Burnt Offerings

[Philippe Cordier]

I just saw "Burnt Offerings" for the first time today; I'm not sure which channel aired it.

It was quite good and kept things mysterious and skin-crawly through most of it. I did guess the ending just before the ending since it was almost identical to what happens at the end of "Night of Dark Shadows."

Dan Curtis really got the stellar cast with this one - Bette Davis, Eileen Heckert, Burgess Meredith, Karen Black, Oliver Reed. Amazing!

I wasn't sure when it started if it was a Dan Curtis production or not, but as soon as I heard the music, I knew it was Robert Cobert. And I must say the music was extremely effective in setting the proper atmosphere. It's really quite amazing when you think of it - how do you make a beautiful house, not spooky in itself, become very ominous? Partly through the music, partly through the direction, and partly through the acting. I'd say that all three worked very well here.

I did have one criticism in that I think Mr. Curtis sometimes tries to draw out the suspense too long in a few scenes to be realistic - for example, when someone in real life would move very quickly in response to a situation, but in the moview they hesitate and then move very slowly. I thought that was a mistake at the end of "Dorian Gray," too, when Linda Kelsey begins to mount the stairs at the end. She hesitates and then moves very slowly, I'm sure under Mr. Curtis's direction. In real life, I think she would have rushed up the stairs as quickly as she possibly could.

[Philippe Cordier]

I mistakenly thought that "Burnt Offerings" had been a TV movie or miniseries (which is why I originally mistakenly posted this under the "Television Horrors of Dan Curtis" thread). I probably got it mixed up with "Harvest Home," which I hadn't (and haven't) seen either, and which I believe also starred Bette Davis.

But as a followup on "Burnt Offerings," I was puzzled to see how poorly this was rated on imdb.com. But when I started to read some of the reviews and the comments forum there, I now understand. A lot of the commentators are very immature and their remarks show them to be rather, well, unsophisticated, viewers who were expecting blood and gore throughout. "Burnt Offerings" is more evocative and moody.

I also thought of the parallels with "The Shining" right away (not to mention "The Amityville Horror," and was pleased to see this wasn't a ripoff of Stephen King. In fact, King apparently has given credit in print to "Burnt Offerings" as inspiring "The Shining."

In my view "Burnt Offerings" deserves more recognition. I think it stands up better today than "The Amityville Horror." I was also reminded somewhat of "The Haunting" (the Robert Wise film with Julie Harris) and actually like this better. I was never particularly creeped out by "The Haunting," whereas I genuinely was with "Burnt Offerings."

And that music box melody is hauntingly lovely.

[ProfStokes]

I enjoyed reading your review, Philippe, and I'm glad that the movie made such a good impression on you. 

I read the original novel (it would be about 6 years ago now) prior to seeing the movie, and I thought the screen adaptation was rather weak.  I felt that the events of the story were too disjointed. You can tell that something weird is happening to the family, but there isn't a clear narrative line that ties their experiences together or makes sense of them.  Like you, I found the ending to be a disappointment and a rehash of NODS (the ending in the book is different and more cruel; essentially, it's the penultimate scene with a more tragic outcome).  However, I saw it again last month (I think the network airing it is The Movie Channel) and I was more favorably impressed with the movie.  This time around, I found myself becoming more enchanted with the concept of the house and its mode of operation.  Burnt Offerings is a highly unusual 'haunted house' story: it features slow, menacing pacing, and in the end, the nature of the house is still somewhat ambiguous.

Personally though, I find the use of Cobert's music to be oppressive and heavy-handed rather than an enhancement. It's almost like the soundtrack from a silent horror movie, where the horns blare and the violins shriek as soon as the Phantom of the Opera crosses the stage. For instance, ominous tones sound as soon as the family pulls up to the house; such blatant foreshadowing obliterates any suspense for the viewer about whether this is really a good deal.  IMO, the audience should not be so explicitly told via the music when they're supposed to be afraid, especially when the story is meant to be subtly strange and atmospheric and to unfold gradually.  Here, the script and the music are working at cross-purposes.

I also thought of the parallels with "The Shining" right away (not to mention "The Amityville Horror," and was pleased to see this wasn't a ripoff of Stephen King. In fact, King apparently has given credit in print to "Burnt Offerings" as inspiring "The Shining."

Actually, I think Burnt Offerings is more closely related to King's Rose Red TV mini-series with its themes of [spoiler]a vampiric house using the occupants' energy to rejuvenate itself.  There are even identical scenes of a dead greenhouse coming back into bloom.[/spoiler]

And that music box melody is hauntingly lovely.

