‘The Offering’ is a horror film that focuses on Art and Claire as they visit with Art’s father Saul, after a period of estrangement, wanting to reconnect as Art and Claire are expecting a baby. Reconciliation between the two men is made more difficult as the family face an ancient evil that seeks to destroy them from within.
The film opens on Yosille, a scholar of Judaism fearfully trying to complete the final steps of a protection ritual. He completes his task by summoning a demon and trapping it in his body, then committing suicide.
Outside of Art’s old home, Art and Claire hesitate before visiting with Saul, the director of a funeral home for the Hasidic community. As Claire and Art settle in, Saul receives Yosille’s body, ruled by the police to have been a suicide. Trying to help his father, Art takes over and starts preparing Yosille’s body for the funeral. Just outside, Saul’s business partner Hamish voices his concern over Art’s sudden return, saying there must be an ulterior motive.
After removing the ritualistic dagger, Art accidentally removes and destroys an amulet around Yosille’s neck, shattering it on the floor and unwittingly releasing the evil entity Yosille had trapped within himself.
Soon it is uncovered that Art does have a hidden agenda, namely that he wants to ask Saul to put up the funeral home as collateral for Art, as he has been losing money and is in debt. After the two argue, Saul signs the loan papers, but is attacked by the entity soon after. Finding his body the next morning Art is devastated. Trying to find answers, he goes to Yosille’s home and finds a tape. Yosille had tried to summon an angel to bring his wife back to life, but instead had unleashed Abyzou, and ancient demon responsible for miscarriages and infant mortality.
Wanting to warn Claire, Art calls her, whilst Claire is already lured by the demon to burning Yosille’s body in order to release it completely. Rushing back home, Art calls on Hamish and a Hasidic scholar in order to rid themselves of the demon.
Understanding that Art must sacrifice himself and trap the demon within his body, the group prepare for the ritual. Before the steps can be carried out, the scholar and Hamish are subdued, leaving Art to fend for himself. Tricked by the evil spirit, Art is unable to trap it, instead killing himself in vain. Trying to escape, Claire is tricked by the spirit into a summoning sigil where she is promptly attacked as the screen tuns to black.
‘The Offering’ seems to fall squarely in the cheap-thrill horror film category. The movie carries with it the predictable jump-scares, tired dreary tones and grim settings. The film tries to introduce a rarely, if ever before seen demon on the big screen – Abyzou – but fails to distinguish it from the masses of demons/evil entities that have come before it. Without any particular motivation beyond being evil and seemingly wanting to mow down anyone it comes into contact with, much like the film itself, the demon is good for a few toe curling scares but the promptly fades into obscurity, never to be brought up again.
Admittedly, even though attempts are made at distinguishing and differentiating the movie from other horror schlock, the movie doesn’t manage to go beyond its contemporaries. Themes of family and loyalty are raised, but never really explored. The idea of family and togetherness serve more as a jumping off point, a vector for driving everyone into the same house. Beyond that, little is covered in terms of the aforementioned themes.
Perhaps a little irritating, everything seems to be discarded by way of thematic development in order just to get the evil entity to start tormenting the characters. Claire’s pregnancy and Abyzou’s connection to miscarriage serving as an obvious example. Where the two ideas intersect, there seems to be an anti-climactic effect, delivering the expected result that the demon will come for the child. Evidently, the demon is tied to causing miscarriages, but seems to have just as much fun taking out every other person it comes into contact with.
Perhaps disappointingly, the film delivers a procession of tropes expected from a horror film. Coming from the same creator who previously delivered a sensational horror short ‘Vicious’ (2015), the director, Oliver Park, fails to recapture the focus and tone for this project, rendering a pale imitation of what the creator is capable of.
With little to add to the horror lore and fairly tame visuals, ‘The Offering’ is good for an evening of fun induced by elevated jumps in volume where necessary to prompt shock, but does little else in terms of maintaining a lasting impression on the viewer.
Score: 1/4
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