The Rolf family is looking to get away for the summer. They found a big secluded mansion in the woods. Ordinarily, this type of housing would be way above their means. However, as luck would have it, the house is owned by two elderly siblings who are willing to rent it at a bargain basement price for just on small catch. The catch is that their elderly mother will be staying in the attic with them. Creepy at first, this idea warms to the Rolf’s as they realize maintenance for the mother will be relatively minor. She keeps to herself with her voluminous, curious collection of old-time photos and only requires three “squares” daily as upkeep. Plus, the house is VERY nice. The Rolf’s accept this stipulation and move into the house. Everything is fine initially. Shit goes south quickly however. Strange goings-on occur, attitudes change, things become violent, souls are possessed, swimming shenanigans turn sour. It seems the house has a mind of its own and it’s an evil mind at that. Will the Rolf’s survive with their asses intact? This is Burnt Offerings.

Burnt Offerings did it for me, despite several shortcomings. It was kinda long and uneventful in some instances. I remember one scene that took like 20 seconds to zoom in on a light bulb that had nothing to do with anything. Mrs. Paynecraft found this type of stuff monotonous and boring. It didn’t bother me too much. For me, the slow haunting pace of the movie created good atmosphere and wasn’t too uncommon for movies from the 70’s (1976). There wasn’t as much filler back then. Another shortcoming was the ignorance of the tenants to just leave the house. This is common (and sadly required) in most haunted house stories. Just get the fuck out of the house!

Whatever slowness or inactivity that occurred in the movie however was redeemed in the final 10 minutes. Holy shit, talk about plot resolution! Classic ending, albeit slightly frustrating. Overall for this movie, we are treated to one top shelf kill, brief Karen Black poolside partial nudity, and a killer ending. Not bad.

To summarize, I recommend this movie to fans of ghost stories/ haunted houses or fans of the 70’s era. I fit both of those criteria. It wasn’t real scary however. It was more poltergeistic than demonic. I would’ve had the crap scared out of me though if I watched it back when I was a kid, especially the crazy hearse driver. To be honest, I’m not sure how I missed it as a kid. Anyhoo, I give this 6.5 out of 10 possible inspirations for King Diamond’s house of Amon off the classic Them.