The Offering

The Offering takes its cue from a bygone era of supernatural horror, which emerged from the legacy of Hideo Nakata’s Ring. It more readily invokes, however, the films which clambered in vain to capture Ring’s impact, riding on a revitalised wave of the subgenre, than the sharpness of Nakata’s exercise in allegorical dread.

Hank Hoffman and Jonathan Yunger’s premise of a Hasidic family’s traumatic past – unreckoned with until their secular son, Arthur (Nick Blood), and his English wife, Claire (Emily Wiseman) return to rebuild the bridges burned between them – is one that initially piques interest. Buried in the maelstrom of poorly edited set pieces, underpinned by a frayed screenplay, which gives the air of a first draft rather than something capable of teasing out the complex themes of dormant emotional lacerations in devoutly religious family units, is surely an interesting and genuinely unsettling film which considers the Bergmann-esque themes of the silence of God via The Babadook’s take on familial grief, but it never emerges. 

Instead, The Offering disappointingly takes refuge in the almost rhythmically predictable “quiet, bang!” formula of mid-00s horror, which, along with demonic symbols scratched into wood, and the odd, distant, infernal whisper, stands in for a patiently cultivated tone and atmosphere of unease.

Proceedings are lifted, somewhat, by the electric, confrontational presence of Paul Kaye of Dennis Pennis fame, who struts across the screen with the pinpoint arrogance, ruffled sleaze and charisma of a character who you are never sure if you are meant to trust, an ambivalence towards its character’s motives and reliability that is actually one of the film’s few strengths.

Matthew McMillan

The Offering is released digitally on demand on 27^th February 2023.

Watch the trailer for The Offering here: