Brenda's Review of Burnt Offerings 1976

Transcript

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Good morning, this is Brenda, and I'm back for another review, and today we are going to review Burnt Offerings from 1976. Lately I've been finding comfort in watching these movies that are 50 years old. This one has a pretty well-known cast. I know everybody knows who Betty Davis is, and also Karen Black. She was the Scream Queen before Jamie Lee Curtis in my eyes. She's from Trilogy of Terror. We also have Oliver Reed and Burgess Meredith. You know I love a movie where the haunted house is the main character. What we have here are a mother, father, a 12-year-old boy. They're renting a house for the summer from a brother and sister. I hadn't watched this movie in such a long time. I didn't remember the ending, so I really thought I might be in a skeleton key situation. They're only going to be paying $900 for the entire summer, but one of the stipulations is that the 85-year-old mother stays in the house. She never leaves. They're told that she stays in her bedroom and sleeps most of the time or listens to her music, and that she's no trouble at all, and all they have to do is leave a tray out for her three times a day. The sister tells them that the house comes alive in the summer and that it is practically immortal. This movie was also a book written in 1973 by Robert Morasco. The book was set in New York, but the movie is actually set in California. It was filmed at the Dunsmere Estate in Oakland. If you recognize the house, it was also Morningside Mortuary in Phantasm. And as always, spoilers. To start off with, I love the way Betty Davis is sitting in the backseat of the car on the way to the house with that 12-year-old just blowing smoke. It's my guess they didn't have seat belts on and she probably had a martini in her hand down in her lap. When they arrive at the house, the brother and sister left a note saying they had to leave already and they left the keys for them. One of the keys being for the room for the 85-year-old, and I'm sitting back wondering why is that woman locked in her room? The back sun porch is covered in dead potted plants, and none of the clocks were working. The mother takes on the responsibility of the 85-year-old. She takes all the food up there, puts it in the sitting room, takes a bit of time before she even tries to meet this woman, knocking on the door, thinking she's asleep. She starts coming a bit obsessed, doesn't want anybody else up there because it's her responsibility. There's a big collection of pictures that the mom starts dusting off and taking care of of different people. The longer they're there, strange things start to happen. There's a point where the dad tries to drown the son, Betty Davis starts getting really ill, the dead flowers start to bloom, and we see the mom eating from the tray that is supposed to be left for the 85-year-old that's locked upstairs. I wouldn't call this movie overly entertaining, but it does suck you into where you want to see what's going to happen at the end. Love the environment. I love a big old house full of antiques. I wouldn't call it eerie because it is fairly predictable. The house is definitely evil and ends up killing the entire family. Mom gets totally possessed by the house, throws dad out the window. The house falls on the 12-year-old. And if you've listened to any of my little podcasts yet, you know that the killing of animals and children really affect me. And if it affects me, it gets a wine glass. But for some reason, I don't feel sorry for this boy. I feel like his ass could have moved out of the way pretty easy because a chimney falls on him. That boy was outside already looking up, just watching the bricks tumble. Does that make me a bad person to think that little boy had it coming? When the brother and sister come back, we see that the house has restored and the pictures of the family have been added to that collection. I wanted to like this movie so much, and I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy watching it. I just think when I watched it decades ago, I was so much younger and it felt so much scarier. I hate to say it, but I'm gonna just give this movie two wine glasses, which is the amount I drank to get through the movie. I was on GrindhouseDatabase.com and think that I'm shocked that Stephen King says that this is one of his favorite movies. I had more fun reading some of the fun facts. The movie was filmed in 30 days, and Wardrobe had to hide Karen Black's belly because she was four months pregnant. I know it sounded like I was really hating on this movie and I don't hate it. The house itself will suck me back in. I know I'll rewatch it a few years from now. To show Karen Black some love, I think I'm gonna make my next review on the trilogy of terror from 1975. I remember it being an anthology. I think there's three different stories in it. I haven't watched that one in years. So I'm gonna take the time and watch it and give it a fair review. So until next time.