Close Menu
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    The First Descendant Season 3: Breakthrough keyart

    The First Descendant Season 3 Looks Like A Gamechanger

    05/11/2025
    Mafia: The Old Country promotional still

    Everything We Know About ‘Mafia: The Old Country’

    05/08/2025
    Sunderfolk Phone Players

    10 ‘Sunderfolk’ Tips To Help You And Your Party Thrive

    05/02/2025
    Bob in Thunderbolts But Why Tho

    ‘Thunderbolts*’ Visualizes Depression As Only A Superhero Movie Can

    05/02/2025
    Games to Play After Expedition 33

    5 Games to Play After Beating ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’

    05/01/2025
  • Star Wars
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Blood of Zeus
  • MCU
But Why Tho?
Home » Film » REVIEW: ‘Blow the Man Down’ is Intimate and Quietly Powerful

REVIEW: ‘Blow the Man Down’ is Intimate and Quietly Powerful

Kate SánchezBy Kate Sánchez03/20/20204 Mins ReadUpdated:04/20/2023
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Blow the Man Down — But Why Tho

I like films about grief. I don’t know if its because I have my own that I’ve never truly processed or because stories of grief lay characters bare in front of us and ask us to empathize with them from the first moment we see them. It’s even more striking when a film buries grief in a bed of violence and mystery like Blow the Man Down, from writer-directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy does.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Blow the Man Down takes place in Easter Cover, a salty fishing village on the far reaches of Maine’s rocky coast. The film opens with a group of fishermen singing the folk song “Blow the Man Down,” pulling you into the film. After the small opening, we’re introduced to two sisters, Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla Connolly (Sophie Lowe) at their mother’s funeral.The sisters are different people; Priscilla is the dutiful daughter, looking to hold the weight of the family’s financial troubles on her shoulders while Mary Beth just wants to go to college and leave the small and dead-end town. While they grieve the loss of their mother and face an uncertain future with little prospect or money, they end up having to cover up a gruesome run-in with a dangerous man. To conceal their crime, the sisters must go deeper into Easter Cove’s underbelly and uncover the town matriarchs’ darkest secrets.

Instead of having the film overtly focus on the grieving process, Blow the Man Down gives us a story of two sisters who come together to hide a crime, and in doing so reveals their personalities. On sister is reactive, the other is methodical, and neither of them is as strong a part as they are together.

Soon, Blow the Man Down turns into a film that is all about crimes committed by women. Whether its the Connolly girls’ or the underbelly of their small town that reveals that nosy neighbors know more than they should, the film creates a story that makes the women the center, the men the pawns, and gives a look at a madame and her dealings from a perspective rarely seen – from the women in her community. The generational choices echo throughout the film, not just from the Connolly’s family but from the women of Easter Cove.

As the story twists, the Connolly sisters find out how their family fits into the larger criminal world of Easter Cove and realize why so many people showed up to their to grieve their mother with them. But the film doesn’t just present crime, Blow the Man Down explores why women make the decisions they do, how they survive in a world not built for them, and how daughters can carry the sins of their mother and redeem them.

Saylor and Lowe are amazing together. They feel like sisters, they’re bonded like sisters, and it’s easy to see pieces of yourself in each of them. As they fall deeper into the crimes around them, they struggle to find a path that keeps them together, fixes their problem, and ultimately saves them. But how do they work together when one wants it all to go away and the other wants to start a new life on the ashes of their crime?

The films’ score is all strings, all fear, and the Irish folk song that pops up throughout the film creates a thrilling and eerie atmosphere for the film. Blow the Man Down is a cold film, one where the girls deeds sit in the freezing air and the song and score further freezes. This is an intimate thriller, one that throws you into the Connolly sisters’ shoes and makes you sit there, as powerless as they are in the unfolding events before they bring you up with them.

Overall, Blow the Man Down is a cold atmospheric thriller that brings you through grief and mistakes in a way that’s both intimate and quietly powerful.

Blow the Man Down is available on Amazon Prime now.

Blow the Man Down
  • 9/10
    Rating - 9/10
9/10

TL;DR

Blow the Man Down is a cold atmospheric thriller that brings you through grief and mistakes in a way that’s both intimate and quietly powerful.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Family Tree,’ #5
Next Article REVIEW: ‘The Red Mother,’ Issue #4
Kate Sánchez
  • Website
  • X (Twitter)
  • Instagram

Kate Sánchez is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho? A Geek Community. There, she coordinates film, television, anime, and manga coverage. Kate is also a freelance journalist writing features on video games, anime, and film. Her focus as a critic is championing animation and international films and television series for inclusion in awards cycles. Find her on Bluesky @ohmymithrandir.bsky.social

Related Posts

Josh Hartnett in Fight or Flight movie promotional still
9.5

REVIEW: ‘Fight or Flight’ Is The Single-Location Actioner You Need

05/06/2025
Jeanne Goursaud as Sarah in Netflix Original Film The Exterritorial
7.0

REVIEW: ‘Exterritorial’ Is A Netflix Action Movie Worth Watching

05/03/2025
Seohyun, Ma Dong-seok, and David Lee in Holy Night Demon Hunters
6.0

REVIEW: ‘Holy Night Demon Hunters’ Holds Nothing Back

05/02/2025
Oscar in The Rose of Versailles (2025)
3.5

REVIEW: ‘The Rose of Versailles’ Fails To Harness Its Potential

05/01/2025
The cast of the Thunderbolts
5.5

REVIEW: ‘Thunderbolts*’ Fosters A Half-Hearted Identity

04/29/2025
Spreadsheet Champions
8.0

HOT DOCS 2025: ‘Spreadsheet Champions’ Excels In Heart

04/28/2025
TRENDING POSTS
The First Descendant Season 3: Breakthrough keyart Features

The First Descendant Season 3 Looks Like A Gamechanger

By Kate Sánchez05/11/2025

At PAX East 2025, NEXON previewed the groundbreaking mega-update for The First Descendant Season 3: Breakthrough.

Murderbot Season 1 keyart from Apple TV Plus
9.0
TV

REVIEW: ‘Murderbot’ Continues Apple TV+’s Sci-Fi Winning Streak

By Kate Sánchez05/12/2025

Humor, action, and the weirdness of science fiction keep Apple TV+’s Murderbot hitting every single episode.

The Devil's Plan Season 2 key art
4.5
TV

REVIEW: ‘The Devil’s Plan’ Season 2 Is Off To A Rough Start

By Charles Hartford05/07/2025Updated:05/07/2025

The Devil’s Plan Season 2 challenges its contestants to outsmart and outmaneuver each other. Unfortunately, it does so in pace grinding ways

Razer Joro product image
9.0
Product Review

PRODUCT REVIEW: The Portable Razer Joro Is A Travel Gamechanger

By Kate Sánchez05/08/2025Updated:05/08/2025

Reliable and uncompromising in its gaming features on the go, the portable Razer Joro is a travel gamechanger.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here