Offerings (1989)

 

Director: Christopher Reynolds

Screenplay: Christopher Reynolds

Cast: Loretta Leigh Bowman as Gretchen; Elizabeth Greene as Kacy; G. Michael Smith as Sheriff Chism; Jerry Brewer as Professor Jim Paxton; Tobe Sexton as David; Max Burnett as Tim

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

Among the many slasher films of the eighties, Offerings was clearly made for its market. All the illusions to Halloween (1978) borrowed from it are here to that, to be considered, would damn this very late era production, but at least with a morbid tone of its own, not gleefully revealing in the kills but an actual ickiness with a bleak corpse humour, Offerings was at least memorable.

Your Killer John has an emotionally abusive mother who tips cigarette ask in her cooked scrambled eggs, which is a sin in itself, and already as a young boy he is killing animals, like his pet turtle the mother found, so his journey had awful signs from the get-go of what he will become. If this seems all intentionally humoured as a set-up for a review, this is not to trivialise an actual upbringing to real serial killers, but to point out that Offerings' content whilst gristly is also ridiculous. Some of it is accidental, but it is clear at times the creators were aware of this, from director-writer Christopher Reynolds, playing to this.

There is salvation for John in Gretchen, a childhood friend...but the other children are evil bullies who dare him to go walk around the lip of a well and cause him to fall in. In exposition, ten years later having lived in a mental institution, it is suggested this fall in the well and the damage it had caused to the frontal lobe of his brain has fully erased his morality, worse as he wakes up, gets out, and is with vengeance in mind. He will even climb an electric fence unphased, so he is that determined. From here, well, the Halloween parallels cannot be ignored. I love the main theme, some nice synth to win one over, but composer Russell D. Allen is in danger of the heavy debt it has to John Carpenter's main theme. There are scenes openly riffed upon from the Carpenter film and there is even a less efficient version of Dr. Loomis here. It is entirely shameless, but thankfully Offerings, an indefensible title as pure schlock, is one which proudly became Grand Guignol and is at the point the slasher genre was becoming self aware. Long before Scream (1996), and aware a parody Student Bodies (1981) already existed, this has the leads, the grown up Gretchen (Loretta Leigh Bowman) and a friend watch a slasher film and point out their own clichés.

This does blatantly rip off Halloween, but it exaggerates it, such as recreating Dr. Loomis going to the cemetery in one scene, at the grave of Michael Myer's family, only here with a grave digger who is too "enthusiastic" about his job. I am finding myself looking at certain horror genres like slashers with more discomfort for their fixations on "kills", and disinterest with the scares and jumps, instead finding their tangents and quirks more interesting. This at least has a black humour to its content, like the killer's electric drill not working, forcing them to have to head vice something until their head implodes. It is, depending on how you view it, still pointlessly morbid, but throughout the over-the-top nature feels on purpose, grotesque on purpose than accidental, so at least this is a grotesque for me as a horror fan with a ghoulish humour to this.

This is especially the case with the fact John, infatuated with Gretchen, leaves body parts like ears and a nose for her as a cat would present a dead mouse to an owner in front of the door step. (From cats, not killers) I can attest to having this happen as a child in the family home, whilst here in any other context this is something you would get from a grim Ed Gein-like serious horror film. Instead, here it becomes almost like a Herschell Gordon Lewis aspect of sick humour to the proceedings rather than the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It adds a distinct touch to a film which, honestly, is a cheesy slasher to anyone who is not a fan of slashers, in its goofy and creepy tone. It even continues an obsession too with ordering pizza being a scary prospect in the eighties, between The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) and this, but with this going further with John adding his own special meat "topping" to the order which definitely was not sausage.

Moments like this are gross, but I have to give credit to the film as, for a genre which can be extremely bland at its worse in the slasher film, these moments are intentional and memorable. Some of the film does feel unintentionally silly - even if it does require a trigger warning for dead animals being used, John terrorising a duck pond when he leaves the asylum, imagining Jack having eaten bits of the wildlife and torn them to shreds, does feel ridiculous especially when talked of matter-of-factly. However it was also clear the production realised they should fall into humour intentionally, such as the sheriff figure, searching an abandoned house, catching a teen boy reading porn magazines, which is funny. The film as a slasher is as conventional as the genre gets, with the characters incredibly generic and one dimensional, so this side to Offerings is a much needed godsend in terms of, as a thrill ride as cinema, bringing a sense of the perverse to the film. This is not perfect, and not the gold standard even in its genre at its best, but I will appreciate one greatly if it manages to be memorable like this became.