Customer Reviews

Burnt Offerings

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I thought this movie was alright being that it was my first time watching it. It's not anything like the horror movies of today because it obviously relies on an interesting story and creepiness; something Hollywood often does with special effects. This is just a creepy film and runs a bit slow at the beginning but it builds up towards an alright ending. Burnt Offerings is your typical "family buys/rents dream house at bargain price only to regret it" film. Obvious examples being "The Shining" and the "Amityville Horror," both based on books as well. There is also a strange person hidden away upstairs (c.f. Jane Eyre, The Old Dark House, The Ghoul (1975) etc).

The film is a study of family dysfunction, which is exacerbated by the haunted house (see also the first two films mentioned above). Issues explored include child beating, marital stress and breakdown, the importance/impotence of the father figure, and estrangement between all family members.

The most visible manifestation of the "evil" is the ability of the house to clean and repair itself. Unfortunately this is more of a householders dream than nightmare. No more breakages, tidying, "cowboy" building firms, etc. When Ben Rolf appears in a wheelchair, thus emulating Arnold Allardyce at the start, I thought the house was trying to "keep" rather than kill its occupants. The house needed a specific family imprisoned from which to draw its power/feed off. Thus the Alladyces were victims of the house. Their behavior at the start and motivation was of fear and escape. There lays their need to find a replacement family and sudden departure. However, the ending shows the couple to be in league with the evil, my initial impression being wrong.

The conclusion was too open-ended, the origins and mysteries of the house were not fully explained. Perhaps the source novel is clearer. The title, Burnt Offerings, seems a misnomer, nothing is burnt per se. The house itself was the offering; the family had high expectations, only to be fatally disappointed.

Remember Dark Shadows? Of course you do! But do you remember the movie Night Of Dark Shadows, released after the tv series went off the air? If you've seen that movie and then watch Burnt Offerings, you may have noticed quite a few similarities, especially at the end. That's because both movies were directed by Dan Curtis, but whereas Night Of Dark Shadows was anything but scary, Burnt Offerings conquers the list of haunted house stories by being everything NODS wasn't. By replacing the cast with superior actors, coming up with a mostly new script, new plot and forgetting all about Dark Shadows, except for some of the recognizable music, Curtis came up with a horror movie that scared even the goosebumps on my skin.

Here's the plot in a nutshell: Oliver Reed and Karen Black play Marion and Ben Rolf, who along with Ben's aunt Elizabeth (played superbly by Bette Davis) and the Rolfs' son, agree to pay $900.00 and take care of an 85-year-old woman in exchange for living in a decaying old mansion on a large estate for the summer. There are several clues about what they're in for right at the beginning, such as Ben and Marion viewing about a dozen pictures of the house, all from the same angle and each picture showing the house looking exactly the same even though there's over one hundred years separating the first picture from the most recent.

Ben begins seeing one of the most horrifying characters in horror movies, someone he'd repeatedly dreamed about following his mother's death years earlier. Marion seems to become possessed by the house, and aunt Elizabeth seems to grow weaker by the scene. And the slightest injury to any of the characters seems to cause part of the estate to become like new. The ending, although similar to that in Night Of Dark Shadows, is a hundred times more frightening and will be long remembered afterwards. Though released in 1976, Burnt Offerings is a classic horror movie that can still scare viewers today, partly because the scare factor is not dependent on virtually non-existent special effects or loads of blood and gore, but instead is supported by a fantastic script and the ability of its stars to utilize their talents. The Haunting has nothing on this film.

Remember Dark Shadows? Of course you do! But do you remember the movie Night Of Dark Shadows, released after the tv series went off the air? If you've seen that movie and then watch Burnt Offerings, you may have noticed quite a few similarities, especially at the end. That's because both movies were directed by Dan Curtis, but whereas Night Of Dark Shadows was anything but scary, Burnt Offerings conquers the list of haunted house stories by being everything NODS wasn't. By replacing the cast with superior actors, coming up with a mostly new script, new plot and forgetting all about Dark Shadows, except for some of the recognizable music, Curtis came up with a horror movie that scared even the goosebumps on my skin.

