Oliver Park‘s The Offering may look like a standard tale of demonic possession, and indeed hits many of the expected beats of such movies. However, the backdrop of Hasidic Judaism offers an unusual perspective, one which subtly inflects every aspect of this engaging and often genuinely scary chiller.
Art (Nick Blood) has been estranged from his Orthodox father Saul (Allan Corduner) for several years. His marriage to Claire (Emily Wiseman), a gentile woman, appears to be one of the main reasons for the distance between them. The couple are having a baby, and they think this may be a way to reconcile. And Saul is far from the angry patriarch Claire has been led to expect. He’s welcoming and wise and strikes up a bond with her right away. Things look positive, but the body of an old man we see falling foul on an occult ritual in the prologue is delivered to the family-run mortuary downstairs. And something demonic has accompanied the corpse.
Right away, the main strength of The Offering is its impeccable production design and the way it plunges the viewer into a situation instantly familiar but in a milieu that will be unfamiliar to most viewers. Writers Hank Hoffman and Jonathan Yunger leans into the ritual aspect of Hasidism, and Park’s balances the expected quota of jump scares with esoteric visual cues that suggest religious import but which are never overtly explained. This is clever writing, as all the central characters except Claire soon realise exactly what they’re dealing with – a demon referred to only as the ‘Taker of Children’ – and her outsider status makes her a direct audience surrogate.
The central performances are uniformly very strong, with Wiseman and Corduner the standouts as they look as they navigate a potentially fraught introduction with grace and warmth. Blood does a good job of embodying the tension between the traditional and secular, and the ever-entertaining Paul Kaye has a great time as Heimish, Saul’s gruff and suspicious assistant who gets the biggest flourishes amidst performances characterised by restrain and internality.
It can’t however be denied that the overall structure is generic enough to fall into the realms of the predictable, even with its engrossing religious and mystical elements. Tropes such as the expert who acts as exposition dump are all present and correct, just in the form of a Kabbalist. Yet familiarity isn’t necessarily too much of a flaw if the story’s executed well, and in terms of its atmosphere, visual sense, and performances, this is one Offering that will be eagerly devoured by most horror fans.
Available on demand from Fri 13 Jan 2023