Burnt Offerings

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Leia W Oct 5, 2018 A family rent a huge house for the summer from it's brother and sister owners who have one condition for the rental- that their elderly mother stays in the house and they provide her with meals. Things then start to go crazy for the new inhabitants and it's almost as if the house is alive and playing with their minds just for it's own amusement (I hate it when houses do that). The family members start to act very differently to how they would normally as if the darkest parts of their psyches are being brought to the fore.  The genre of a house as a living being and force of evil can either work really well or can come across as very cliched and tired. Burnt Offerings does both. The big scares feel a bit overplayed and done better elsewhere especially after having seen the genre changing horror of The Shining on one end of the spectrum and the unabashed popcorn cheesiness of The Amityville Horror. But Burnt Offerings has smaller, more subtle scares that work brilliantly well. Check out the scene when Marian sees the family portraits for the first time or when Ben, taking a break from gardening, suddenly sees a pallbearer arriving in a hearse at the house.  It's a shame that the film is such a mixed bag rather than being consistently brilliant as the cast (Burgess Meredith! Oliver Reed!! Karen Black!!! BETTE FUCKING DAVIS!!!!) reads like a wishlist of crazy brilliance who would work amazingly well together in a 70's horror film. Davis especially is wasted in her role as she doesn't have enough to do although wearing floral polyester prints and being Bette Davis comes close. I think it's also because she's playing a nice character. She disappears halfway through the film as if she had better things to do than last until the closing credits in some mediocre 70's horror flick.  Even though there are slow moments and the film could be so much better, the ending of the film is completely crazy, gory and genuinely unsettling. If you make it through to the last five minutes you will be richly rewarded.  The look of Burnt Offerings is beautiful. It's almost as if the whole film was filmed with a veil of mist in front of the camera. Fun fact- The location used for the house was later used in the horror masterpiece Phantasm.  So, a film with interesting moments but not enough to fill 90 minutes. But stick around for the ending- it's a corker! See more

Anakin R Sep 15, 2018 An underrated, unappreciated, forgotten, and wrongfully hated supernatural horror thriller, but for me personally it is a masterpiece, one of my favorites. Although I watched it more than 10 years ago, I was very entertained during the watch. It had everything, a superb visual atmosphere, an intense sense of dread, good acting, and the house and its surroundings were spot on, in short, a true classic! I liked the story, I even liked the cliches, that people are describing, but they didn't feel like cliches to me, perhaps they were done right this time... Come on bring me more movies like this, because I definitely I love these cliches. Sadly, I see many of you people here on rotten tomatoes don't like this movie much, and a lot of you even hate it. I think the hate is wasted on this one. I joined Rotten Tomatoes today because for years most of its critics always annoyed me, and now I want to voice my opinion too! See more

Han S Jun 4, 2018 An exceptional cast wasted on a clichéd story and a mediocre TV director.

Theodore G Apr 28, 2018 this is a cool haunted house movie starring one of my favorite guys, the great oliver reed

Han S Jan 29, 2018 I saw this movie for the first time when I was 11 years old. I have seen it many times since then. I thought it was pretty scary as a kid, but as an adult, I see the true intention, as a movie that messes with your brain. Here is a family that rents a huge old house way cheaper than they would have imagined. It starts out nice, and eventually things start happening that seem to keep getting worse as the movie goes along. The mother of the family becomes obsessed with the house, while the rest of the people in the house want to leave. It is only marions obsession and caring for the never seen old lady upstairs, that keeps them in the house. And there is an underlying secret that only one person in the house seems to know about, and that is marion. This movie is not at all scary, until about the last 10 minutes of it. I also had a problem with the shauffer that kept appearing for no reason with that stupid smile. They never said why Ben was so afraid of him, and I think they should have explained that more. Maybe he was someone who abused him as a child. or, something along those lines. Again, this movie made you wonder what the heck was going on. And, things were so bad, why didn't they leave. I think this would be a great movie to remake.With todays effects so much could be done with it. Like when Marion goes into the green house after Aunt elizabeth is gone, she sees all the flowers have come to life. I think a modern version could play on that, and she could watch as the flowers grew and bloomed right before her eyes. She could also witness the renewal of the pool, and when Ben sees the house rebuilding itself, it could be way more visual. Also when Ben takes David out of the house in the storm, and fighting the trees in the storm, the Shauffer could also appear and fight him as well. So many things could be done better. I also have another spin on the house that I am going to keep to myself. But, my thought is, what if Ben goes upstairs at the end of the movie to the old Ladies room, and marion is not the only thing he finds there. maybe something nobody would ever expect. Something else that was keeping Marion at the house. Adn, the true reason why she was so obsessed with it. Only the audience doesn't see it until the end of the film. I think it would be 100 times better. See more

Harry M Oct 14, 2017 Bastard cousin of The Shining - similar plot with no tone control, laughable dialogue and zero suspense. Even some great camera shots and great sets can't fix things. Passionate over acting, obvious overcooked dialogue, disconnected script - who are the weird ppl who show up without explanation, I ask - and the overused romantic Glowy lighting fools no one. Shake my head.. I imagine if you are watching with friends, you may just have a great time harpooning this unsubtle monstrosity. Karen Black comes closest to acting naturally, but even she gets drawn into the Oliver Reed school of overdoing it. Its campy fun if you let it be, otherwise, what a mess. Don't expect much and you may get a few grins out of it. 2 wild eyed glares out of 5 See more

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Burnt Offerings

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