Burnt Offerings

The 1970s were a huge decade for horror on the big screen, spawning iconic masterpieces like The Exorcist along with killer franchises (Halloween, Texas Chainsaw) that still linger on. But it was a big decade on the small screen as well, most notably thanks to the work of producer Dan Curtis whose vampire soap opera Dark Shadows led to a number of movie-of-the-week chillers and spooky TV series spin-offs.

Burnt Offerings (1976) is not one of them. The film was Curtis’ sole anomalous theatrical release amongst a string of made-for-television productions, although shot in a flat, foggy episodic TV-style. And it attracted one heck of a cast, including Oliver Reed, Karen Black and the legendary Bette Davis, playing house in a ramshackle mansion that harbors a secret passed down from one generation to the next.

Ben and Marian Rolf (Reed and Black) get a suspiciously good deal on their summer rental, which turns out to be a large estate complete with swimming pool and greenhouse. The only catch is tending to its unseen elderly owner, Mrs. Allardyce, who must remain in the room upstairs, a chore than Marian agrees to take on herself. Meanwhile, the rest of the family, including young son David (Lee Montgomery) and great Aunt Elizabeth (Davis) have the run of the place until Labor Day.

But the house begins to have a strange effect on Marian, who takes an unhealthy interest in its cleanliness and possessions. Ben nearly drowns his son in the pool after suffering a moment of temporary insanity. And Aunt Elizabeth suspects the old woman upstairs is more than just an anti-social invalid. The house itself seems to be conspiring against the family, toying with them like a cat with a ball of string. And pretty soon, they all come unraveled.

Based on a book by Robert Marasco, the film jettisons plenty of back-story but still takes a considerable amount of time to get up to speed. Burnt Offerings uses a familiar gothic setting, which makes it a bit of a chore to sit through the standard haunted house clichés. But early additions, like Burgess Meredith’s sinister cameo as one of the homeowners, suggest there’s something worth waiting for.

And there most definitely is. Burnt Offerings offers up one of the most surprising and bleak endings of any horror film from the ‘70s. Beginning with Ben’s attempt to escape the property with his son in a driving rainstorm, the story charges head-on towards a terrifying tragedy that all the occupants can see coming…but somehow are powerless to avert, almost (as film historian Richard Harland Smith points out in the commentary) as if their fates were supernaturally preordained.

The film shares plenty in common with The Shining (which, indeed, many claim Stephen King ripped off wholesale), but is certainly not as exceptionally cinematic as Kubrick’s adaptation. Curtis shoots much of the film in deliberate California haze; so much so that the film looks like one big dream sequence. But he gets a considerable boost from his A-list actors and even young Lee Montgomery, who gives one heck of a performance for a child actor (the pool attack with Oliver Reed thrashing him about is about as convincingly brutal as you can get). And Burnt Offerings winds up sticking the ending so well, the rather boring journey it took to get there is water under the bridge.

Kino Lorber recognizes a cult classic when they see it and have loaded up this new Blu-ray with a long-overdue slate of special features. Actor Anthony James (who plays the sinister chauffer haunting Oliver Reed’s dreams) sits down for a lengthy interview; and so do Lee Montgomery and screenwriter William F. Nolan. A Trailers from Hell segment, still gallery and theatrical trailer are added to the mix. But the majority of the behind-the-scenes information comes from two audio commentaries: the first from Nolan, Black and Dan Curtis which was included on a previous edition and the second a studiously entertaining track from the aforementioned Richard Harland Smith who provides the perfect combination of facts, theory and fan perspective.