Offseason (2021)

Chapter 1: Lone Palm - Via letter, cemetery caretaker Haskell Grierson summons Marie Aldrich to Lone Palm Beach with an urgent notice that her mother Ava's grave was desecrated. Marie's estranged boyfriend George Darrow accompanies her.

The 'Bridge Man' warns that the island is closed to tourists until Spring, and the couple will need to return to the mainland before the bridge goes up for the season at nightfall. George leaves Marie alone in the cemetery while he searches for the caretaker. Marie has a cryptic encounter with Miss Emily, an old woman who runs the flower shop in town. Marie wanders into a foggy forest where entranced people seem to surround her. Marie flees and reunites with George. Chapter 2: Sandtrap - Marie and George stop at a restaurant to ask where they can find Grierson. The locals treat the couple oddly. Marie meets a fisherman who hints that he can help Marie. The fisherman begins offering information about Marie's mother until other locals interrupt. Unable to locate Grierson, Marie and George return to the road. Marie tells George she suspects her mother's will was altered because Ava always insisted she never wanted to return to Lone Palm Beach. Marie recounts a tale Ava told about the island's settlers making a deal with a demon who came from the sea in exchange for surviving rough storms. Ava claimed their family was part of the pact, but Marie assumed the story was a figment of Ava's dementia. George condescendingly dismisses Marie's concerns that something might actually be wrong with Lone Palm Beach, and that they may have fallen for a trap. George and Marie find the road back to the bridge blocked by fallen trees. George crashes his car in the dark when he tries driving around the trees. Chapter 3: Life's a Dream - While unconscious, Marie flashes back to getting nowhere with a pair of lawyers when she tried disputing the terms of Ava's will. Marie wakes in the crashed car to find George missing and the bridge raised. Marie looks for help in town only to discover it is eerily deserted. Marie experiences another flashback where she argues with her mother over the supposed truth about the island. Chapter 4: The Damned - At the flower shop, Marie finds a scrapbook of clippings about her mother. Marie also encounters Miss Emily standing entranced with white eyes. Marie returns to the restaurant and sees all of the locals standing strangely still like statues. Chapter 5: Last Man Out - Marie runs into the fisherman. He confirms that the island's inhabitants are cursed. He also explains that Ava had to return there because, like everyone else trapped there, she owed a debt to the man from the sea. The fisherman adds that each year, one resident remains awake, and he made sure it would be him this time. The fisherman takes Marie to retrieve his boat, but he disappears once they are inside his house. Marie makes contact with George over a radio and vows to find him. Marie then discovers tentacles devouring the fisherman in the dark. When the fisherman transforms into a possessed creature, Marie fires a flare gun that sends the house up in flames. Marie escapes to the raised bridge. Covered in blood, George confronts Marie. Marie realizes George is possessed when he speaks to her cryptically. Marie shoots George after he menacingly moves toward her. Marie breaks into the booth to lower the bridge. Hearing creatures coming from the fog behind her, Marie runs toward the mainland until the Bridge Man stops her at gunpoint. The Bridge Man tells Marie that her mother did terrible things and "He" wants Marie to see what happens as a consequence. The Bridge Man further explains that he serves the townspeople because he is desperate for salvation. Marie tells the Bridge Man he was deceived, and that Lone Palm Beach is Hell, not Heaven. Chapter 6: Heaven - Unswayed by Marie's claim, the Bridge Man forces Marie to return to the cemetery. There, Marie encounters her resurrected mother. Ava suddenly sprints to the beach. Marie sees a massive monster appear on the distant horizon. Marie screams, "I'm sorry" as her mother is dragged into the water. Entranced townspeople appear behind Marie. Marie says, "I see now" before her eyes turn white with possession. Another flashback shows Marie speaking to Ava on her mother's deathbed. Ava reveals she had an older brother, who turns out to have been the fisherman. Ava recounts an unsettling experience involving her supposedly dead brother becoming possessed, which causes Ava to insist she never wants to return to Lone Palm Beach, even in death. Epilogue - A couple prepares to leave Lone Palm Beach at the end of another tourist season. As the new proprietor of the flower shop, Marie warns them about staying past the bridge closure. Miss Emily is revealed to have been Marie's grandmother. (thanks to culturecrypt)