I’d like to start off this review by saying that it was a privilege to attend an early bird screening of this film last month with the amazing Jonathan Yunger, writer, producer, and star of The Offering (we both worked on Expendables 4, stay tuned 👀). The Offering takes your typical supernatural horror premise and gives it a unique Hasidic twist that makes for some genuinely frightening imagery, intriguing use of Jewish folklore, and a dank atmosphere with impeccable production design to keep the viewer in suspense. One of the things that makes this stand on its own is the approach to the sin of Jewish intermarriage, familial relations, and the dynamic between the older more traditional generation, and younger more assimilated generation of Jews. Actor Nick Blood does a fine job as the main character of Art, who is making an attempt to rekindle his relationship with his father Saul played by Allan Corduner. The acting all around is a step above most modern horror films, with Emily Wiseman doing a great job as Art’s pregnant wife Claire and Paul Kaye stealing the entire movie as Paul’s funeral home assistant, Heimish. Writer Yunger and director Oliver Park treat these characters as real humans with relatable problems instead of disposable bags of flesh and blood, which was very refreshing to see. The slow build from the first act picks up around the 30 minute mark and never lets up, as things begin to get real creepy at the funeral home. The use of jump scares are effective and rarely inconsequential, with the moody lighting and gorgeous cinematography factoring in to the creepiness. There is a supernatural demon entity and while I won’t go into specifics, the design of the CGI creature was hauntingly well detailed, horrifying to look at, and will certainly give the more squeamish viewers nightmares. The final act is nonstop pulse pounding terror that does everything it can to deliver a head trippy and edge of your seat climax, playing with concepts in Jewish mysticism and making interesting changes to certain elements from the Torah. My main issue is that the story moves so fast and I wish more time was given to explain the Kabbalist rituals to the average viewer who doesn’t know much about Judaism. Despite my gripes with that and some plot points being rushed, The Offering is thoroughly engaging and has some surprisingly unpredictable twists and turns along the way. Overall, while The Offering doesn’t fully reinvent the supernatural horror movie, it breathes exciting new life into the genre by adding a distinct Jewish flavor that is a major step forward for strong proud Jewish characters in modern cinema, a level up on how to execute typical monster movie conventions, and a stepping stone for what is hopefully a fresh start to a brand new Jewish based horror franchise. To my friend and producer Jonathan, Mazel Tov on having your awesome creative vision released and I can’t wait to see our hard work on Expendables 4 pay off later this year.
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