4K UHD, Blu-ray Review: The Block Island Sound

4K UHD, Blu-ray Release Date: Dec. 10, 2024
Price: 4K UHD $29.71, Blu-ray $22.27
Studio: Synapse/MVD

From the McManus Brothers, the Emmy nominated TV writers, directors, and producers of such fare as Netflix’s Cobra Kai and American Vandal, comes the intriguing 2020 sci-fi-horror hybrid The Block Island Sound.

Neville Archambault in The Block Island Sound.

This indie effort begins with a fisherman named Tom (Neville Archambault), who mysteriously wakes up in his fishing boat off the coast of New England’s Block Island to a bunch of strange phenomenon plaguing the island in the form of hundreds of dead fish washing up on shore, birds dropping from the sky, and Tom himself exhibiting increasingly eccentric behavior. It’s Tom’s son Harry (Chris Sheffield) and marine biologist daughter Audry (Michaela McManus) who begin to closely look into what’s going on and slowly realize that the bizarre wildlife happenings and their father’s behavior are connected.

More a psychological thriller or mystery than a horror film, as it was promoted (but, yes, there are some solid moments of horror), The Block Island Sound is an impressively disconcerting please of work offering a mystery at the top and a series of effective story developments and twists to draw us in until the effective wrap-up It’s a slow-burn, to be sure, with the McManus Brothers crafting an atmospheric backdrop to the conspiratorial-styled horrors that begin to make their way across the isolated island. Again, though, it’s the psychological elements that primarily take center stage here as we watch the deterioration of a seemingly regular guy, soon to be followed by his son.

The Block Island Sound is the McManus Brothers’ second feature, following the 2012 comedy-drama Funeral Kings, and it’s clear that the pair are comfortable working in the horror genre, and an offbeat one, at that.

It’s worth checking out if you enjoy your chills to come at a measured, increasingly creepy pace.