Burnt Offerings

I've been a big fan of this movie for years, ever since I was about 12. And I've watched as time and time again people have complained about this movie, and I just didn't get it. Now I'm grown up and I see the flaws, but I still don't care. I love Oliver Reed and Karen Black and don't think it could have been acted better. Watching her grow more an more attached to the house is very interesting. The best part I thought was when she surprises her son who drops a crystal bowl that smashes on the floor, and she kneels there, holding the fragments in her hands, sobbing hysterically, almost like a child had died. The boy, Lee Montgomery, I've never had a problem with. The kid from the Shining, now HE was annoying. hehe. And above all, I LOVE how the movie ends. Although it's predictable, it was VERY welcome. Movies with sad, creepy endings that leave you with a shiver always work for me.

Burnt Offerings came along with other late 70s slow burn creepers like The Hearse and The Changeling. It has the slimmest of plots being like an early blueprint for The Shining. It crawls along at a snail's pace with very little happening besides episodic slices of marital strain under the guise of the evil house that possesses and ultimately eats people. Filmed through pantihose, this is one of those hazy deals that must have been created to provide a surreal, dreamlike effect but I dunno.... Bette is sort of wasted, Oliver makes it a vanity project and comes through exceedingly well and Karen is of course superb and losing her mind. Your patience will reward you make no mistake, as it is the last third of this movie where it really swings into top gear and will get under your skin. Slow burn indeed. Oh and last but not least, that smiley chauffeur....

Talky, but unusual and creepy haunted house movie concerns an ordinary family from the city who rent a country estate for the summer--at a suspiciously low price! A bit confusing at first, but whenever something bad happens (like the father cutting his thumb on the champagne bottle) something good immediately takes its place (the kid switching on what was previously a dead light bulb). The house absorbs the good (the sacrificial new family's spirit and energy) while its inhabitants wither away, physically or mentally. Bette Davis' Aunt Elizabeth ages suddenly (with frighteningly effective make-up), and Anthony James as the chauffeur who haunts Oliver Reed's head is a scary, freaky presence. Karen Black is even odder than usual: I'm not certain whether her not-quite-there expression is what was intended for the role of Marion, but she does something very gutsy for an actress, making herself into a gargoyle (only in her final scene does she overdo it). Superior to the source novel by Robert Marasco, "Burnt Offerings" (the title taken from a biblical reference) is a well-directed slice of the macabre. *** from ****

A lot of horror movies rely simply on sudden jolts of sound to make you jump. I recently watched Friday the Thirteenth (2009) and it was literally all it had. Which is fine, no one can deny it gets the job done. The problem with it is that the movies become inseparable and which one is scarier can only be judged really on which made you jump the most.

Burnt Offerings instead creates an atmosphere. It creates it masterfully through character decisions and great use of music. There was a stage early on when I realized nothing eventful had even happened as yet and despite this my heart was pounding. Sure enough a moment later some frightening action took place and I realized for the first time in a long time a horror movie had alerted my sub-conscience and not my mind. These days in horror movies it's far too easy to predict when the event is coming (it's generally when the filmmaker is trying to make you think NOTHING is coming).

Burnt Offerings is more than watchable in this day and age. The lines are nowhere near as cheesy sounding as a lot of other pre-1980 films make them sound today and the acting, whilst not perfect, is anything but bad. The suspense will have your heart pounding and it's all building up to something so terrifying it deserves far more recognition among horror buffs. Not to be missed.

I'm a kid of the 70's before all the CGI special FX. And this is still an old school fav of mine. I love spooky Karen Black. I always had an affinity for large creepy houses, especially when they become one of the characters in the movie. This is another 70's slow burn in the haunted house genre that more than likely helped fuel my NIGHT TERRORS and SLEEP WALKING issues. Still holds up decent for it's age, but if your looking for a GORE FEST, move on, cause this won't fill your cup. If you like psychological Gothic style horror then check it out.