BURNT OFFERINGS

US, 1976, 115 minutes, Colour.
Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Eckhart.
Directed by Dan Curtis.

Burnt offerings is not an accurate title for this leisurely paced horror story. It leads an audience to expect too much blood and gore whereas the film relies on suggestion, character, the menace of mystery and puzzle. A mysterious house and an unseen old lady are dominant characters while on screen Karen Black, a likable Oliver Reed and their son Lee Montgomery cope with what was meant to be a summer holiday. They have Aunt Elizabeth with them in the welcome form of Bette Davis looking, however, antique. The ending is certainly unexpectedly dramatic. This highlights how an enjoyable Gothic horror might have been pruned to become a quality film. Dan Curtis worked on the Dark Shadows series.

1. The meaning of the title, its overtones of sacrifice, application to the family? Symbol? How important the relationship between symbolism and realism?

2. The film in the traditions of American horror, as contrasted with British and European horror? The focus on the house and its feeding an its victims to renew itself, the emphasis on a romantic past with sinister overtones, the menace of things on persons?

3. How did the film use the conventions of horror: the presentation of the house as sinister, with its atmosphere, sudden threats and menace, eerie happenings, the people being engulfed by the house?

4. The value of the location photography, the visual presentation of the house, gardens, pool? The audience knowing the house well and being victimized by it also? Colour, music? The blend of horror happenings within an atmosphere of realism?

5. Our introduction to the family at home, the discussion about the holidays and money, the pressures to have a holiday, the possibility of the audience identifying easily with them as the average family who then become persecuted?

6. The audience looking over the house with the family, sharing their response to the house, attracted, repelled? Marian's strong attraction overriding Ben? Sinister indications?

7. The Allardyces and their humour, eerie sinister characters, the nature of the mystery, their mother upstairs, indication of clues, their pressurizing the family?

8. How was the house made to be an important character with its presence, it old look and the ways in which it was visualized renewing itself with flowers, walls, things falling off? The eeriness of the windows, doors slamming, the pool? The ominous presence of the unseen Mrs. Allardyce?

9. The importance of the photos, the continual visualising and tracking along the photographs, a clue for what was to happen? Marian and her obsession with the photographs and Mrs. Allardyce?

10. How well did the film develop the character of each of the family, show their ordinary interaction as a family, the beginning of the holidays, strange happenings as well as ordinary happenings? The importance of the presence of Aunt Elizabeth as a character, as a comment on what was happening, as a victim? The importance of having Bette Davis?

11. The character of Marian as mother, wife, her preoccupation with tidying the house, with Mrs. Allardyce, the photos? were enough clues given for her transformation at the end?

12. The contrast with the character of Ben, ordinary family man, love for his son, the sudden violence especially in the pool, his being gassed in his room, the coinciding of the memories of the funeral and the sinister overtones of this?

13. David as an ordinary young lad, the swim and his love for his father, his fear of his father and having to get over this? The build-up towards the ominous end through his character?

14. The contribution of Aunt Elizabeth, her painting, her participation in the holiday, her growing illness, the torment of her illness at night, the build-up to her death, another victim of the house?

15. The build up to the melodramatic renewal of the house, especially by the visualizing of the storm, the effect on Ben as his son is menaced by the pool, the need for rescue?

16. The possibility of a happy ending as they decide to leave, Ben and the packing of the car, David and his anticipation? The fatal luring of Ben back into the house, Marian searching for Mrs. Allardyce? The horror of David's death, the gory build-up to Ben's death and the visualizing of it? The house winning and the revelation of what Marian had become? The final tranquillity of Marian seated, looking at the photographs, with the addition of the family?

17. The success of plot, the suspense and the drawn out nature of the screenplay? Communication from beyond ordinary human experience? People and their environment? The theme of human beings being haunted by supernatural powers?