The Offerings (2009) User Reviews

The Offerings: Near total mess

[Platypuschow · 2/10 · 23 March 2018]

For those not familiar with Danny Draven he's an old school filmmaker most well known for many independent and Full Moon pictures. Generally his works are pretty poor and cheesy nonsense at their best.

Here he writes and directs and has a considerably higher budget than usual, but can he do something with it? Absolutely not.

The Offerings tells the story of a girl who moves out into the middle of nowhere to be housekeeper. But with her employers having a sinister secret, the house being full of spirits and her psychotic ex boyfriend hot on her heels nothing goes the way she planned.

To the films credit the sfx look quite good, sadly they are rare and incredibly brief. Considering the budget and the near unknown cast this is unexplainable and Draven really has no excuse.

The plot is a jumbled mess, the cinematography is most poor and despite showing some promising signs early on the film really has very little going for it.

Draven will no doubt continue working for many years to come, I think he should stop or at very least go back to Fullmoon as their movies have a charm even he couldn't ruin.

The Good:

Some of the sfx are quite good

The Bad:

Poor sound balancing

Very amateurishly shot in places

Movie is an all round mess

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I'd putting money down now, if I looked at his birth certificate it will not read Daniel Draven

Did the director acknowledge this is a remake?

[saleekrny007 · 3/10 · 31 July 2009]

This is just a sloppy remake of "The Maid". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0474791/ . I'm all for remakes and having the American studios try to take an Asian film and put a twist on it, but this slap together drivel is not going to cut it. Come on people. Even though the original movie didn't have much in terms of top line special effects it was way better than this... OK back to the drawing board guys, find another Asian Horror to mess up. How about Death Bell? that seems ripe for a cheesy remake. For me i think i'll stick to the originals. It's a lot better and i'll learn a new language at the same time.

Good Idea, Atrocious Execution.

[sogkokou-1 · 3/10 · 22 June 2009]

Simply and briefly a tragic failure and a massive waste of time and, most likely money, mostly from the director's part but also for anyone who decides to give this visual and acoustic crime against even the modest of standards a shot. I gave it a three out of ten merely due to the fact that I saw potential in the idea for, perhaps, a Hollywood blockbuster which, if developed accordingly by a 'slightly' more talented, charismatic and experienced director (with a wee bit of common sense when it comes to cinematography) could have worked. By the way, it does not qualify to be called a movie, film or even a flick. Stay away and you shall have a chance to spend your time on better stuff.

Lame beyond belief

[pyx · 1/10 · 22 June 2009]

A horror set in modern day America based on ancient Chinese beliefs seemed like the formula for a good movie, but how wrong can you be. The premise is as good as the movie gets, with its cheesy b movie stereotypes, and Japanese horror rip offs.

The only horror here, is the fact that someone had bad enough judgement to release this atrocious waste of time.

This doesn't fall into the "so bad it's good" category: it falls into the "so bad its unwatchable" group.

Every character is a tedious overplayed stereotype - every piece of make up is straight out of the J horror handbook. Even the badly used and heavy handed musical score is lame and intrusive rather than .

If this movie has any saving grace, it's the fact that it's most unlikely to spawn a sequel.

These People Need To Tell You That This Is A Remake

[hinesgtrservice · 1/10 · 31 July 2009]

This is a straight rip off the Asian horror film "The Maid" with a few minor differences and a whole lot more plot holes. The filmmakers here didn't even bother to acknowledge that fact. These people should really be sued. Do I really have to go through the motions to convince you that this isn't worth watching? Watch "The Maid"; even though that film wasn't great, it actually passed for a movie with real actors and a real crew. This is among the top worst films I have ever seen. Lazily slapped together, unapologetically stolen ideas, plot holes the size of a Buick. There's no redeeming quality here. I know we all like to watch bad horror movies now and again, but generally those supply some source of entertainment whether it be a cheap scare or a few laughs. This has neither. Sue these people.

Bad Script, Bad Acting, Bad Direction

[frank-bales · 1/10 · 8 November 2009]

I just watched 31:19 of this flick and came to IMDb to rate. I should have came here before I started watching and checked the rating. It is such a poor movie. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn't, and it's not worth watching more of it to find out; especially after reading reviews. It's a cliché, but WHAT WERE THEY THINKING when they made this movie. Complete trash. I believe I was exposed to 7 actors in the first 31 minutes and the two best are the taxi driver and the aunt--no lines. The scene where the maid character is sitting on a blanket reading a book and the neighbor comes may be the worst acting I've seen--at least in a long time. This is one of those movies that if you sit down and watch it, when it's over you'll say to yourself, "Why did I waste my time watching this?" Don't watch it.

