Due to massive amounts of local wildlife turning up dead as a damn door-nail on the Rhode Island coast, EPA agent Audry (Michaela McManus, The Vampire Diaries) is called back to her old stomping grounds to investigate.
Tagging along are Audry’s young daughter Emily (Matilda Lawler, Evil) and her co-worker, Paul (Ryan O’Flanagan, The Owl House), and once there they reunite with her estranged fisherman father and brother, Tom (Neville Archambault, The Wolf of Snow Hollow) and Harry (Chris Sheffield, The Maze Runner).
Along with the wildlife puzzler, ol’ Tom is acting bizarre as fuck (it’s a medical term, look it up… ) as he seems to hear a growl coming from the sea, and it’s making him do strange things and suffer bouts of memory loss… as is often the way… before he up and disappears entirely after taking his boat out late at night.
This causes Harry to launch an investigation of his own, but before long the apple doesn’t fall from the tree as far as acting like a spaced out weirdo is concerned thanks to an aquatic misadventure our hero suffers.
It’s times like these that make ol’ Dale (Jim Cummings, Halloween Kills) the town conspiracy nut sound like a rational, reliable source of information…
Written and directed by Kevin and Matthew McManus (Cobra Kai), The Block Island Sound is a slow-burn tale of the supernatural weaving among a strong family drama… I know, that last bit ain’t really our bag, but hear me out…
So about that… this film is, at it’s core, the story of a family dealing with increasing mental illness… and it’s handled emotionally and realistically, and the interactions between Harry and his siblings is never anything but totally believable. There’s a great cast assembled here, and I’d recommend this flick on that alone, but of course there is more…
Along with that pathos comes a Lovecraftian story of strange influence from the sea controlling the fates of humanity… and with that being said, don’t expect creature feature craziness here as the entity at hand is vague at best, but…
The ambiguous nature of it all adds to the narrative’s creep factor exponentially… which when combined with the heavy themes involved, and the seemingly eternally cloudy, cold, and rainy environs makes for a suitably dour fright flick that’s compelling from start to finish… and it’s definitely a unique ride the entire way.
To further explore what it took to bring The Block Island Sound to life, Synapse have assembled a nice collection of special features which kick off with a commentary from the McManus brothers that covers the film’s production in detail (including what it took to finance the modest budgeted picture, their personal relationship to the eponymous area, and the challenges faced while filming during Covid).
From there we get a series of featurettes focusing on what it was like to be on set during production, casting, the challenges of filming on the water, and the flicks special effects respectively… followed by a look behind-the-scenes of the film’s L.A. shoot (shot on 8MM), a glimpse of early home video movies shot by the brothers (and, as in the feature, starring their sister), and a teaser trailer for the picture.
Filled with gravitas as well as ghoulish goings-on, The Block Island Sound is a truly fantastic, methodical, one-of-a-kind fright flick and shouldn’t be missed!