Review of Burnt Offerings (1976) by Adrienne L — 30 Mar 2008
Stop me if you've heard this one:
A couple and their young son take up residence in an isolated, palacial estate and agree to be it's care-takers for the season.
After a short while... the big old house starts to display signs of overall "creepiness" and the family starts to fall apart at the seams......
Sounds alot like THE SHINING by horrormeister STEPHEN KING right? Except that the guy who wrote BURNT OFFERINGS actually published his novel in 1973...... 4 years before KING would go on to publish THE SHINING.
Further... add to this fact that the film version of BURNT OFFERINGS pre-dated the film version of THE SHINING by 4 years as well and you can immediately dismiss any ideas that this film is just a plain old "rip off" of the KING KLASSIC.
BURNT OFFERINGS is great film with a (sadly) predictable ending. Predictable only because we've had 30+ years of Hollywood rip-offs duplicating the same sorts of ending in film after film after film since BURNT OFFERINGS was first released.
There are very few moments throughout the film's first hour, that could be called "frightening" but the pacing is typical to a 70's horror film and the payoff at the film's climax is suitably eerie, gory and effective.
The whole film showed shades of THE SHINING (which DID come later...) but lacked the consistant and ever-present "eeriness" that KUBRICK would eventually bring to THE SHINING.
Still, BURNT OFFERINGS is worth a watch for the great performance by REED... I only wonder how much better it could have been overall... if KUBRICK had directed it instead?
This review of Burnt Offerings (1976) was written by Adrienne L on 30 Mar 2008.
Burnt Offerings has generally received mixed reviews.
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