Transcript: Exploring Burnt Offerings: A 70s Horror Film Review

Greetings Classic Cinema TV fans, Jason back with you once again bringing you another retro drive-in podcast here on Classic Cinema Plus. You know, today we are going back to a 70s horror film that is really creepy and really awesome. And this I'm really excited about to talk about today. And we're talking about the film Burnt Offerings. Really a creepy little film, actually. Yeah, this is a new re-release from the good folks at Kino Lorba Studio Classics. And love that. You can see right there, KL Studio Classics. But really an interesting little film. This film was released on August 25th, 1976. So even before I was even born. you know, this film was released. But I love those old films, those old horror films from back in the day. There's something special about them. I love those old films, especially the 70s films. In the 70s, it was a real push for the supernatural. There was a lot of supernatural films in the 70s. We saw such films as The Omen was a really terrifying one. Carrie from Stephen King's novel was adapted. There was Audrey Rose, which is another kind of like Carrie-like film. And probably one of the most iconic of those supernatural type of, especially haunted house supernatural type films was Amityville Horror from 1979. But all these were, you know, supernatural type films. And Burnt Offerings was among one of those films that were, you know, supernatural from the 70s. And Burnt Offerings is kind of an interesting film because it was directed by Dan Curtis. Now, for a lot of people, you may not even know the name Dan Curtis, depending on how much you like horror films and especially soap opera, if you will. Yeah, I know I'm going somewhere with this. This is interesting. Dan Curtis created and, you know, the iconic show Dark Shadows. I've not watched all of Dark Shadows. I've watched some of Dark Shadows, some of the best of Dark Shadows. You know, I've heard of Dark Shadows my whole life, especially because my mom, you know, when she was growing up, My grandma was a humongous fan of Dark Shadows. She absolutely could not miss an episode of Dark Shadows. She absolutely loved that show. And my mom would come home and she would say, come and watch Dark Shadows. And my mom would always tell me I had to watch Dark Shadows with grandma. And so when I grew up and all and I saw some episodes of Dark Shadows on DVD, I was like, huh, there you go. And so I got them and I bought them and I brought them home and I was like, we're going to watch Dark Shadows. And my mom was like, oh, no, you know, because it was like, oh, no, we got to watch Dark Shadows again. I can't stand this. But Dark Shadows was kind of an interesting show. It about a vampire Barnabas Collins Pretty fancy Monica there Now many of you have probably watched Dark Shadows Some of you may have watched the entire series of Dark Shadows but the idea is that that was created by Dan Curtis Now Dan Curtis would also go on to create a very interesting take on Dracula starring Jack Palance. I don't have it here with ... I should have brought that out. I'm just talking now, and I forgot to bring out the Blu-ray, but we did find that on Blu-ray. a few years ago, and it was on clearance at FYE, and I was like, I've never seen this before. So I was like, I'm taking that home with me. And it's a very unique take on a horror film, right? But that was Dan Curtis. Dan Curtis was really interesting. He had a real flair for the horror. He really did. And now Dan Curtis saw, wrote the novel, Burnt Offerings, and he loved it except for the ending. He said the ending was terrible. It was a no ending, if you will. It was like left wide open. And he said, I can't stand that. And they wanted to do the film. And he said, I will do the film, but only if I can make an ending for it, a more satisfying ending, if you will. So anyway, that's a little introduction to what Burn Offerings was. Now, interestingly enough, Burn Offerings is about a man and a wife and their son. they're looking for a vacation home for the summer, and they get a great deal. This picturesque, beautiful, Victorian-like house is available, right? And they come to it, and they see it, and it's like enthralled by it, right? And the owners of the house say, will give it to you for a tremendous deal for the entire summer. You can rent this for the entire summer for only $900. Wow. That's insane. I mean, in this day and age, when we look at rentals and stuff like that, you can't even rent a house for a month with $900 anymore. or it's crazy. But anyway, but for the whole summer, $900. Okay. And that was a great deal. So I was like, yeah, we'll do that. But then there was a little stipulation to that $900 for the entire summer. That's that the mother of the owners lives in the upstairs and they have to just kind of take care of her, not specifically take care of her, but make sure she has her meals. They don't even have to see her, just drop her meals off in the adjacent sitting room from her bedroom. That's all they have to do. Well, that's great. Okay, that's not a big deal. Okay, we can do that. So anyway, so that's what they decided to do. It was like, okay, we can do that. That sounds great. Now, everything sounds awesome, right? Good deal, everything. So, yeah, why not? But interestingly enough, little bit by little bit, the family starts to realize that this house is a little more interesting and maybe a little more to this house than meets the eye. uh, I'm not going to go any further than that, but it is a interesting, um, film. Um, what I like to call these types of films are slow burn horror films. Um, they really, they really draw out the horror. It's not, um, what we are used to maybe in this generation where it's like slasher films and I, you know, it's just all this. It's more of a pulled out slow burn horror. And I love those type of films. They kind of pull you out and little bit by little bit, you begin to see it's like grain of sand falling through the hourglass, right? You begin to see the little things and it like a mystery starting to unfold I love those type of films I think they so cool And that what Burnt Offerings is We don want to spoil anything in case somebody has never seen this so that why we not going any further with that Definitely you should check this out, though, if you love those 70s horror films. It's awesome. The film stars Karen