The Offering – Film Review

In the wake of a young Jewish girl’s disappearance, the son of a Hasidic funeral director returns home with his pregnant wife in hopes of reconciling with his father. Little do they know that directly beneath them in the family morgue, an ancient evil with sinister plans for the unborn child lurks inside a mysterious corpse.

Alright January, you’re really scaring me now. First we got a truly great horror film in the form of Gerard Johnstone‘s M3GAN and now we have a decently enjoyable paranormal/supernatural horror film in the form of Oliver Park‘s The Offering, which surprised me considerably.

Usually, January is filled with the most embarrassingly bad horror movies imaginable, but for some reason, this year is an exception. While it doesn’t do anything crazy or new, The Offering serves as a welcomed addition to the supernatural subgenre of horror with some tense scenes, well-developed characters, and an all-encompassing sense of dread that lingers with you throughout the whole movie.

Although the script for this movie isn’t anything superb, I found myself greatly appreciating just how straight-forward it all was. The film never once tries to get too messy and it never introduces a bunch of unnecessary things to throw the viewer off-guard. It’s all essentially one straight-lined horror film that takes you on a creepy albeit familiar journey.

It’s also a film that deals with themes such as grief and loss, and while it doesn’t deal with these in groundbreaking ways, screenwriters Hank Hoffman and Jonathan Yunger nevertheless found entertaining and moving ways to discuss these topics while also managing to tell an eerie story at the same time.

But perhaps my favorite thing about this film is just how character-driven it is. Right from the first time we meet the character of Heimish (Paul Kaye), we understand all of his motivations, and the exact same thing can be said about the others such as Art (Nick Blood), Claire (Emily Wiseman), and Saul (Allan Corduner). They all have clear motivations and they all got developed surprisingly well.

This is also a film that looks absolutely gorgeous, shot expertly by director of photography Lorenzo Senatore (Wonder Woman, The Fourth Kind). His camera work on display accompanied with the haunting score by legendary composer Christopher Young (Sinister, The Grudge) makes for quite the eerie pairing.

While it can be a bit frustrating to watch this film and realize that it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, it’s still a highly entertaining movie that manages to pack a few punches despite its familiarity. As far as January horror releases go, this one is shockingly good.

Although it feels familiar, The Offering is a highly enjoyable, character-driven supernatural horror with a strong sense of dread lingering around every corner.