The 1976 creepy house tale of Burnt Offerings didn’t engage me as much as the novel did. It has a fairly solid cast, but honestly, it didn’t quite have the eeriness that seemed to permeate the book. The film features Oliver Reed, Karen Black, Bette Davis, Burgess Meredith and the always-menacing Anthony James.

The Rolf family, Ben (Reed), Marian (Karen Black), their son David (Lee Montgomery) and Aunt Elizabeth (Davis) have scored an amazing home for a summer vacation. Sprawling and welcoming the house needs some attention, one of the prerequisites for such a low rental fee, as well as leaving meals out for the reclusive and unseen Mother Allardyce, while Arnold (Meredith) and Roz (Eileen Heckart) have some time away.

No sooner have the Rolf’s taken up their summer residence when things (the house) begin to affect them. Ben is seeing visions of the chauffer driver (James) from his mother’s funeral and has an incredibly violent episode with David, straining their relationship, Elizabeth begins to fall ill, and Marian seems to be consumed with the appearance of the house, which seems to be flourishing around them.

There are a couple of nice sequences, the best being the house restoring itself with decayed siding falling away to reveal fresh clean siding underneath, but for the most part, the film isn’t really that frightening. Most of it seems to suggest something unspeakable and supernatural happening but we don’t get a lot of glimpses of what that could possibly be, and even the climax when it hits will no doubt leave some people going “what?!”

Reed brings a nice gravitas to his role, even if he seems moments away from literally chewing scenery, and Meredith is a delight any time he is on screen. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Karen Black, but I do like her performance in this one as she slowly succumbs to the pull of the house and finds her fate.

I like the final moments at the end with the photographs, and I like that no matter what anyone’s age is, no one is going to be safe in this house, and despite that, it still takes all of the characters far too long to actually think about leaving.

Of course, you could argue not a lot really happens to drive them out, a couple of isolated incidents, but Ben cottons to the fact that something is wrong before everyone else and he still can’t get anyone to leave.

Not big on effects, or even mood, there’s not a lot here to get under your skin. In fact, if it were shot today, I think it would be a lot moodier, troubling, and maybe even frightening. For all of that, the ending does rock, I just wish the rest of it had been able to really hold my attention and pull me in.

Not one of my faves despite its possible commentaries on materialism and the rich feeding off the poor. It could have been done better.