Burnt Offerings (film)

Infobox Film
name = Burnt Offerings


image_size = 200px
caption = Promotional poster for "Burnt Offerings"
director = Dan Curtis
producer = Dan Curtis
Robert Singer
writer = Novel:
Robert Marasco
Screenplay:
Dan Curtis
William F. Nolan
starring = Karen Black
Oliver Reed
Bette Davis
music = Bob Cobert
cinematography = Jacques R. Marquette
editing = Dennis Virkler
distributor = MGM Studios
released = October 18, 1976
runtime = 116 min
country = flagicon|USA USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id = 1:7616
imdb_id = 0074258

"Burnt Offerings" is a 1976 horror film based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Robert Marasco. It is about a family who moves into a haunted house that rejuvenates itself with each death that occurs inside of it. The film stars Karen Black, Oliver Reed, and Bette Davis and was directed by Dan Curtis.

The movie won the 1977 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.

ynopsis

The Rolf family takes a vacation from the city (the specific city is not identified in the film) at a large Victorian mansion in the California countryside. The family consists of wife and husband Marian (Karen Black) and Ben (Oliver Reed), their young son David (Lee Montgomery), and their elderly aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis). The owners of the house are the Allardyce siblings, brother Arnold and sister Roz, played by actors Burgess Meredith and Eileen Heckart, respectively. The Allardyces only appear at the beginning of the film, when they inform their new tenants of a particularly odd requirement for their rental: the Allardyce's elderly mother continues to live in her upstairs room and the Rolfs are required to provide her with food during their stay. The siblings explain that the old woman is obsessed with privacy and will probably not interact with them, so the food is to be left outside her door.

As it turns out, this task falls to the mother who quickly succumbs to the allure of the ornate Victorian house and its period decor. Various "accidents" occur during the summer, including the suspicious death of the renters' Aunt Elizabeth. As the film progresses, Ben becomes increasingly depressed and anxious while Marian becomes increasingly obsessed with the house, the old woman in the attic, and all of the Victorian artifacts. It gradually becomes clear that Marian is somehow being possessed or controlled by the house and that a malevolent force is slowly consuming the whole family. Eventually the house kills Ben and David, Marian "becomes" the old woman in the attic, and the film ends with the house fully rejuvenated and glistening like new. We also notice that pictures of the family have been added to a large table covered with portrait-photographs going back centuries, implying that the house's regeneration process is as old as the house itself and that the Rolfs were simply the latest victims.

Filming details

*Filming took place at Dunsmuir House and Gardens in Oakland, CA [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074258/locations imdb.com] ]
*Although Dunsmuir House was used as a model for the Allardyce Mansion, artificial 'wear-and-tear' on the actual structure was necessary prior to the building's complete "rejuvenation": The real place was dressed to look as if the fictitious place had peeling paint, overgrown weeds, and various cracked walls; the outdoor swimming pool is likewise dressed, and drained at the beginning of the story, then cleaned, repaired of its cracks, and refilled with chlorinated water; during a rainstorm, the roof sheds its worn-out shingles and apparently materializes new ones underneath; and, likewise, the disintegrating chimney rids its outer weathered-brick 'shell.'
*An artificial wave machine was used in the sequence in which the pool water suddenly turns choppy and almost drowns the boy.

Variations from the novel

*The novel's vacationing family are from Queens and the fictional Allardyce mansion is located somewhere in the Peconic Bay area of Long Island, New York, whereas in the film the family is from California and the Allardyce mansion is in California as well.
*The rusty tricycle shown briefly in the film's graveyard sequence is described in the novel as being splattered with blood.

Awards

*"Burnt Offerings" won 3 awards at the 1977 Saturn Awards: Best Horror Film, Best Director (Dan Curtis) and Best Supporting Actress (Bette Davis).
*At the Sitges Film Festival of 1977, "Burnt Offerings" won Best Director (Dan Curtis), Best Actor (Burgess Meredith) and Best Actress (Karen Black).

External links

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References