Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Offerings Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf April 4, 2018

Slasher cinema comes to a screeching halt with 1989’s “Offerings,” which has all the ingredients to bake a perfectly acceptable nightmare, but writer/director Christopher Reynolds becomes a little too caught up in his desire to remake “Halloween” to notice that general momentum is lacking. It’s a no-budget affair, putting a shadowy madman on a quest to murder those who made his already problematic childhood hell, and Reynolds has trouble coming up with reasons to remain with it to the very end, which, at times, feels like it may never arrive. While trying to keep in step with genre trends of the day, Reynolds doesn’t summon enough originality to inspire thrills, sticking to a basic stalk-and-kill formula that’s not boosted by bright characters or any discernable suspense. “Offerings” is assembly line moviemaking, and while it might provide a nostalgic kick for a simpler time in horror entertainment, the picture just doesn’t get the job done, watching Reynolds spin his wheels with dull scenes, bland personalities, and distracting technical limitations, ultimately hoping enough John Carpenter references might be enough to cover for a distinct lack of his own ideas.

As a young boy, John was raised in a troubled home, with his abusive mother reminding the child of his own father’s violent madness, pointing out clues that the cycle of aggression has continued on to the next generation. John is mute, opening himself to ridicule, but he finds a friend in neighbor Gretchen, who tries to show him some form of kindness. While the two play together one afternoon, bullies arrive to pick on John, goading him to perform a dangerous stunt on top of a well, soon witnessing him fall in and suffer terrible injuries. A decade later, Gretchen (Loretta Leigh Bowman) is living it up as an unenthused college student, enjoying an active social life with her friend, Kacy (Elizabeth Greene), ready to cut loose with some private time spent with their boyfriends. However, the party atmosphere is challenged by the return of John (Richard A. Buswell), who’s escaped from the Oakhurst State Mental Hospital, making plans to reunite with everyone responsible for his accident and murder them, delivering body parts to the only girl who showed interest in his continued existence: Gretchen.

Typically, with this type of escapism, empathy for the main monster isn’t expected. “Offerings” positions John as the evil force in the picture, responsible for piling up dead bodies as the story unfolds, but it’s established in the opening scene that he’s not exactly the pilot during his journey into madness. He’s a problem child due to his loss in the genetic lottery, emerging as the son of a vicious man who tried to kill his wife by slitting her throat, and exhibits serial killer tendencies, including the torturing of his pets, underlining his future capacity to bring the pain to human prey. He’s also a bullied child, subjected to psychological torture from the local kids, who have no patience for their mute target, putting Gretchen in a difficult position of defense when she really doesn’t know what she’s dealing with. Perhaps there’s some degree of subversion in play, but Reynolds actually makes an interesting case for John’s rampage, and does so accidentally, with most of “Offerings” showcasing the serial killer’s reign of terror, making his way around town, picking off the adults who once made it their mission to ruin his awful life.

The set-up for “Offerings” is simple: Gretchen has the house to herself after her parents leave on vacation, and John breaks out of the mental hospital, commencing a plan of murder he’s been working on for a decade. There are a few other characters in the mix, including Sheriff Chism (G. Michael Smith), the town cop who’s always one step behind John’s rampage, trying to keep up with all the deaths and their peculiar details. And there’s Jim (Jerry Brewer), a college professor who specializes in violent behaviors, emerging as the Loomis figure in feature that lifts plenty from “Halloween,” stealing shots, horror beats, and scoring cues from the 1978 classic. Jim attempts to decode John’s psychological profile, also representing Reynolds’s attempt to add a degree of scientific legitimacy to the screenplay, offering screen time to Jim’s lectures on mental instability, while Gretchen is also subjected to a lecture on the nature of evil during one of the classes she has limited interest in.

“Offerings” doesn’t go deep, but it certainly tries to create the illusion of profundity. Academic interests aside, the rest of the movie remains a crude study of torment, as Reynolds clearly doesn’t have the money to bring many of his ideas to life. John’s killing to-do list includes relatively mild events such as a neck-snapping and a hanging, while another victim is pulled under his bed and shot with his own hunting rifle. For a slasher event, this isn’t terribly graphic stuff, with the highlight of the picture arriving with John’s plan to dissect one of his bullies inside a storage shed, only to find most tools failing him. It’s the lone bit of black humor in an otherwise serious effort, and it boosts the feature’s appeal, also fulfilling a few genre requirements.

Offerings Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Listed as sourced from a "Brand new 16x9 scene colored corrected HD master," "Offerings" arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation. The claim of extensive color work appears to be true, as a general refreshing of hues is apparent, with brighter greenery to set the suburban mood. Period costuming is also accentuated, finding pinks and blues boosted. Inconsistency is an issue, with hues sometimes overshooting naturalistic appeal, and skintones are a bit too pinkish at times. Softness is common, with sharpness generally avoided due to the quality of the materials and the original cinematography, which wrestles with focal problems from time to time. A few stretches take a dip in resolution, showcasing mild ghosting and zombified grain carries throughout. Mild banding and pixelation is present as well. Delineation is never remarkable. Speckling is spotted throughout the viewing experience.

Offerings Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA mix is difficult to enjoy due to the production's low-budget craftsmanship, often recording sound in echoed interiors with terrible equipment. Hiss also carries throughout the listening event. Dialogue exchanges are occasionally difficult to understand, making exposition difficult to track at times. Scoring is dulled but understood, with the obvious "Halloween" influence coming through as intended. Sound effects aren't precise, but slaughter sequences retain some volume to sell macabre moments.

Offerings Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Trailer (2:13, SD) is included.

Offerings Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are many oddities scattered around "Offerings," including the mystery of its actual production year. It was released in 1989, but it looks like it was made in 1982, built piece-by-piece over years of long weekends by Reynolds, who isn't one to keep up on the details of John's revenge plot. It plays older but not better, with the helmer stuffing a lot of filler in here to beef up the run time, and his command over technical achievements leave much to be desired. "Offerings" has wonderfully gruesome poster art, but there's not a movie to back up such a marketing promise, with the finished film too lethargic, too financially and artistically hampered to raise a satisfying amount of hell.