Burnt Offerings
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Canada
Movie Reviews of Burnt Offerings
Movie Review: interestingly brilliant scare.
Summary: 5 Stars
There are few horror movies out there that can get away without being a bloodbath. This is one of the few.
It leaves you wondering exactly how many generations has this house lured in guests.
Movie Review: The Chauffeur
Summary: 5 Stars
the stuff of nightmares. I have seen him in other roles (like the pimp in "the Unforgiven") and I still have to close my eyes!Movie Review: Excellent Transaction
Summary: 5 Stars
Great communication. Easy payment options. Fast Secure shiping. Would definiely do business with them again.Movie Review: what's with all the DVD complaints?
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Nasty old house, yummy Oliver Reed = Dark Shadows Lite!
Summary: 4 Stars
While I was a huge afficianado of Dan Curtis's "Dark Shadows" as a child, somehow I must have been too interested in teenage/college boys by the time "Burnt Offerings" came out to have bothered to take in a viewing...thus, I saw this for the first time a couple weeks ago. I liked it a great deal! I must say that much of the movie's appeal had to do with my nostalgia for "Dark Shadows", because Robert Cobert's musical score (and even the music box tune) were so heavily reminiscent as to almost bring a tear to my eye. I recall a shot or two of Karen Black (Marian) looking suspiciously like a latter-day (and much crazier) Kathryn Leigh Scott (who played several lovely but weak-willed damsels in distress on Dark Shadows over the years), and have to even say that while Oliver Reed (Ben) is a sexy beast par excellance in this movie, even he had a slight Jonathan Frid thing going in a couple scenes. Ah, the days of Mom ironing Dad's shirts with my sister and I in the living room, all 3 getting the daylights literally frightened out of us by some supernatural creatures appearing on a soap opera!
Enough nostalgia for now. I love the tone of many of the '70's horror movies, that kind of psychedelic/hazy around the edges, slow, dreamy pace, and this movie does not disappoint at all from that standpoint. I was surprised (and shocked at all of you who say nothing exciting happens until 2/3 of the way thru the movie) that the father tried to drown his boy so quickly, almost from the get-go, in the first pool scene - the house was able to have a nearly immediate nasty effect upon its occupants, and that was truly startling. I found the attempts of poor Ben to be affectionate/playful with, or make love to his wife, all of which she absolutely repels due to the house's "lock" on her heart and soul, to be sinister and suitably frustrating (you just know his choice to overlook her repugnance and go whack weeds in the garden instead to be a sincere mistake, one he'll never be able to overcome as things progress). Bette Davis is marvelous as the untiring auntie who gets eaten alive by the house, and I mean sucked through a straw like so much chocolate milk. Unlike many other reviewers, I found the child actor to be significantly LESS annoying than either of the boys who play Danny in either of the adaptations of "The Shining". Kubrick's little Danny overacts to the point of ridiculousness, and the nasaly little monster used on the TV mini-series adaptation was so distracting I could barely watch - I wanted to hand him a kleenex in every scene.
But it is Karen Black and Oliver Reed who steal this movie, along with the house itself. The family breaks down, the marriage breaks down, the car almost breaks down, everyone's minds bend and twist, and still those 2 are believable as intense obsession strikes one and equally intense horror strikes the other, & still they struggle to relate as human beings (if nothing else) to one another. Heady stuff, and it's where all the magic of this movie lies.
Just one comment regarding the leering deaths-head chauffeur - truly the stuff of the grown Ben's childish nightmares, he is (to me) clearly representative of the Grim Reaper, or one of his minion, himself. As such, he ushers Ben across the line into the land of death on several occasions (initially just to VIEW the scenery, if you will), and one just wonders if his toothy, sinister grin isn't the last thing Ben sees at his end. Who wouldn't feel "welcomed" into Death by a smile that inhumanly wide?
BRAVO again for Cobert's score, Reed's perseverence, Black's utter strangeness, and Davis's rapid & queasy character descent. BRAVO for the moody, fuzzy, exotic pacing - like a nightmare you might have yourself. Loved it.