Burnt Offerings



Ben, Marion and their son, Davey, are looking for a nice, summer getaway to rent when they’re offered a spectacular deal. The owners of a large, though shabby mansion, brother and sister Arnold and Rosalyn Allardyce, offer their stylish and remote property for only $900 for the whole summer. The only catch is, their elderly mother lives upstairs and never leaves the house, so someone will have to prepare and deliver her meals to the third floor three times a day. Ben is highly skeptical of both the generous offer, and why the siblings would essentially abandon their aged mother to strangers for three whole months. But Marion is all on board and offers to be the woman’s sole caretaker. So a couple weeks later the family moves in, along with Ben’s aunt, Elizabeth, all in the hopes of enjoying a nice, peaceful summer. But it doesn’t take long before Ben’s initial concerns turn out to be well founded, as increasingly odd things start happening around them. By the time family members start behaving strangely, Marion begins dressing like a 19th century grandma, and the mansion seemingly starts to repair itself without any outside help, Ben is convinced that there is something very wrong with the house. Unfortunately, by the time his revelation finally strikes, it may be too late to do anything about it.



So here’s another movie that’s been on my watch-list for quite a while. Much like Food of the Gods, here we have another horror movie, from 1976, based on a book. Except unlike that film, Burnt Offerings manages to have a decent plot, and believable characters, and is actually pretty good. Not great, maybe, but definitely good, especially by haunted house standards. In any case, it’s definitely much better than that cheesy, giant rodent-heavy film. But if you’re hoping for something more “in your face” when it comes to the fear department, you’re not going to get that here. Burnt Offerings may be scary, but like most haunted house centered horror films, it’s not really a “BOO!” type of scary. It’s that more subtle, disquieting scary that slowly builds up the sense of dread until the final act.



As far as “large, creepy house” stories go, this one is pleasantly effective. The disturbing atmosphere is spot on, and actually manages to get better as the movie progresses. It even does this neat thing where it swaps your expectations. When the film starts, the house is in kind of a gray/brown, shabby-like state, very much like how you’d expect a haunted house to look. But as the movie goes on, the house slowly starts to look better and better. Wallpaper is repaired, clocks start working again, colors begin to pop…it’s almost like the home is slowly being remodeled. You’re initially led to believe that the characters may have a part in this, because you do see them spending some time cleaning things up. And then you eventually realize that, yes, they DO have a part in it, but it’s not in the way that you thought. So the house slowly looking better and better actually increased the creep factor, while simultaneously brightening up the aesthetics, which is quite the opposite compared to what other, similar films tend to do. So it’s kind of a neat, subtle switch-a-roo.



What really surprised me about this film was the star power behind it. You’ve got Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart, Dub Taylor, and Bette Davis. Freaking Bette Davis. What the hell is she doing in a dinky haunted house flick? I have no idea. But it’s nice seeing her, even if she tried to Betty-Davis up her part as much as possible, despite having precious little to actually work with. I appreciate her efforts though, because I’m sure her character would have been much more boring otherwise. Hell, even the young’un, Lee Montgomery, starred in Ben a couple years prior, so this is another rare occasion where I can’t even really complain about the kid’s acting. I do think Reed was a little stiff in spots, and Black a little too intense in others, but overall I think the cast was pretty great.



But though the story was solid and the acting was generally excellent, there were a couple of story blurbs that I found odd. Like, why is nobody else other than Ben noticing that the house is slowly repairing itself? Why does no one question Marion’s sudden wardrobe change from t-shirts and jeans to elderly Victorian matron? Why does nobody seem concerned that Elizabeth has seemingly aged 20 years in two months? Why is Davey examining a random punch bowl in the middle of the dining room? He’s 10, WTF does he care about seeing if the bowl is Waterford or not? Yes, the hearse driver is creepy as hell, but why is the house seemingly using a traumatizing memory to only torment Ben, and not doing the same thing to anyone else in the house? So basically nothing major, but just a lot of little odd inconsistencies that maybe could have been ironed out. I mean, it’s not like the film didn’t have enough time. The movie is a slow-burn, and almost two hours long. Surely they could have found a way to shove a couple of explanations in there somewhere.


Seriously kid, what the hell are you so fascinated by?

I really liked Burnt Offerings. Like a lot of horror movies you can discern themes like the dangers of consumerism, and the very popular destruction of the family. But if you don’t care about that crap then it’s still a fun, creepy tale about a house that’s slowly sucking the life out of its guests. It can feel a little talky in places, and the pacing is a bit disjointed, but if you can appreciate the slow build-up then you’ll probably have a good time. There’s a reason Stephen King cited this story as inspiration for The Shining.

Burnt Offerings is available on a variety of streaming services.

Burnt Offerings is also available on DVD and Bluray.

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