BURNT OFFERINGS

[George Bellefontaine]

This is a haunted house flick from 1976. It stars Oliver Reed, Karen Black and Bette Davis. Reed, Black, their son and aunt Bette rent an old mansion for the summer. It was a bargain at $900, but when the family's sanity starts coming apart, along with the house, they being to realize the bargain was too good to be true.

I didn't know this was out on dvd when I saw it on the rental shelf at Blockbuster. I had seen it in the theater and thought I recalled it being quite creepy. Well after watching it over the weekend, I am glad I didn't buy it. It may have seemed creepy in 1976, but it was just another haunted house flick without the cgi of today's releases. In fact, Reed actually looked like he was embarrassed while making this film. And MGM didn't do a thing to help the transfer. Absolutely horrible.

I wouldn't say don't see this, as it does have a few good moments, but if you like to collect old horror flicks, you may want to rent this instead.




My Homepage!

[BradF]

I have only vague memories of this one, thank goodness. I kinda wish Bette had bowed out gracefully after All About Eve and been done with it. Perhaps the finest actress ever, I hate having to come across her playing in these third rate kind of pictures from the sixties and seventies, when she was way past her prime... although, not surprisingly, she's often the best thing in them. I caught her again recently in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, along with her old nemesis, Miss Crawford. Yikes, what a movie.

[George Bellefontaine]

Yeah, Brad, Baby Jane was something else. I believe it was after that flick that both Davis and Crawford starting making those 3rd rate B horror flicks.




My Homepage!