Crap

[C-Ant · 1/10 · 22 June 2009]

Holy crap! Or should I say spiritual crap, actually, I'm just gonna go with plain simple - crap! This is a movie about a pretty teenage maid who takes a job house keeping for a couple of women - Chinese women! Yes, it's the east Asia thing again, because of course that's what makes a scary film isn't it? No of course not, but every other horror director in the US thinks it is! Why don't they just set up a camera in Beijing, the fear factor would be immense.

Of course, as the women are Chinese it is only right that they are very spiritual and follow the ancient ways (blimey, it's so stereotyped I was just waiting for one them to pull out nun-chucks and perform a spinning back kick!), and it just happens to be 'Ghost Month'. So rituals are performed every night to keep the scary demons at bay, until of course the maid cleans up some charcoal! Then the scary stuff begins, or at least tries to.

Terrible cgi, bad makeup and worst of all, no scares. A few 'jump' moments are there, but they hardly register on the fear factor. Acting is appalling, back-story is dreadful and unneeded well, unneeded in the way it was done here anyway. The 'twist' isn't really a twist as you can see whats coming a mile away.

Overall, this is the worst horror movie I've seen for a long, long time. Avoid at all cost 1/10

Awful!

[dougaldog2002 · 1/10 · 11 August 2009]

I'm sorry folks, but I only just managed to sit through 55 minutes of this turd of a movie.

Leaden direction, poor editing, wooden acting and pretty much zero thrills or scares. The storyline, if you can call it that, is so full of holes it would make Swiss Cheese hang its head in shame.

I'm not into gore, I much prefer psychological thriller/horror type movies so I thought that I'd enjoy this, turned out to be a total waste of 55 minutes of my life!

If you're looking for a somewhat original and well executed North American "J" style horror then check out the Canadian film "They Wait". It's pretty good and well worth the rental fee.

Better to watch paint dry

[martyncymro · 1/10 · 21 August 2009]

Everything about it says a movie made by college kids. I am loath to do down anyone or anything and usually look for the positives in all situations, but having just seen this film I feel I should warn anyone considering watching it. Don't! Everything is bad. The plot can best be described as weak, the twist, more like a slight turn, can easily be guessed at. The acting is unconvincing and I'm sure in places they were waiting for cues. The directing is poor, in fact rather than waste your time having to read further - avoid this movie as everything is so poor. There was 'one' jump moment and the rest of it was sheer boredom. My advice is buy a tin of paint, stick a pencil in it and watch it dry. It'll be far more entertaining.

A soulless earth roaming

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 7 May 2018]

Saw 'The Offerings' being fond of horror/thriller regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre), and the cover was cool. Was less taken by the concept though, which sounded ridiculous. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing.

Unfortunately, do have to agree with the low rating and the poor reviews. 'The Offerings' is one of those films that never took off, starting off not very interestingly and never recovered and progressively got worse, particularly in the near-unwatchable later stages. Never judge a film without seeing the whole thing and wanted to not make 'The Offerings' an exception, so gave it a fair chance.

The location is also suitably spooky. It is agreed too that the too infrequent and brief special effects are surprisingly not bad, having seen so many films recently where the effects have been one of the biggest problems.

However, so much brings 'The Offerings' down. All the acting is either over-histrionic or disinterested, both in a few cases, and the direction is so phoned in and pedestrian, one gets the sense that the director showed no interest in the film at all. Too much of the soundtrack is intrusive and annoying, made worse by the excessive and obvious sound effects that just cheapens the mood. The film looks drab generally and like it was made in haste, the photography especially betrays that with its amateurishness.

Where 'The Offerings' most underwhelms is the writing and story. The writing is incredibly lazy, it's awkward in dialogue, very confused as a result of not tying things up or going into full detail and doesn't feel complete. The story suffers from a very limp pace, apparent early on and gets slower and slower until an interminably dragged out second half. It further suffers from feeling too much like a short film stretched out with a lot of useless padding. The stereotypical characters are both bland and annoying and the inconsistent and illogical motivations bring them down further.

For a film billed as a horror, there is very little interesting and nothing remotely scary which makes a waste of such a spooky-looking location. The scares and thrills are too few, barely any even, and are far too predictable, anaemic and weakly timed to make impact, with the dull pacing and obvious sound effects cheapening them significantly. 'The Offerings' doesn't engage let alone thrill, the more it progressed the duller, predictable and more nonsensical it became for a premise that was already ridiculous. The ending leaves very little impact, very contrived and could have been rounded off better.

