Parents' Guide to

The Block Island Sound

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Illogical horror movie has violence, language, smoking.

Movie NR 2020 97 minutes
The Block Island Sound Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND is a body of water, but also a noise, specifically a deep, otherworldly growl coming from nowhere. Seemingly related to this sound, dead fish are beaching in the thousands on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island. And birds are dying, too. Audry (Michaela McManus) is an environmental scientist sent to take a look. A local conspiracy theorist named Dale (Jim Cummings) suggests an insidious parasite is infecting, well, he doesn't say whom, or maybe it's paranormal activity, or aliens, or the government that's causing all the trouble. He's got maps of what seems to be a similar worldwide phenomenon. But the movie stays local, and Audry is from the island, too, so she visits her troubled brother Harry (Chris Sheffield) and their declining fisherman dad, Thomas (Neville Archambault), while she's working. Dad's been forgetful, vacant-eyed, and generally weird, taking the boat out in the middle of the night and returning with decks full of dead fish. Harry's done nothing about the problems, and when Dad disappears after one of his late-night cruises and later washes up dead on the beach, Harry starts acting kind of strangely, too. Not to mention the way that electronics get staticky when he's around. Dead, purplish Dad keeps showing up, slack-jawed and issuing one-word commands to the faltering Harry, causing him to threaten the well-being of local animals and people. Will they discover what is happening?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (1):

It wouldn't be possible to challenge all the many shaky premises this movie hangs its logic on, but it's fair to say that most of The Block Island Sound is slow and dull. It slavishly mimics horror genre conventions, resulting in a knockoff of better horror films, but without the customary satisfying explanation of all the mysteriousness at the end. Even when we hear the big reveal -- which is described rather than shown and which isn't much of a reveal -- it becomes clear that no one associated with this was especially interested in coherent plotting as much as in lecturing viewers on a questionable point of view. This hasn't stopped the title from becoming a popular Netflix selection. The movie does offer a vague indictment of the human race for species-ism, at the same time suggesting an inadequately argued anti-science point of view. More important, by the time the lame excuse for an explanation is offered, we are long past caring.

Older kids and teens may want to discuss the film's simplistic conclusion and the misleading arguments beneath. This feels like a horror movie that is meant to have meaning, the way The Fly (about a man who slowly turns into a fly) was about what it means to love. But with little to recommend in the suspense area, and nothing to back up its logic, the drama here relies on the kind of content-free scenes in which a guy rummages madly through his fridge while ominous music plays. A dead guy with a bruised face keeps showing up, too, uttering one-word commands in an inhuman bark. And something keeps growling, but we never learn what. Teens looking for thrills have many better options.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what's attractive about horror movies. Why do some people like to feel scared? Do you think it's fun to get scared by a movie partly because we know that it's only a movie?

  • Horror movies often pose supernatural or extraterrestrial explanations for bizarre happenings. Do you feel satisfied by the explanations offered here? Why or why not?

  • How does this compare to other horror movies you've seen?

Movie Details

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