L'Emprise du démon

I was not impressed. The premise has potential (an ancient Jewish-kabbalistic demon is on the loose within an orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and turns on innocent people), and the setting in an old town-house with in the basement a mortuary is atmospheric and pleasantly creepy, but that's about it. The as horrific intended effects only come from several noise-burst-induced jump-scares and creaking doors, it's not enough to make this into a satisfying horror-flick.

The story is complicated, for instance the nature and intentions of the demon are unfathomable (it was apparently summoned to bring a dead loved-one back to life, but for some reason it now kills people and even feeds on children), and the CGI of the demon itself is hardly scary, it has the surprising form of a giant moose or deer with big antlers. The constant apparition of a ghost in the form of a little girl is rather cliché, and towards the end, when the main characters have some kind of climactic show-down with te demon, things get rather repetitive and in spite of all the turmoil even tiresome. The acting of Emily Wiseman is fine, but Nick Blood goes way over the top, with his constant wide-eyed horror-filled gazes or sinking into baffled stupors.

This isn't terrible but it's a bit like a columbo movie. The opening scene shows you what's going on and takes away all the mystery and intrigue.

I thought that was interesting and I wondered where they were going to go with it. I didn't wonder very long.

Predictable jump scares, very little suspense and an all too tropey characters including a personal bug-bear of mine; that one guy who just knows exactly what's going on and can expertly explain it all, in detail to our protagonist.

I like two things about this movie. Almost the whole movie is inside the house which gives the movie what little atmosphere there is, and I like the ending. Not the climax, not the third act, just the very end. That's about all though.

I dont understand the low score , i throughly enjoyed this and so did my wife, it is a bit old school in its vibe which i liked and the effects were ok for what it is, plenty or folke lore, Demon stuff, pentagrams and creepy children.

Every thing is a bit dark and moody so that might put a few off, some reviews i've read say it cliched and has telegraphed jumped scares but there are only so many times you can do a Demon/posession movie without comparing to hundreds of others that came before , saying that i thought it was fresh and the mortuary back drop added to the discomfort and creepyness.

"The Offering" offers a not-so-original but effective script told from a Jewish perspective. The cast gives well accomplished performances and the director's job is well done. One of the great merits of this production is its cinematography that generates a gloomy atmosphere by making the most of the filming locations. One notorious flaw is the CGI special effects that turn out to be fake in several scenes. The demon's design is very good, although in some scenes it ends up being distorted with digital touch-ups. "The Offering" is not a masterpiece, nor is it a lousy production, it is a decent film that achieves its purpose of entertaining.

This really was your average, run of the mill horror flick. Reminded me of a mix between "The Vigil" and "The Autopsy of Jane Doe". Not as good as either of those... but still successful to a degree in its own right.

I would say where this lacked the most would be in originality. The movie looked great - beautiful shots, lighting and atmosphere...the script was good, the acting was solid, the pacing was decent/kept you engaged, and yet still... it just wasn't all that enthralling.

Entertaining? Yes. It just didn't excite me all too much. Not to mention it relied a lot on jump scares. I think if they had chilled on those and focused on making it authentically creepier, finessed the storyline a bit by attempting to infuse some originality into it with less cliche horror tropes I think that would have helped immensely.

But again, this was still entertaining, just don't go into it expecting to see a modern day cinematic horror masterpiece. It's a fun, casual watch. I give this a 5.5 rounding up to a 6. Would recommend.