Movie 27:Burnt Offerings

Starring: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart, Lee Montgomery, Bette Davis.

Director: Dan Curtis.

It was only a matter of time until I got to something with Karen Black in it.  I feel like that's my entire opening, really.  Actually, I probably don't even need to do the actual blog post: I think the Karen Black element is probably all you really need to know.

I saw Burnt Offerings for the first time fairly recently, actually, and really enjoyed it.  I was excited to pick it up for a song yesterday and just kinda couldn't wait to get to it.  It's just a fun haunted house movie, which is probably some of my favorite kinds of movies.

How does one get the job of sweaty old caretaker?  I think it might be my dream job, other than being the crazy old guy at the beginning of all the Friday the 13th movies who tells the kids that they're all gonna die.  Me in an old wife beater talkin' in ole' crazy slang talkin' and not like that big city fancy talkin'...I probably would have to do actual work, though, huh?  I bet if these stuffy folks got to know him they'd find out he had a masters degree in mechanical engineering or art history or something but, y'know, they're stuffy big city folks.

Burgess Meredith is such a wonderful ham.  He gives a wonderful mad-as-a-hatter performance here. Every line read he has is laced with some sort of evil irony...I don't think anyone would do business with him, really.  But then again, Oliver Reed is kind of a dick, so everybody kinda loses in this scenario. Oliver Reed comes from that long line of movie men when they were stiff-upper-lift, borderline emotionally dead tough guys...usually, they were kinda dicks.  It's like Gregory Peck in The Omen.  Oliver Reed just sort of wanders around, glaring and judging everyone.  Kinda like me.

They don't make actors like Burgess Meredith or Bette Davis anymore.  Davis is a delight here, obviously, as Aunt Elizabeth.  

Karen Black is doing something nice and Oliver Reed just runs through the house bellowing her name irritably.  He's quite the charmer.

The young boy gets unbelievably excited about ding-dongs.  I, too, know how this feels.  I mean, I'd rather it be Hostess Cupcakes, but...sure, I get excited about snack cakes.  All joking aside, it's a subtle moment...the bulb is back before anyone replaced it...spooky...

Karen Black is having a really hard time with the vacuuming. So Oliver Reed shots "Hey, slave!"  Wow.  It's okay, though: Bette Davis gives him the business.  She actually just gave one of the best "Go fuck yourself" laughs I've ever heard.

The Possession stuff comes on quick and is really intense and frightening...Ben nearly drowning his son is a very unsettling scene.  Especially that weird little hiss he does after his son wacks him one with the underwater goggles.  Black, of course, can make staring at photographs terrifying.  Her vacant stares are legendary.

Oh, I forgot about Ben's dreams about the creepy chauffeur.  That's seriously one creepy dude.

There's not a lot of bells and whistles to Burnt Offerings. There's not a lot of metaphor, either.  That's not a criticism, either: sometimes simplicity really is the best option.  There doesn't need to be any deep-seated, subtle commentary on the problems of the "modern" american family in order to be a great movie-it helps, though, seeing as how haunted houses and ghosts usually are metaphors for deeper psychological or personal issues of those encountering them-it can just be normal people being forced to act abnormal by outside influences.  I suppose a freudian argument could be made about Ben having some sort of competitive relationship with his son (their playing in the cemetery was somewhat aggressive and predatory, after all) but I think that might be reading too much into it.  Maybe.

I guess there in some deeper seated stuff, really...they're fairly clear about sexual frustration between Ben and Marian...mostly Ben.  In fact, their romance-turns-to-ugliness scene in the pool and then to the lawn is creepy, emotionally charged stuff.  Oliver Reed just seethes, it's actually a really good performance.  It's interesting to see a character in his position end up going in the direction that he does: ordinarily the traditional trope is that the Dad never really grasps what's happening until it's too late.  Usually, the more "sensitive" wife or child starts to become aware of the danger.  Here, the Dad gets worked on early by the house, starts to lose it, and then pulls himself back and realizes things are wrong.

One of the hardest things to watch in this movie is the deterioration of Aunt Elizabeth.  She goes from so vibrant and capable to doddering and forgetful and is so aware of her slowing down...it's one of my worst fears.   "Flowers for Algernon" is one of my greatest terrors, ever.  If I'm to lose my mind, I'd rather not remember what it was like to have my mind.  It's such a sad, frightening thing to watch.  It's a great performance from Bette Davis.

There's an effortless, quiet intensity to Burnt Offerings.  A lot of it comes from the cast and that wonderful score.  The use of bells, oboes and bassoons, music boxes...it's such a creepy little score. Bette Davis is crushing it in her weird post-stroke state...as she and Ben witness the creepy chauffeur coming into the room...she's just pure terror, but manages to still perform that without full range of emotion (her face is kinda paralyzed, and all she can do is stare and shout).

Oliver Reed does passive aggressive fantastically.  The post funeral scene is so much fun to watch.  He goes from incensed to "You heard your Mother, Davey.  You're messing up her table."  It's so icy.  I keep giving a lot of praise to the other actors but Karen Black is doing a helluva job, too.  She brings total conviction to her performance.  It's actually kind of a great transformative role: From sort of vacant and soft spoken to a force to be reckoned with...I think there's two kinds of hammy performances: there's the silly, tongue-in-cheek hammy and what Karen Black is doing here.

Ben's reaction to the houses' metamorphosis is perfect: Welp, I'm outta here and I'm not stopping for the wife.  If only he had left Davey.  Lay on the horn some more, you little shit.  You're dead weight. Ben's continuous smashing into the log is pretty awesome stuff.

The Deep End of the Pool: clearly Davey's worst enemy. Sometimes I feel like not wearing a helmet is Davey's worst enemy, though.  Despite that, Davey manages to not drown despite being dragged underwater for a particularly long time.  

I feel like as soon as Marian went back into the house, I'd just gun the engine and be out of there.  I mean, we've established how the house gets a hold onto her in particular...so as soon as she's like "Oh, I'll just totally leave a note, k?" I'd just be like "Look, Davey, we'll get you a new Mom" and get the hell out.  

The final scares of the last five or six minutes are fantastic.  The seventies really knew how to get shit done.

Final Thoughts: It's not a complicated film at all, and that really works in it's favor.  It's well performed and well paced and really doesn't screw around.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a scary movie is just a scary movie.  

Final Rating: Four Stars.