L'Emprise du démon

"The Offering" offers a not-so-original but effective script told from a Jewish perspective. The cast gives well accomplished performances and the director's job is well done. One of the great merits of this production is its cinematography that generates a gloomy atmosphere by making the most of the filming locations. One notorious flaw is the CGI special effects that turn out to be fake in several scenes. The demon's design is very good, although in some scenes it ends up being distorted with digital touch-ups. "The Offering" is not a masterpiece, nor is it a lousy production, it is a decent film that achieves its purpose of entertaining.

Arthur takes his wife Claire back to his family home, to meet his somewhat estranged father, Saul. Saul, an undertaker by profession has a new client to work on, a client that hides a nasty, terrifying secret.

I really wanted to like it, I tried my best to ignore the negative reviews and low rating, but it's not the easiest movie to get through.

I'll start off with the positives, it's nicely made and well acted, it doesn't lack in terms of atmosphere, there is a certain sense of claustrophobia throughout. Nick Blood and Allan Corduner are good as the troubled father and son.

My main issue was the pacing, if it were an animal in a race, it would be a sloth, it's very slow moving and laboured, every action makes you yawn and long for your pillow.

There's nothing here that we haven't seen before, maybe that accounts for the film's relative anonymity.

5/10.

I dont understand the low score , i throughly enjoyed this and so did my wife, it is a bit old school in its vibe which i liked and the effects were ok for what it is, plenty or folke lore, Demon stuff, pentagrams and creepy children.

Every thing is a bit dark and moody so that might put a few off, some reviews i've read say it cliched and has telegraphed jumped scares but there are only so many times you can do a Demon/posession movie without comparing to hundreds of others that came before , saying that i thought it was fresh and the mortuary back drop added to the discomfort and creepyness.

This isn't terrible but it's a bit like a columbo movie. The opening scene shows you what's going on and takes away all the mystery and intrigue.

I thought that was interesting and I wondered where they were going to go with it. I didn't wonder very long.

Predictable jump scares, very little suspense and an all too tropey characters including a personal bug-bear of mine; that one guy who just knows exactly what's going on and can expertly explain it all, in detail to our protagonist.

I like two things about this movie. Almost the whole movie is inside the house which gives the movie what little atmosphere there is, and I like the ending. Not the climax, not the third act, just the very end. That's about all though.

The Offering (2022) takes a new shape in this terror/suspense movie with a lot of intrigue, terror, thriller, twists and turns. It begins with some intriguing words: ¨In the myths of the Middle East and Europe there is a terrifying female demon, represented in amulets, paintings and stories since the first century after Christ. It has thousands of names in various languages and religions, but it has a single terrifying tribute: The child stealer¨. This is a chilling supernatural thriller in which Evil lurks, eager to take over the children. In The Offering, the son , Arthur ( Nick Blood), of the owner -Saul (Allan Corduner)- of a Jewish funeral home goes to his father's house, along with his pregnant wife (Emily Wiseman) , to reconcile with him, and get the money necessary to pay off his debts. However, in the morque located beneath his father's house, an ancient demon hopes to take the soul of his unborn child. Things go wrong, when they discover cryptic marks, horrible demonic circles weird symbols, as well supernatural phenoma and poltergeists successively happening. No soul is safe!.

Horror fairy tale whose original title for the film was "Abyzou" , being consistently paced, and finely played by starring duo : Nick Blood and Emily Wiseman and with a lot of screems, gore , twists and turns. The Offering (2022) is a creepy, claustrophobic and scary low- budget horror movie. A twisted plot in which a marriage and the elderly father become involved into a supernatural intrigue resulting in plunging themselves deeper and deeper towards a world of impossible occurrences and equally inexplicable findings .The screenplay is mediocry written and the tension increases as long as the mystery about 'Abizou' is disclosed . The film is average but passable, the potential of the theme being wasted on some Jewish customs, the Torah, Yiddish language and other Hebrew arcana that combined with the eerie morgue events and supernatural demons could have created even an explosive result, however this falls short. Weird terror movie that's heavy on fantastic happenings and gory scenes with acceptable though completely inside production design, colorful though dark cinematography and decent but no excessive special effects, incuding gruesomely vivid guts .

It contains adequate cinematography with plenty of darkness by Lorenzo Senatore. As well as thrilling, frightening and suspenseful musical score by composer Christopher Young who's an expert on sinister atmosphere as proved in: The Tall Man, Drag Me to Hell, Sinister , Untraceable, The Uninvited, The Ghost Maker, Dominion and several others . The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Oliver Park. This is a good director with a short but interesting career with penchant for Chillers and Horror movies. He has played, written or directed a few films with no much hits, such as: The Dare, Horizon, Strange Events (2014), Still (2017), Solar Impact (2019) ,A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio (2019). Rating: 5.5/10. Only for horror fans. Average but passable.