. I would only recommend this if you're a fan of crappy horror movies that you can laugh at. If not, then this film would be a huge waste of your time and money.

Don't even bother with this movie. I can only hope that I'm as lucky as another commenter on here, and get a free rental out of how ridiculously awful this movie was. Just goes to show you: don't judge a book by its cover. The DVD cover made it out to be something relatively enjoyable, and it was the biggest crock of crap I've ever seen. The official website for the movie even mentions the misleading cover... Thanks, guys. How this made it into rental stores, let alone the "horror" section, I'll never know. It's not even bad enough to laugh at. The writer should take some advice from the lead character in his own story, and go out to a bar instead of trying to write film scripts.

I must agree that low budget does not automatically mean a movie is bad. There is plenty of talent in the world and much of it does not have the funding of a wealthy, big time production company in tow.Just after watching The Off Season, I was disappointed. The low budget was glaringly obvious in the overall quality of the film and in the acting. One particular plot turn I found to be VERY unconvincing, thus lessening the credibility of the movie. It felt way too forced in order to move the story along, or maybe an actor backed out (or was fired) half way through.After some thought, I found there were many redeeming qualities to the movie. The atmosphere was surprisingly creepy for such a simple and generic setting (dingy hotel room). And such a small space gave a disturbingly claustrophobic aura to the film, while affecting the characters in negative and understandable ways. It was interesting to see Angus Scrimm acting with dialog instead of merely presence (ala Phantasm), and he certainly did an acceptable job even though the writing was less than great. Last but not least, there were a few decidedly potent scares via some of the supernatural shenanigans. One particular scene involving a phone call made my skin crawl, and that scene alone practically made the film worth watching in my opinion.In terms of horror, one can do better, but one could also do a lot worse. If you are a horror fan with an open mind, then Off Season may be just what you are looking for.

I picked up this movie in the hopes that it was a good suspenseful ghost story. That is not what I got.This movie must have been produced on a shoe string of a budget, from the odd camera angles to the meandering around the plot, this movie was a big disappointment.I do believe it had the right ingredients, but just needed more direction and some better actors. The only thing that kept me from turning it off is my curiosity of just how bad this movie could get.The ending was abrupt, leaving all sorts of questions in the viewers mind. Much like this review.I do not recommend this flick.