The Offering

How did this ultra-dull movie get financed? How did the director manage to make one hour and eighteen minutes seem to drag on...and on...and on? Did the several actors appearing in this stupid "Lovecraftian" tale drink codine cough syrup before every take? Everything moves in slow motion, the cult members are wearing cheap hooded taffeta costumes from Party City, and there are about 20 seconds of creature effects which you can see in the trailer. Avoid, this stinks like Cthulhu farts. One star, which is being generous.

Right, well I stumbled upon the 2022 horror movie titled "Monster Portal", and seeing that the movie brandished H. P. Lovecraft's name on the cover, and having rather interesting cover, I must admit that I was intrigued.

Did I harbor much of any expectations to the movie? No, not really, because I had never heard about is before watching it.

And what a dumpster fire this was. First of all, this movie has nothing to do with H. P. Lovecraft, aside from the fact that writers Matthew B. C., Scott Jeffrey and Mario von Czapiewski opted to put Cthulhu into their movie. Yeah, this story has never even been anywhere near being spawned by the great H. P. Lovecraft himself. And just because you opt to put something that Lovecraft created into a movie doesn't really give you the right to put "H. P. Lovecraft's" as part of your movie title. But hey, anything to lure in the audience, right?

The storyline in "Monster Portal" was not a great one, not even by a longshot. It was sluggish and slow paced, with nothing overly exciting to offer the audience that manages to endure the staggering 80 minutes of nonsense that "Monster Portal" turned out to be.

The special effects and CGI in the movie were so-so. Some of the CGI was actually fair enough, while some was just taken straight out of a 1990s computer game. And how wonderfully clever to make the scenes so dark that you can hardly see any of the special effects when they were actually on the screen. Yeah, this formula doesn't really work, and if anything it just makes attempts of horror turn into a parody.

The acting performances in "Monster Portal" were fair enough, I will say that much. I wasn't familiar with the cast in the movie, and that is normally something I enjoy when I watch a movie. But the actors and actresses literally had nothing worthwhile to work with here.

I got suckered in by the "H. P. Lovecraft's" part of the title and ten tentacles and faceless creature on the cover. Make sure you don't do the same mistake, because "Monster Portal" is not worth the effort. And seeing a CGI rendering of Cthulhu's head shrouded in 90% darkness hardly constitutes a movie as being Lovecraftian.

My rating of "Monster Portal" lands on a two out of ten stars.

This movie is slower than watching oil paint dry. The sound is off. The actors seem like they didn't even want to be there. This goes by 2 other names which you just know it gonna suck.

I had intended to watch The Offering, but due to a mistake by some careless uploader, I ended up watching Monster Portal instead. From the very beginning, it was clear that this movie was not going to be a good experience. The production quality felt cheap, the acting was wooden, and the storyline lacked any real tension or intrigue. It seemed as if the film was trying to create an eerie, supernatural atmosphere, but the weak script and poor execution completely undermined any potential it had. The dialogue was uninspired, and the characters were unconvincing, making it difficult to stay engaged.

As the movie progressed, it only got worse. The special effects were laughably bad, failing to add any sense of horror or excitement. The pacing was all over the place, making the film feel both rushed and drawn out at the same time. Instead of delivering suspense or terror, it left me feeling frustrated at having wasted my time. I had hoped for a well-crafted horror experience, but Monster Portal turned out to be a dull, forgettable mess. If not for the mistake in downloading, I would never have bothered watching it, and honestly, I regret that I did.

This review focusses on the movie that is directed by Matthew B. C and it is quite a disappointment. It's much worse than a disappointment, it's amateur hour.

The bad: this is NOT a horror movie at all, because it is not in even the slightest way horrifying. It is laughably amateurish though, because of the silly attempts at making something scary and failing at it miserably.

Below average actors, below average photography and sound. It's not even worth being called a movie.

Better watch ANY other REAL horror movie and there are many old horror classics out there to be admired!

(((Beware: the title of this movie has changed recently, before it was titled as "The Offering", which is quite confusing because there are 2 similarly titled movies)))