Here's the plot in a nutshell: Oliver Reed and Karen Black play Marion and Ben Rolf, who along with Ben's aunt Elizabeth (played superbly by Bette Davis) and the Rolfs' son, agree to pay $900.00 and take care of an 85-year-old woman in exchange for living in a decaying old mansion on a large estate for the summer. There are several clues about what they're in for right at the beginning, such as Ben and Marion viewing about a dozen pictures of the house, all from the same angle and each picture showing the house looking exactly the same even though there's over one hundred years separating the first picture from the most recent.

Ben begins seeing one of the most horrifying characters in horror movies, someone he'd repeatedly dreamed about following his mother's death years earlier. Marion seems to become possessed by the house, and aunt Elizabeth seems to grow weaker by the scene. And the slightest injury to any of the characters seems to cause part of the estate to become like new. The ending, although similar to that in Night Of Dark Shadows, is a hundred times more frightening and will be long remembered afterwards. Though released in 1976, Burnt Offerings is a classic horror movie that can still scare viewers today, partly because the scare factor is not dependent on virtually non-existent special effects or loads of blood and gore, but instead is supported by a fantastic script and the ability of its stars to utilize their talents. The Haunting has nothing on this film.

I first saw Dan Curtis's creepy haunted house story back in 1976, in a movie theater when I was a kid, and both the chauffeur and the end scene haunted me for the longest time afterward. VERY chilling.

The Rolf family -- mother Marion (Karen Black), father Ben (Oliver Reed), son David (Lee H. Montgomery), and lively-as-heck 75-year-old Aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis) -- decide to leave the city behind for a peaceful, quiet summer in the country (HAH! Not in a Dan Curtis film!). Marion and Ben find a wonderful, rundown old mansion owned by the Allardyces -- brother Arnold (Burgess Meredith) and his sister Roz (Eileen Heckart). You can tell from word one that the Allardyce siblings are not playing with a full deck, and that something VERY creepy is going on with this house, but of course the unsuspecting Rolfs don't notice -- especially when they find out they can rent the place for $900 ... not per month, but for the WHOLE SUMMER! Ben is still skeptical, especially when they learn the deal comes with taking care of the Allardyce's 85-year-old mother, who has the attic room but is never seen (well, ALMOST never). Marion, however, falls in love with the rambling old mansion, talking Ben into taking it, and swearing the old woman upstairs will be entirely her responsibility.

The family moves in, but right away weirdness ensues: Ben starts dreaming a nightmare he hasn't had since his childhood, about his mother's funeral, a nightmare that includes maybe the creepiest chauffeur ever seen; the vibrant Aunt Elizabeth starts to get weak, wanting to sleep all the time, as if the very life force is slowly being drained from her body; Marion becomes obsessed with the house, cleaning and taking care of it, and with the old lady upstairs -- even Marion's manner, speech, and style of dress and hair change; Ben, in the middle of playing with David in the pool, suddenly tries to drown the boy -- and tells Marion later that he meant to drown him, for a moment lost control of himself and was trying to kill him.

The weirdness escalates to the conclusion, which is not entirely surprising but very satisfying. Anyone who sees this film and knows Dan "Dark Shadows" Curtis's style will not be disappointed; the movie is atmospheric, well-acted, and has moments that genuinely get under your skin. The ending is a little hokey, but again -- if you know Dan Curtis's style -- it's also perfectly acceptable.

For new viewers who are more accustomed to what horror movies have become in the last 20 years or so, this movie may be a real bore; it plays more with the mind than with the eyes, and blood, gore, and special effects are kept to a minimum or are non-existent. And that is exactly what makes it a good film; it relies on the viewer to insert his own creepiness via the "gauzy" visual look of the film, the performances (especially by Black, Davis, and Reed), and by watching these "burnt offerings" (a practice in some cultures of burning animals alive as sacrifices to the Gods) being lined up, unknowingly, for a house rooted in evil.

