Offerings

It’s not like we are “Offerings” title completists, although we did quite enjoy the wacky mid 70s, um, offering, Burnt Offerings.

Speaking of the 70s, that’s where this one takes its “inspiration,” a kind and diplomatic way to say its genesis is pretty much built around the original Halloween.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

After all, an entire cottage industry was built up in places like Italy and the Philippines, centred around variously ripping off popular productions and genres of all stripes and putting a spin on them.

Or, just hitting the same beats note for note, almost literally here.

Offerings’ similarities to Halloween are all too obvious: there’s an escaped lunatic on the lam, the soulless antagonist’s one-woman obsession, a masked maniac who even bears a slight resemblance to Mikey Myers, an abnormal psychology subject matter expert, and yes, even the Carpenter iconic score gets a sorta reworking (the notes are the same, it’s just the syncopation that differs).

Like other sepia slashers of its ilk, there’s a prologue not too dissimilar to Prom Night, in which a bunch of tormenters go after a youngster, eventually leading to an accident. They might’ve well have repeated the iconic “kill, kill, kill” taunting.

The aggrieved out for revenge is a conceit for stuff like I Know What you Did Last Summer, Pledge night, and oh, 1000 others.

Despite this one being released at the tail end of the horror boom – broadly speaking – Offerings has a very dated feel, which actually serves it well as it’s more in keeping with the beginning of the decade or even the late 70s.

And it’s hard not to throw kudos Christopher Reynolds’ way, as this is one of those all-in-one Tommy Wiseau labors of love-type productions, written, directed and produced by Reynolds.

**3/4 (out of 5)