Black, Oliver Reed, and of course there is Burgess Meredith in this. Oh, Burgess Meredith from Rocky, you know, fame or from what I love. I remember Burgess Meredith from the Twilight Zone episode. Oh, time enough at last. Wow. One of the best episodes of Twilight Zone ever. But Burgess Meredith is in this film. And then there is the great, awesome, amazing Bette Davis. Bette Davis was an icon of cinema. I mean, just an amazing, amazing actress. Who hasn't remembered seeing her in some of her amazing films, including Of Human Bondage? Of Human Bondage has become a public domain classic because it fell into the public domain. and it has been released and re-released and re-released on VHS and Blu-ray and DVD and all this, just continuously because it is in the public domain. But her performance of Human Bondage is simply amazing. You dirty swine! I never cared for you, not once. I was always making a fool of you. You bored me stiff. I hated you. It made me sick when I had to let you kiss me. I only did it because you begged me. You hounded me. You drove me crazy. And after you kissed me, I always used to wipe my mouth. Wipe my mouth. But here she's, as Betty Davis got older, she embraced more of the horror cinema because she became known for that a lot in her later career. And she embraced that, and she embraced it so well that she really did. It was amazing. And here she is literally amazing in this film. It's not a tremendously huge role, but it is an extremely important role, and it is so spectacular. Wow. Burn Offerings is just amazing. Burn Offerings would win many, well, many maybe is the wrong word, but several Saturn awards. They won for Best Horror Film. They won for Best Director for Dan Curtis and the Best Supporting Actress for Betty Davis. So they won three awards of the Saturn Awards for this film. Amazing film. Now, Keanu Lord of Studio Classics have released this film on Blu-ray, re-released it. It was originally released in 2015, but now we're getting a re-release here for those that maybe missed that first press of this. Here it is again. And what a blessing it is to get that because, you know, like many people, I missed it. And so now we're getting it again. So that's pretty cool. Here you got this slipcover. Same artwork on the inside as is on the slipcover. classic black and white disc for the the disc as always love that classic black and white disc that Keenal Orber does the film is presented in 1080p of course with blu-ray and widescreen format and there's interesting bonus features here that you will see there tons of bonus features there Really cool stuff. We get audio commentary with director and co-writer and producer Dan Curtis, actress Karen Black, and co-screenwriter William F. Nolan. They talk about this film, and wow, some of the interesting things that they bring out in that commentary is really awesome. Bring out some really good stuff about the film. There also another audio commentary with film historian Richard Harlan Smith And there interviews with actor Anthony James and Lee Montgomery Interview with screenwriter William F. Nolan. And then, of course, the theatrical trailer is all included on this release. Very awesome release. Love it so much. I like it. I like it. It's a great, great release. um now i will say that there the uh the picture quality is pretty impressive uh it's pretty good through most of the film uh there is some specs in certain parts of the film where it just it kind of looks like uh dirt or debris or something uh you know especially right at the beginning in certain angles uh when they're coming to the house and they're expecting inspecting the house uh there's a little bit of uh looks kind of like dirty and like gritty like um almost like um like dirt on um on a window um little specks of dirt on a window uh so that that's a little bit of a problem but it's not it's not that bad that you would sit there and go oh i can't watch this um there is that but it's but all in all the film looks really really special really spectacular for the most part. The only thing that I will say that is a problem, and problem is even probably a wrong word, it's not so much that it's a problem, but it's something that a lot of people like to have as a bonus feature. And it is said here on the case that it is included, but this case or this release here does not include English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. Yeah, I was checking it because I was thinking, well, maybe they did something that's weird with this. So I tried it different ways and tried pushing the subtitles on my remote even because it's not on there to be done. So I thought, well, maybe it's another way or something. So I tried it different ways. It's just not there. So yeah, there is no English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. Not a major problem, but if you want to be honest, it shouldn't be on there because it's it's not on the disc. But it's still a tremendous release. I love it. I really do. I think for horror film fans, I think, especially classic horror film fans, if you love the haunted house kind of 70s horror films, those slow burn horror films, you're going to be enthralled with this one. And Betty Davis is amazing in this film. Burgess Meredith is amazing in this film. Karen Black and Oliver Reed, of course, are very, very good in this film. Dan Curtis really produced and directed a tremendously awesome little slow-burn horror film. So definitely if you're looking for a horror film that you just want to check out that you've never seen, If you've never seen the 70s burnt offerings, you need this one. It's pretty awesome. So, yeah, there you go. That is pretty cool. That's burnt offerings on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. What are your thoughts on burnt offerings? What are your thoughts on Dan Curtis? Do you like even dark shadows? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. We would appreciate it. We'd love to hear your thoughts on Burnt Offerings, Dan Curtis, and Betty Davis, Burgess Meredith. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe. We would definitely appreciate it. It helps out so much to let us know you appreciate what we do here. And until we're with you next time with another retro drive-in podcast, this is Jason reminding you that if you want to see a great film or a TV series, check out a classic. and we'll see you next time. Have a good one. Bye.