In summary, very poor on the whole. 2/10 Bethany Cox

a great find of a little thriller movie

[ewest1981 · 9/10 · 21 July 2009]

I stumbled upon this little movie and didn't have any great expectations as to if it was going to be good or bad. I just sat there watching and eating chips and I was actually pulled in by the story. See, I think I can relate to the main character. I was an exchange student in Japan and I understand how Asian custom can be a bit offbeat to Westerners. To watch this movie without knowing what the other characters are saying because they speak another language is exactly how I felt when I spent time in a foreign countries where I didn't know the language. More, I had one or two psychotic exes I had to run away from, so what Allysa is going through is understandable. The scares are rare in this film, but it was a good thing for me as I was alone when I watched it. This is kind of a drama with a horror or thriller element I think.

Nothing special

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 26 February 2018]

THE OFFERINGS is another indie horror film from cult director Danny Draven. I saw one of his earliest offerings, CRYPTZ, which was absolutely dreadful, so inevitably this one is slightly better. It takes the form of a traditional haunted house film about a maid and her new employers who have an interest in the occult. Sadly, it's a slow-moving enterprise that turns out to be entirely limited when it comes to the horror elements.

So bad, it could never be any worse

[Icons76 · 1/10 · 6 November 2012]

Why is Horror and Genre movies being handled by people like the detrimental Charles Band, or The Asylum! And why despite all these amazing bad reviews and comments (you figure i have never met anyone who could even merely stand one of these!), people asking for their money back and so on, why this demented, disrespectful crap is still being made? Why? I don't know, it is just so not right, especially since being a huge fan of B movies, cult's and Horrors, I am always having fun whenever there's at least an attempt in making something decent! But, here, there's no respect, there's no boundaries, most of all, there's no movie! Charles Band and the people at the Asylum are guilty up to an extent though! I personally would call them scam artists, con artists and not filmmakers, but, who's even worse than them is the Distributors buying this crap, instead of a lot more deserving movies I often see at some Genre's Film Festivals and that rarely get released, or if they do, they even get less space and attention of these atrocious boring non movies! Abortions my mother called them, and so referring to something she obviously not only despise, but, also avoids! Why haven't I? Oh, believe me people! I am not into pain or sadomasochistic activities at all! I will, from now on! And, like the plague! And, also because crap like this is an offense to the culture of our Country (hey.. and that's already saying something, right there ha ha!) but, I had, before, refuse myself i was so rightly so doing for quite a while, just based on other people's comments or on dear friends suggestions! Well now, there's one more motive! Wanted to be fair and had to go through (I honestly ever made it to a three quarters, but, should be getting kudos, because of that!) to a few Charles Band's productions, finding them some of the worst scam, especially, certain homo erotic's movies he produces, with some director, David De Coteau! Man, that stuff wasn't just bad and boring, cheap and cheesy, that stuff was sick,morbid! YUK! Ewwwwww Young guys in speedo's (those two should be ashamed of themselves) exploited while making out for virtually 100 minutes! That's disgusting! And i am not homophobic at all, but, that was just plain insulting and disturbing, way more than some good erotic flick! This does not have those, but, just has amateurish everything and bore to no END! People, let's strike against these frauds! LET'S STOP BUYING or RENT ANY OF THESE MOVIES! BE WARNED: Either Charles Band (FULL MOON Ent.) or THE ASYLUM's logo on the DVD mean that you're never gonna watch anything good, but actually, either, an AMATEURISH BORE or a vulgar rip off of someone else's film, most likely, actually, certainly, made for cheap, featuring some of the worst acting ever seen worldwide (by the way, WHO CAST THESE NON MOVIES??? WHO? I would wanna see them on their faces!) and, most of all, remember you are spending money into something you may save, and, just watch instead (and for free) some really fresh and cool internet TV Series on you tube! You'd be surprised how EVEN THOSE, if next to such deplorable fare like this one here, or other products coming from those 2 awfully corrupted Brands, may be feeling COOL, FRESH, and even professionally shot, at times! Not too much to ask, uh?

Ghost month my take

[jeffreyc-32567 · 5/10 · 24 September 2019]

Right ho here we go. A lot of negative reviews about said film 📼 but tell you what, I thought it was really good. OK so no blood or gore, maybe the producers did not think it was needed, but there were some jump out of your seat scares. So my score is 5, a good film 📼 for what it cost me, just a £1, it certainly kept my interest jacey out.

Crappy Ghost Story Horror

[KEmerton1992 · 4/10 · 5 March 2012]

I first saw this on "Chiller" last summer and I loved it. I just re- watched it and WOW what was I thinking? What a piece of crap movie! A girl gets a job as a housekeeper for a Chinese woman and her old Aunt during Ghost Month. Their house is haunted. The two woman act a bit off from the very beginning and it is quickly obvious that these woman are up to something. They are keeping secrets that lead to the end of the film. In a completely unneeded sub plot, the girls ex boyfriend tries to find her and eventually does, which plays into the films final scenes. Another subplot involves a weird Black neighbor who doesn't like the Chinese women. The content of the film, including the scares, are bad rip offs of The Grudge and Haunting in Conneticuit.

