Burnt Offerings is a Amityville inspired, super by-the-numbers haunted house movie. Which is not to call it bad. In fact, I might even take that bit back about it being a haunted house movie. It's billed as a haunted house movie, when I would say it's more of a demonic possession and mystery film. I dunno. I'm a bit of a genre freak in case you haven't noticed. I fucking hate when things are labelled as something other than what I would classify them as. Get Out, the recent "horror" movie (which I give 5 stars) is labeled horror. Yeah right! That movie is a straight mystery thriller. No fucking horror elements at all.
Burnt Offerings has Oliver Reed of Venom fame as the father figure of a family that moves into a huge dilapidated mansion which is actually located (in real life) in my current home town of Oakland California. Bay Area, bro-han. Oliver Reed, his hot wife Karen Black (drool) and their wormy son all live in this mansion which is practically given to them, and they have to take care of the weird old woman who lives in the top floor.
Pretty much right away it's established that the woman either is dead or doesn't exist at all, Karen Black develops an obsession with her, and Oliver Reed begins to be influenced by some sort of demonic force. I'm obviously at the point where I don't give a shit about their character names. Oliver Reed falls under evil influence and attacks the wormy son, tensions rise, and eventually they all decide they must leave the house. But what about the old lady who lives in the place?
Basically, I was expecting a low level haunted house movie, and instead I got a bizarre mix of ghost film, demonic possession, and a mostly average flick in general. I'm not really in the boat right now of "I have tons to say about this". I fact, I can't really even say if I liked it or not. It felt....basically like anything else one might watch. Had it's good and bad. The actors, good. The plot, meh. The scares, zero.
That would be one thing I'll say. Zero scares, and one of those movies where I don't even know what would be considered scary in 1976. I guess the father attacking the son is scary in concept, but I mean, seriously yo. It was a right down the middle, meh experience, which I'd normally give a 2.5, but for whatever reason, I'll give this 3. Maybe because Karen Black is hot. Probably.
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