Pseudo Review: BURNT OFFERINGS

The one thing you can definitely say about Burnt Offerings is that it’s got one hell of an inspired cast. Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, and Bette Davis in her “I’m old, I better do a lot of horror movies before I die” stage of her career all do some wicked scenery chewing.

This tale of a family renting a creepy summer house is filled with plenty of dread, but it doesn’t really get cooking until the last 20 minutes or so. Granted, that last 20 minutes is definitely creepy. The movie features the standard Horror movie “door you’re not supposed to open” gag, but does a terrific job building up to the inevitable unlocking. There’s definitely a 70’s “Made for TV” vibe to it (it was directed by TV horror guru Dan Curtis after all) but I think it may have had a theatrical release. Also keep in mind that in the 70’s, “made for TV” wasn’t such a bad thing. Hopefully the Sci-Fi Channel is listening.

The movie ends up being quite ambiguous and the audience isn’t spoon fed many conclusions. Suffice to say, this summer House has some evil mojo and it affects the family members to varying degrees. Oh yeah, it also features one of the creepiest dude’s I’ve ever laid my eyes on; The Chauffeur! He is one a freaky lookin’ mofo!

Burnt Offerings isn’t quite a classic, but the cool cast and scary final act made this 2 hours well wasted.