The unpredictable thriller film deserves a much bigger audience.
This week on JOE’s Film Club Classics, we’re recommending The Block Island Sound – an inventive 2020 indie thriller streaming on Netflix now that accomplishes a lot with very little.
The breakthrough movie of the writing-directing duo Kevin and Matthew McManus (whose upcoming thriller Redux Redux sounds very promising), their 2020 film is set mostly on the real-life Block Island – a popular summer tourist destination in New England in the US.
The story follows two adult siblings: Audry (a winning Michaela McManus), an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worker who lives on the mainland, and Harry (Chris Sheffield), a fisherman who still lives with their father Tom (Neville Archambault) on Block Island.
Though the pair have been slightly estranged since their mother died, Audry must return home during the sleepy winter months. This is after being tasked by the EPA to investigate why ten tons of fish have washed up dead on the island’s shore.
It isn’t long before there are other odd occurrences. After acting erratically, Tom goes missing as his boat is discovered uninhabited in the sea. Soon after this, Harry starts to psychologically unravel in a similar way to his father.
Birds also start falling from the sky, as electronic disturbances and unusual noises start to plague the island.
Is there an everyday explanation for these events? Could Harry’s behaviour be the result of grief, alcoholism, a mental health crisis, or electromagnetic hypersensitivity caused by a nearby wind farm?
Or is there a more out-there cause? For instance, a local conspiracy theorist (an excellent Jim Cummings, Last Stop at Yuma County) has his own theories about Harry and the other strange phenomena, raving about “government testing, paranormal activity, interdimensional communications”.
This would be an intriguing set-up for any movie, allowing filmmakers to toy with different genres in fun ways, while tapping into modern-day fears regarding conspiracy theories, disinformation and environmental collapse.
That said, the premise works particularly well for an indie like The Block Island Sound. After all, the coastal setting gives the thriller a built-in scenic production value (despite presumably limited resources).
More importantly, though, if this type of story were made as a major Hollywood movie with huge stars and set-pieces, pretty soon it would become clear that what’s happening to Harry and the island is more fantastical – otherwise, why make the blockbuster?
But because The Block Island Sound is smaller and more intimate in scope, the viewer genuinely doesn’t know on a first watch what the explanation will be or what will happen to our lead characters.
And while less patient viewers may say that the McManus brothers take a little too long to build to a climax, JOE would argue that the payoff is worth the wait. Without spoiling, when answers do come at the end of the film, they are hugely satisfying – recontextualising everything you’ve just witnessed.
This is the type of movie that, the minute it’s over, certain viewers will want to restart in order to see how well the thriller’s narrative breadcrumbs were laid.
The Block Island Sound is streaming on Netflix in Ireland, the UK and the US right now.
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