Just... No

[historymysterybreaker7 · 2/10 · 26 May 2014]

Minor spoilers in this review. Nothing terrible just a few character trait leaks here and there. I haven't watched the entire thing.. but it's just so terrible!! The scenery is mediocre except maybe the home and there's so many things that just pop up and aren't explained. Not to mention that there's religious ignorance. I can't stand people calling other religions weired!! Anyways I'm moving on to the characters. I didn't really LIKE too many. Maybe Ms. Wu and her aunt but other than that, the main characters sucked. The new housekeeper I really wanted something bad to happen to her for almost everything she did. And then there's the overly attached ex who was kinda sorta REALLY POINTLESS from what I saw. But I give them credit for getting the Chinese beliefs at least decently right. That at least gets it an extra star from me. But the huge problem I have is it isn't scary. I mean I jumped here and there but that's primarily because I jump a little easily. There wasn't anything that actually scared me. So main point is.. movie is bad.

An indie ghost story worth a look...

[dalekwhovian · 10/10 · 2 August 2009]

The movie moves a little slow in the beginning, but it leads up to a climax full of unseen twists and turns. The movie is definitely influenced by Asian horror, but HARDLY A REMAKE OF ANYTHING! I can tell the filmmakers are fans of J-horror, but this really isn't a horror film, more of a thriller.

Also, the extra features were very interesting on how they made the movie on such a low budget. It's worth a look if you like character-driven Ghost Stories, but if you're looking for lots of blood and guts, this isn't for you.

The DVD had a cast commentary, blooper reel, an interview with the director, and a making of featurette. I really enjoyed the making of.

Exceeded Expectations

[jodipatrick10 · 9/10 · 17 November 2010]

Just watched this movie and was pleasantly surprised by the twist and turn of the story. I was growing sick of Hollywood horror films with all the gore and violence and I didn't feel like watching those kinds of movies, so this movie didn't fit any of the above category and just was what I wanted to see. The story follows a young woman who was looking for a job to escape her life and found one in a remote place. The rest of the story involves various haunting and mysterious new people she met, and eventually she had to solve the problem surrounding the haunting, and on top of that she had to deal with her own personal problem that comes to find her. This movie has no stars that I recognized, which is too bad, but I don't really mind watching fresh faces either.

Highly chilling and enjoyable ghost offering

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 9/10 · 9 September 2015]

When a young woman moves into a traditional Chinese woman's house to be her new housekeeper, the accidental desecration of a sacred ceremony to appease the restless spirits around her unleashes a torrent of supernatural visions and attacks which she has to struggle against in order to stop their malicious behavior.

This was a surprisingly above-average take on the genre, much better than expected and certainly got a lot out of it. What really works well for this one is the insane atmosphere throughout here from the multitude of utterly freaky and chilling ghostly encounters. The type of set-up here allows for some really enjoyable parts with plenty of intense scenes throughout here which makes this one such an unrelenting pace, which starts with the opening here. The opening, which is the interrupted ceremony of appeasement, is a total accident as the sweeping away of the initial offering could've happened and the resulting ghostly interactions grabbing her and later confronting her by herself with plenty of ghostly swarms of tentacles comes off incredibly well as a chilling encounter, and when followed up with the skeleton sequence in the kitchen makes for a truly enjoyable time. The second encounter, where she finds the secret room all completely decorated with the lavish ceremonial trinkets before seeing the ghost approaching in the ethereal light with the howling voices in wonderfully atmospheric, a great sequence where they appear to torment her in the laundry room and a fantastic sequence where she awakens from a dream and comes along the series of ethereal lights and voices all come off really well with tons of enjoyable atmospheric action, plenty of ghostly confrontations to move this along. As well, the attacks in the closet and down in the basement all come along into a really exciting series of creepy, enjoyable action confrontations. This one also manages to get some good points in how this builds up the great story here by not only covering the actual holiday and its traditions but also in dealing with the back- story of how she came to be afflicted which is really well-executed and believable here. These here are more than enough to hold this up against the few flaws on display. The main thing against this one is the rather disappointing nature about the ghosts here where they don't really do much in the film on many occasions here, either by getting so little screen-time or generating little damage once they do. This one's reliance on atmosphere and teasing her in the confrontations instead of going after her to torment her doesn't give this any kind of activity for the ghosts to be out killing randomly and generating the kind of action for those set-ups in here. As well, the film's other problem is the inclusion of a really lame and absolutely needless subplot about a spurred boyfriend interacting with the family that really goes nowhere and features some rather lame scenes designed to showcase this which really tends to halt this one quite often to get this in. Otherwise, this one was quite fun.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence.