A horrific tale about the importance of family
The most divisive film of the year has arrived in the form of mother!; the long-awaited Jennifer Lawrence/Darren Aronofsky thriller starring the former as a young wife who must deal when unexpected visitors played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer interrupt the tranquil life she has made with husband Javier Bardem. While mother! has been certified “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes by critics, audiences have given it an “F” on Cinemascore, showing that the divide between the critical media and the general moviegoing public is as wide as ever.
If there are two things everyone who sees mother! have agreed on however, it’s the following: Pfeiffer gives the best performance she has in years and Aronofsky’s film is loaded with a plethora of meanings, with many to be found in the sprawling country estate mother! takes place in. Having seen mother! twice, I couldn’t help but be reminded of 1976s Burnt Offerings, another dark tale with a malevolent house at its center and the horrors it bestowed upon those who entered it.
Directed by TV master of horror Dan Curtis, Burnt Offerings told the story of an average American family: Marion (Karen Black), Ben (Oliver Reed), Davey (Lee Montgomery) and Aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis) who are intrigued by the prospect of getting out of New York for the summer and renting a house in the country. Their wish comes true when siblings Roz and Arnold Allardyce (Eileen Heckart and Burgess Meredith) offer up their large secluded mansion for rent at the bargain price of just $900 in exchange for the family taking care of the property in their absence. However a catch comes in the form of the pair’s elderly mother who Roz and Arnold insist will be no trouble whatsoever since she spends her days shut away in the attic. As soon as the family moves in however, strange occurrences begin taking place and the members start to drift apart, with each feeling they’re going insane as a result of their new surroundings.
As with a few horror films, or rather the ones worth remembering years later, Burnt Offerings maintains a strong commentary within it’s script. Here it’s the state of the American family and its temporary demise during the turbulent 1970s when divorce was becoming more and more common and single-parent families were everywhere. The notions of love, devotion and sacrifice, all of which are necessary staples of any strong family unit show up in a variety of ways throughout the course of Burnt Offerings and are promptly turned on their heads. There’s Roz and Arnold’s brother and sister bond, which is unsettling, but sturdy, as is their devotion to their mother, doing anything and everything to keep her alive as long as possible. Their closeness speaks to a time when families stayed together, regardless of what life threw at them. As for the film’s main family, it’s chilling to see the house’s influence on them and how their dynamics change as a result. Burnt Offerings takes some time in between frights to look at the troubled marriage Marion and Ben share that the house , in essence, forces them to face. There’s a look in Marion’s eyes the minute she enters the house showing that the house is already affecting her which occurs before the film’s credits are even finished. It’s only the beginning as it soon becomes apparent to everyone (except for the main characters sadly) that the house is alive and is set on transforming the family before eventually destroying them.
Ideology aside, Burnt Offerings operates as a well-crafted haunted house story; and an effective one at that. However, this house doesn’t rely so much on the assistance of slamming doors (although there is plenty of that and done to great effect) to gather scares. Instead the house preys on each family member’s psyche, tapping into their darkest fears and using them to make its inhabitants turn on each other. Because of this, the house feels like a true character that is living, breathing and is desperately in need of life blood. The genius of the film is how Burnt Offerings executes its mission. The best example of this is in the swimming pool scene in which a fun time between Davey and Ben with the latter playfully tossing him into the air before letting him fall into the water. The tender moment turns dark very quickly as something in the pool changes Ben, causing him to nearly drown his son who breaks free and ends up being temporarily afraid of the sight of his confused and frightened father.
The performances in Burnt Offerings are interesting to observe in that they are each dictated by the way the characters themselves are transformed. With the exception of Heckart and Meredith (both appropriately creepy), each actor seems to be bringing to life the very journey their characters are taking. Davis, for example starts out playing Bette Davis before letting the horrors of the house take her over in an unnerving performance. The way she comments of how cold the house has gotten is chilling (no pun intended.) With the same going for Reed, Black and Montgomery, Burnt Offerings showcases a collection of great actors looking believably scared out of their wits.
In the age of Network and Three Days of the Condor, movie fare such as Burnt Offerings certainly must’ve been seen as a bit passe in one of the most bold and experimental eras of cinema ever; a fact surely responsible for its dismal box-office showing. The film did receive a good amount of love from a small handful of film critics who applauded Curtis’s work at a time when such genre films were more or less seen as throwaway.
While the film now enjoys a healthy cult classic status and is even a reported favorite of Stephen King, it’s sad how forgotten Burnt Offerings largely remains, especially in the Curtis canon. While the writer/director/producer’s all-time successes (Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Trilogy of Terror) have cemented his legacy with horror fans, the likes of War and Remembrance and The Winds of War showcased Curtis’s versatility as a storyteller. Burnt Offerings exists in a special place somewhere in the middle; one of the lone feature films he ever made as well as a project with much love for both its characters and the creepy real-world changes they experience.
