A Demon Is Unleashed in THE OFFERING

During a visit with his estranged father, a man and his pregnant wife will become the focus of a demonic entity with a thirst for children. With rich mythology and an intriguing setup, The Offering delivers pleasant frights while exploring an engaging family drama.

Arthur (Nick Blood) has had a tense relationship with his father Saul (Allan Corduner), having not spoken much in the past few years after marrying a non-Jewish woman named Claire (Emily Wiseman). Now expecting their first child and with a hidden agenda, Arthur and Claire visit Saul at his Brooklyn home, which doubles as a funeral home.

Soon after their arrival, the body of a well-known man in the Hasidic community is brought in. Having recently become a recluse after the death of his wife, it appears he died by suicide, with a strange encrypted knife as the weapon.

While digging deeper into this eerie death, Arthur and his family will discover something more perilous and supernatural is at play. Something that has them dealing with frightening visions playing on their sense of reality.

In Oliver Park‘s feature directorial debut, The Offering provides popcorn thrills with tense storytelling in a menacing setting. While it does some things as previous possession films have done, its characters and dynamics carve out its place — especially with some of the Jewish customs and superstitions not often prevalent in mainstream horror.

It’s somewhat of a slow burn in the beginning but amps things up at the right moments, even giving great glimpses of a rather intimidating creature. While there are a few okay-ish jump scares, the film is at its best when it’s more subtle with the haunts.

I also felt that it got tedious with its explanations of the mythologies. There are moments where dialog could have been more polished and given to something else. For example, the family-son dynamic would have been more useful, as Corduner gives a warm performance as a dad regretful of his choices which I would have liked more of.

And while The Offering certainly had room to play more heavily into the psychological aspect of everything, it nails it in the third act ending with a nicely executed and ominous finale.