JP Nunez
I love supernatural horror. In fact, it might be my favorite horror subgenre. But I have one big problem with it: it’s way too steeped in Christianity. Sure, I love my Christian movies just as much as anyone (in fact, because I’m a Christian myself, I probably love them more than most horror fans!), but I also like a little diversity in my cinematic diet. I want to see more supernatural horror films that take their cues from other traditions besides Christianity, so when I heard that The Offering was based in Judaism, I jumped at the chance to review it.
The Offering was directed by Oliver Park, and it stars Nick Blood, Emily Wiseman, Allan Corduner, and Paul Kaye. It’s about a Jewish man named Arthur who’s lost touch with his roots and become estranged from his family, but one day he decides to take his pregnant wife Claire on a trip to visit his father Saul. Saul is a funeral director, and when his son and daughter-in-law arrive, he welcomes them with open arms. At first, this seems like it’s going to be a really touching family reunion, but things soon go south. Unbeknownst to them, there’s a malevolent spirit lurking in one of the bodies in Saul’s morgue, and it has sinister plans for Arthur and Claire’s unborn child.
The Offering opens with an old man performing some sort of demonic ritual, and it’s awesome. At this point in the movie, I obviously had no idea what was going on, but everything about this scene, from the atmosphere to the set design to the scares, was absolutely spot-on. It’s just a great intro all around, so I thought for sure this film was going to be a winner.
But then the movie switches to the main story, and it goes downhill very quickly. Most notably, the characters just aren’t that interesting. Well, most of them, anyway. Saul feels like the kind of guy you’d want as your grandfather, so he’s always fun to watch. Unfortunately, though, he ends up being a bit of a side character, so the film really stands or falls with Arthur and Claire.
And they’re pretty bland. Granted, they’re not bad characters, but they’re not particularly good either. There’s nothing unique, quirky, or charming about them, so they just feel too normal. Because of that, I had a ton of trouble connecting with them in any sort of meaningful way, so I stopped caring about them very quickly.
To be fair, The Offering does try to remedy that problem, but it doesn’t work. There’s a subplot involving Claire and Arthur’s finances and some very bad decisions Arthur’s made, and it feels like it’s supposed to make the couple more sympathetic. But it had the exact opposite effect on me. Since I didn’t care about these characters, I didn’t care about that subplot, so it just gave me one more reason to dislike the film.
When we move on to the scares, things get a little better, but not much. In fact, the horror here is a pretty mixed bag. Some of it is quite good, a bit of it is pretty bad, and a whole lot of it is just okay. It’s all very hit or miss, but I’d say that my biggest problem with it is that most of the scares feel really cliche. They’re simply not that inventive, so I kept feeling like I’d seen it all before in other films. Granted, they’re decent enough that I probably would’ve been okay with them if the rest of the film were better, but since the characters are pretty bland, the problems with the scares stand out all the more.
That being said, there is one thing about The Offering that I quite enjoyed: its basis in Judaism. Like I said before, I want to see more supernatural horror films that take their cues from other traditions besides Christianity, and this one does exactly that. Admittedly, I’m not nearly familiar enough with Judaism to know how much this demon is really based on Jewish traditions and lore (or if it is at all!), so for all I know, this could just be totally new mythology that’s merely shoehorned into a Jewish setting. Movies and TV shows do that with Christianity all the time, so it’s very possible that this one did the same thing with Judaism.
But even if that’s the case, it’s still a breath of fresh air. Just seeing Jewish characters and hearing Jewish prayers is a very welcome change of pace from this subgenre’s typical Christian norm, so I have to give the filmmakers behind The Offering a lot of credit for that. It made the film eminently watchable even after I checked out emotionally, so I didn’t spend the entire time wishing it would just be over.
So at the end of the day, here’s what I’d say about this movie. On the one hand, I didn’t like it very much, so if you’re looking for some good new horror to watch, I don’t think you’re going to find it here. The bland characters and hit-or-miss scares simply drag it down too much. But on the other hand, I do think The Offering is worth checking out if you’re looking for something new and fresh in the supernatural subgenre. So on the whole, I have to say that I’m happy I watched it once, even though I don’t have much of a desire to ever see it again.
The Offering played at Fantastic Fest on September 23, and it’ll be playing again at the festival on September 28.