What I don't understand are the complaints about the DVD quality -- mine is find. Granted, I am more about the picture quality than the sound, but I had no problem hearing the dialogue throughout the film, and the music was never too loud or a distraction. The picture quality was EXACTLY how it looked when I saw it on the movie theater screen 28 years ago -- that gauzy-white "burned" bright sort of look (burned - "Burnt Offerings"? Hmmm) is indeed how the film is SUPPOSED to look! So I don't know if I got lucky, or what, but my DVD is fine. I've watched it several times since buying it, and the film remains chilling to this day. Buy it, but don't look for Freddy or Jason or even Michael Meyers-type horror; this is much more of a game of the mind.

Despite the outstanding cast, this Dan Curtis horror flick is so poorly thrown together that it makes you want to send up burnt offerings for a better remake. Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Eileen Heckart and Burgess Meredith are professionals all. They're saddled with the usual house-that-swallows-its-inhabitants. Special effects are virtually nil. On the commentary, however, a short-tempered Dan Curtis raves about this effort as if it were another "Psycho." Karen Black offers some interesting insights as to how she interpreted her fatalistic heroine. Screenwriter William Nolan, along with Curtis, explains how they revised the novel into a screenplay. As Curtis says repeatedly, "in the book, there was no ending. No Ending. Absolutely no ending. There was no ending. We had to fix--no ending!" Very little is said about the hunky, charismatic Oliver Reed, although Black does mention at least one scene which Reed tries to steal from Black. Curtis says nothing about Reed. He must've been a handful, as Bette Davis recalls in her memoirs.Curtis remembers how the preview audiences screamed to the screen at the end: "Don't go back into the house." Curtis seems proud of eliciting this response. He doesn't appear to understand that the audience was probably screaming its frustration at seeing another bunch of good actors being forced to do stupid horror things.

I first saw this movie in the early 80's and again several times over the years. This version definitely does not resemble what I saw back then. As other reviewers have noted, the picture is almost milky white making it very difficult to view most of the time. Also, the audio is so muffled that I had to turn my TV volume way up just to try to make out the dialogue. Some of the time, I completely missed what was being said. If it weren't for the disappointing transfer, I would not hesitate to give this movie 5 stars. Great performances were given by all, but I feel Bette Davis provided her fans with a memorable performance as only she can do.

i couldn't watch this movie when i was a kid because just the commercial would scare the hell out of me - i would always leave the room when it came on (KTLA Channel 5). Seeing that chauffer guy would always CREEP ME OUT (his face would haunt me for days). i finally worked up the nerve to see it when i was in college and it didn't disappoint (my wife on the other hand thought it was cheesy - especially the chauffer!)

People always compare this movie to Amitiville Horror but IMHO this one is much better.

I know this film is no cinematic masterpiece,but its better than alot of these unqualified,cynical,and boringly negative reviewers would have you believe.Many of those reviewers werent even alive when this film was first released,so I dont think I`d give these people much credibility.This film doesnt jump out at you like some of the horror genre,but it has a genuine underlying creepiness that makes it worth viewing at least once.The DVD transfer is fair to good,although some viewers have confused the intentional soft-focus photography with "haziness"

Would give this film a better rating but the ending falls a bit short for me. The acting here is great by all , I LOVE Karen Black so its a must for anyone who likes her. The story itself is eerie and foreboding but not really "scary". The picture and format are great here but the story falls a bit flat for me, worth a rent etc.

The commentary by Karen Black is very insightful. Dan Curtis seems at times a bit impatient with some of the questions put to him but that only adds to the enjoyment of this feature. The film itself looks fantastic and it is hard to believe that Karen was five months pregnant when she filmed it!