Offerings

Pity poor young Johnny and his miserable existence. His abusive, gap-tooth grinding mother ridicules him and gleefully ashes in his scrambled eggs. Dad isn't around and the neighborhood banana bike brigade teases him because he's too shy to talk. What's worse, he becomes disfigured and comatose after being knocked into a well by his prepubescent peers. After spending years in a coma, he awakens, escapes and heads home for revenge, leaving body part "offerings" from his victims to the one girl who was his childhood friend (Loretta Leigh Bowman).

Entertainment value is not hard to find in a cheap, stupid regional concoction like this. You'll be amazed by the bizarre accents mixing twang, valley talk and congested stoner slang spoken to monotone perfection by teenage Oklahoma trailer trash! Or laugh at the brain dead cops on the case, who might remind you of Barney Fife on an especially bad day and seem to have nothing better to do than chew out little boys for hanging out in condemned buildings looking at spank magazines. Or count the endless clichés and head to toe fashion no-nos (including the lovely star tie and stonewashed jean jacket ensemble). Or decide which is more derivative of HALLOWEEN - the characters, plot or music score. And how bout that mysterious pizza with large chunks of a sausage-like topping? This is actually one of the most unintentionally funny ripoffs from the 80s, so it's worth a look if you're a schlock fan.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Much of this movie from a genre perspective is slow and un-propelled. The killer is utterly dull as well. But there are incidental sections of it that are worthwhile. There are some fun perverse little moments such as a female feeding her friend dog food or a pizza with human meat. Also a section with the two females watching a horror movie by themselves and commenting on how the female in the movie acts. It predates Scream (1996) and indeed the movie more or less devolves into a parody of itself. There is also a lot of black humour in the dialogue and some of the killings are creative. If the pace had been different this could have been a lot more fun and memorable. Note: the trailer appears to have shots of an alternate version of the last killing.

I was on the crew. I worked special effects and mic placement. I was also "tall guy". This film was just an excuse to party. There was nothing serious about it. It was meant to be a bad spoof.And yes, Halloween similarities were discussed. There were a ton of people working on this thing just to have fun. Several crew members are in the classroom scene. I made sure I had something else to do that day. After it went to video, I got a small check. BTW, the director plays the doctor in the asylum.

There were 2 needles. The one that drew fluid wouldn't behave for a close up, so the camera didn't show the forehead. The chunky fluid came in from the top. The sparks on the fence were from a squib box I built. The exploding head shadow was a watermelon with a nose. A push rod gave it the extra splatter. My friend and I drove around all night looking for dead ducks. As the night went on, everything looked like a dead duck. When the sun came up, we just went to a farm and got some chickens. Luckily there was a dead duck at the pond for the shoot. I can't remember what was on the pizza. It was something strange from a meat department. I remember frying it up. I also made the dog food that got sampled.

Working and playing with that crew was one of the best times in my life.

This movie does have some good moments. It didn't scare me, at all. I should've known there'd be a goofy police officer. There was also a few predictable scenes of when someone was going to die.

I won't be in denial, but I admit I liked this movie a little bit. It is obvious it isn't an award worthy movie. There are much worse movies and horror movies out there, compared to Offerings.

The one soundtrack song, in this movie, is really from Haloween's theme. There's no doubt about it.



Notice: This is my very first review, on IMDb, so I'm still new to typing reviews. My first one was on Yahoo, years ago.

A young boy gets pushed down a well by some brats, kills his mother, gets sent to an asylum, breaks out as a teen, and returns home to get his revenge on all the kids who tormented him. In the meantime, he leaves little presents for the one girl who was kind to him.

We all love John Carpenter's Halloween, but Offerings loves it a little too much. The music is almost identical, every night time scene is bathed with that same blue light, and some of the story beats are the same, but that's sort of it's charm. If anything, this goes to show you that you can't recreate something no matter how hard you try.