UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

rms125a IT'S BEEN A REALLY LONG TIME since I saw the movie but I respectfully disagree with Moonspinner5520 that the film is "Superior to the source novel by Robert Marasco". Marasco's book is NOT great. It's not "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" or "Salem's Lot" (the latter marred only by its nihilistic ending which necessarily impacted its subpar prologue), compared to either of which Marasco's book is thin gruel. However, the book provides Marian's character with internal monologues that open up her character and even at the end allow her to feel pain at the loss of her family, pain which must be "cauterized" (I remember Marasco using that very descriptive term) as she begins the new existence that she has largely created for herself but her own victimization is still palpable, unlike the horror villainess the film makes her. Also, by the by, the villainous Allardyce "siblings" (although they and the inept "handyman" are clearly not human but rather servants or familiars of the demonic presence that feeds off generations of families lured to the remote and isolated mansion) played largely genially but with foreboding bits of intensity by such old pros as Eileen Heckart and Burgess Meredith, are underused in both the film and the novel.

Sam Panico The Rolfs' summer vacation has brought them to a ruined mansion (the Dunsmuir Mansion, which was also used for Phantasm) somewhere in the country. Marian and Ben have a 12-year-old son named Davey and have brought along their beloved aunt Elizabeth. Why would they stay in this ancient abode? Well, it's cheap. Real cheap thanks to the kindness of the Allardyce family, who only require that their mother stay upstairs and that the family provide her with meals all summer long. They will never see her or probably even speak to her, a deal that Marian agrees to quickly. The house is just too great and she's fallen in love with it.Love soon turns to the obsession that only comes from 1970's horror fiction. Soon, she's dressing like a Victorian woman and not speaking to her family, content to sit near Mrs. Allardyce's bedroom and stare at old photos.The house keeps getting cleaner and better looking the more weirdness happens, like windows locking shut, accidents all over the place, nightmares of an evil chauffeur and Ben flipping out and nearly killing his son while swimming and Aunt Elizabeth dying.Marian won't even leave the house for the funeral, so Ben angrily declares that he will leave without her. His attempts to escape with his son ends when a tree blocks the road and his wife becomes the dreaded chauffeur, turning the once strong man into jelly. Yet after the pool itself tries to kill Davey, Marian declares that they should leave once she tells Mrs. Allardyce goodbye.Easier said than done. She disappears into the house and when Ben goes to confront the old woman, he learns that she and his wife are now the same person. He's thrown from the attic window in a scene that ends the trailer to the film and even Davey is killed when a chimney falls on him, because the life of children was quite cheap in the movies of the 70's. To paraphrase John Mulaney, back then "no one cared about kids. I grew up before children were special. I did. Very early '80s, right before children became special."The house is now brand new as the Allardyce family and the chauffeur celebrate mother's return. The photos on the wall — all of the home's past victims — now include Ben, Davey and Aunt Elizabeth.Curtis was a fan of the book, except for the open ending which he thought was unfilmable. His ending is much different, as is the inclusion of the chauffeur, who is based on a childhood trauma where he watched a driver laugh during his grandmother's funeral.Some people dislike this film because of its slow pace, but others — like Stephen King — love it. I'm on the fence. I love parts of this, but the pace is truly glacial.Read more at http://bit.ly/2megicO

calvinnme This movie was so bizarre, but it held my attention to the very end. I loved the home - it was gorgeous, especially after it kept regenerating itself. I loved Eileen Heckart and Burgess Meredith. They were so delightfully charming, eccentric, yet creepy at the same time. I found the premise of the movie very interesting: A house slowly steals someone's vitality, causing that person to become at the very least injured and at the most, it makes them weak enough that they die.I loved how Karen Black's character became slowly obsessed and consumed by the old Victorian home. Her descent into obsession was so subtle and only really became obvious when she started dressing like a Victorian woman and flipped out about the idea of someone being in Mrs. Allardyce's sitting room. I rather guessed her eventual fate. The scene that tipped me off was when she was seen eating the food she had brought up for the old woman that was in the bedroom.Oliver Reed's character was very interesting. He was the reasonable one who instinctively knew something was "off" about the house. His scene with his son Danny in the pool was very scary. At first I was confused why Bette Davis seemed so upset with his horseplay with Danny until he started holding his head down under the water. I didn't really get what was up with the car and the creepy chauffeur, only that it seemed to be some traumatic childhood memory Reed's character had. That chauffeur would give anyone nightmares though. Then poor Reed's fate at the end of the film... Wow! How gruesome. I did not expect it at all. And his poor son.I loved Bette Davis' character. Even though she was a minor character, she imbued her part with such panache. She would be a fun aunt to have. Then my god, what the makeup department did to her when she was having the life sucked from her body.This was a great film with a very surprising and gruesome ending. I can't help but feel that this film would make a great double feature with the 1975 version of The Stepford Wives. If you think that this film has much in common with "The Shining", be aware that Stephen King was inspired by the original novel before he wrote his own.

meddlecore Burnt Offerings is a pretty typical haunted house flick- albeit one where the supernatural manifests itself in a wholly psychologically way.When a young couple & their son are offered an incredible deal, renting an old isolated mansion that comes fully furnished...they simply can't pass it up. There is only one caveat: that an old woman- whom they never see- resides in an upstairs room. She isn't a bother. But the family is required to offer her a plate of food 3 times a day.The family moves into the house with their elderly aunt...and things start off well enough. However, the wife and husband soon seem to exhibit irrational outbursts of anger. He starts to suffer from haunting nightmares; while she seems to have become extremely overly-attached to the house. All while odd incidents begin to occur at an increasingly alarming rate.Something sinister is targeting the old aunt and young boy; while the wife and husband begin to grow distant from one another. He wants to get the hell out of the house and back to their old life; while nothing can convince her that the house is worth giving up. She's adopted as her own...or so it seems, at least.Only after their aunt is killed and their son nearly dies, does the husband take it upon himself to escape...without his wife. Though he failed to realize that once you occupy this house....there is no escape. Your fate is sealed.While it is engaging, there is nothing particularly spectacular about this film. It does have some creepy moments of tension, but (until the end) they tend to manifest themselves in very subtle ways- with almost all the hauntings affecting the psychological well being of the characters.That being said, the film does wrap up with a bit of a triple twist. While two thirds does come off a bit cliché and predictable, they manage to redeem it with an ending that is both extreme and absurd.It's a long film that plods along slowly, but it's worth a watch if you are into that.Can someone please explain to me why it's called Burnt Offerings though!? Because that explanation eludes me...6 out of 10.