The Offering

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 knew when I sat down to watch this, that I wasn't in for a masterpiece.

That being said, I was still left a bit disappointed with how reliant on (predictable) jump scares and the classic "eery soundtrack" this movie was.

At times it felt like a knock off of The Conjuring movies, with judaic lore sprinkled in to give it a semblance of originality.

If the characters had been more developed and they had been less indulgence on generic tropes, it might have been a movie worth rewatching.

All that being said, it wasn't a bad movie either. The special effects are well done, and the set design is above average. I also enjoyed the attention to detail in some scenes.

If you like possession films I think you'll enjoy this one!

As it stands it's an okay movie to watch at home in the couch with a large bowl of popcorn, and maybe some hot sauce to bring the spice this piece is lacking.

This really was your average, run of the mill horror flick. Reminded me of a mix between "The Vigil" and "The Autopsy of Jane Doe". Not as good as either of those... but still successful to a degree in its own right.

I would say where this lacked the most would be in originality. The movie looked great - beautiful shots, lighting and atmosphere...the script was good, the acting was solid, the pacing was decent/kept you engaged, and yet still... it just wasn't all that enthralling.

Entertaining? Yes. It just didn't excite me all too much. Not to mention it relied a lot on jump scares. I think if they had chilled on those and focused on making it authentically creepier, finessed the storyline a bit by attempting to infuse some originality into it with less cliche horror tropes I think that would have helped immensely.

But again, this was still entertaining, just don't go into it expecting to see a modern day cinematic horror masterpiece. It's a fun, casual watch. I give this a 5.5 rounding up to a 6. Would recommend.

"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.

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.