BURNT OFFERINGS(1976)

[RCMerchant]

I just watched this on TV this morning.It's even better than I remembered!Oliver Reed,Karan Black,Bette Davis,and some kid move intoand old house to take care of an old lady (whom we never see.) Of course the joint is an evil,haunted house.You would think,by watching 70's movies,that all southern mansions are evil.Karen starts dressing like an old lady with clothes she finds in an attic room. Reed acts like William Shatner on acid, and only Bette Davis knows from the get-go that the place is a one way ticket to the Twilight Zone.A creepy guy (who looks like Jim Carrey in pancake makeup) drives a hearse and wheels a coffin into Bette's room,which she
soon fills. When Reed and his son try to ecscape in their station wagon, a tree attacks them(!) and prevents it.After the boy almost drowns in a pool,Karen comes to her senses and they decide to get out(fineally!).Of course,the house has other plans.
The 70's was a good time for haunted house movies (LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE,the CHANGLING,DON'T GO IN the HOUSE,ie), and this is one of my favorites,if for no other reason for the great overacting of Oliver Reed,and the extremely downbeat ending.  
Dan Curtis,(HOUSE of DARK SHADOWS, NIGHT STALKER) directs.It's too bad he kinda petered out in the horror genre,doing boring mini-series work for TV. Anyway...if you get a chance to see this-DOIT! (Odd footnote-this film popped up in the JESSICA post,and this morning,it popped up on cable TV,like it KNEW we were discussing it...OOOO-EEEEIIIII-OOOO!)

[Scott]

Dan Curtis has done some great stuff. Just read his credits and didn't realise he died this past March of 2006.

Dan Curtis

The films that I saw were:

Dracula
Dark Shadows
Night Stalker
The Night Strangler
Scream of the Wolf

BURNT OFFERINGS is now on my list of films to view and Dan Curtis films FRANKENSTEIN and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE sound interesting. Anyone see these two films?

[akiratubo]

Burnt Offerings wasn't all that great in my book but it was definitely worth watching once.  It finally got on my nerves that whomever was making the movie thought we hadn't figured out what the "secret" was about five minutes in.

Favorite moment: Oliver Reed sees a hearse driving around and gets so scared he literally SWEATS BLOOD.