Isn't that tune the "Playroom Theme" from the Summer of 1970 story line?

Another DS comparison: there's a character called "Aunt Elizabeth"and a young boy named "David."

ProfStokes

[arashi]

I just saw this recently myself,came across the DVD and bought it. Loved the character of the hearse driver, very creepy.

I was actually pretty shocked by the ending, for a man who didn't like gore that was a pretty violent scene.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I thought the screen adaptation was rather weak

You're not the only one - the critics savaged the film at the time of its release. Here's just a sample of Variety's review:

"'Burnt Offerings' is a trite, murkily plotted, and talky supernatural pic, which will probably move quickly to double bills [MB Note: meaning it will quickly drop out of the limelight as the primary film attraction and will slip to the secondary on a double bill back when it was still customary for two movies to play together in a theater. Those days are long gone. ::sigh::]. Lots of doors fly open and shut, actors behave strangely, and eventually three people die, but it's a long 116 minutes. Karen Back and Bette Davis supply some marquee interest for the United Artists release, but none comes off well in the heavy hands of producer-director Dan Curtis..."

And that's actually one of the film's "good" reviews. 

[Gerard]

I saw the film when it first came out in the theaters (not knowing, until I read the opening credits and heard the music, that it was a DCP) and while I found it atmospheric, the ending had me going "huh?"  It was the same thing with the awful, made-much-later Kubrick version of Stephen King's The Shining. 

Gerard

[Philippe Cordier]

It was interesting to read your thoughts on "Burnt Offerings," ProfStokes. Perhaps if I had read the book prior to seeing the movie, my views might have been closer to yours. To take the music, while I understand your point, I don't fully agree. I can think of only two "scary" movies that used music (or the lack thereof) in the manner you suggest. One is "The Birds," for which Alfred Hitchcock decided against having any musical score altogether. An interesting experiment, and an effectively scary movie even without any music. The second I can think of is "The Other," which opens with idyllic country scenes and a lush, melodic score, little hinting at the horrors to come. Yet even in the opening credits, there are some discordant notes in this score, suggesting that all is not as lovely and perfect as the scenery suggests.

Now I'm sure there are other examples where the score has been restrained in a frightening movie. But if you compare Cobert's music in "Burnt Offerings" with something more recent like "Sleepy Hollow," which is typical of the bombastic - sledgehammer effect of a lot of today's scores, Cobert's is downright subtle. I found it was noticeable but complemented the screen events well. It would be interesting to re-watch "Psycho" and "Jaws" with their terrifying music and see how early in those movies the scary music begins.

I don't have a problem with the ominous music themes starting early on in "Burnt Offerings." After all, the audience already knows that this is going to be a scary movie. And I found it an interesting counterpoint to the early shots of the beautiful house; it signals an ominous undercurrent to the innocuous appearance of things.

Regarding the music box theme for "Burnt Offerings," which plays in the closing credits - no, it was not used in "Dark Shadows."

Speaking of "Sleepy Hollow," which was on my mind since I just saw that for the first time ... I can't think of a director less suited to direct "Dark Shadows." I mean, Burton is very good at what he does, but his style and form are worlds away from DS.

P.S. to Gerard ... not sure what you meant about the ending possibly leaving you puzzled. What I didn't like was [spoiler]the much too obvious "Psycho" homage to the little old lady sitting in the rocking chair. Although, Karen Black's subsequent embodiment of the old lady wasn't bad.[/spoiler]

Arashi - re: the gore at the end. Yes, that was truly shocking. I don't know which came first, this or "The Omen," but the innovative ways of killing people was rather similar.

MB - interesting to hear about the professional reviews. Guess I'd disagree. I didn't find it trite at all. And considering how often some of the ideas have since been re-worked (The Shining and Rose Red, to name two), triteness has gotten a lot of mileage since "Burnt Offerings." I wonder what some of those critics would say today if they sat down and re-watched "Burnt Offerings," and compared it with more recent "horror" movies.

[Mark Rainey]

I saw Burnt Offerings about a year or so ago, and I liked it a bit better than when I saw it as a teenager; back then, I thought it blew chunks. It's got great atmosphere and some unsettling moments (such as the scene with Oliver Reed and the kid in the swimming pool), but in the end, it didn't seem to pack much of a wallop. It struck me as being in the same league as some of the fair episodes of Night Gallery.

[Janet the Wicked]

I thought Burnt Offerings was a made for TV film, with the likes of Crowhaven Farm, featuring Hope Lange. They all came out about the same time.