Offerings

Plot synopsis:
John Radley's childhood was not a particularly nice one; his father's abandonment, an abusive mother, bullied by neighborhood kids and his pets had a tendency to die on him. Only his first crush Gretchen ever treated him with kindness.
But this all ended when he was goaded into performing a balancing act, whereupon a malicious prank backfired and Johnny ended up plunging down a dried up well to greet a rock floor. Since then he has been in Oakhurst State mental hospital for over a decade. Left semi-comatose, he has only his now-distorted memories and nightmarish flashbacks for comfort.
One night the continual flood of harsh images is too much for his psyche, and he comes to find himself badly disfigured and severely brain damaged, so much so that he can no longer feel any pain. Who will care for, let alone love, Johnny now? No one, he knows (in what's left of his damaged mind). He suffers a complete psychotic break, and after venting his fury on a nurse, turns his rage towards those responsible for his condition.
Bursting out of his temporary accommodation, he storms off into the night, dead set on disposing of his old childhood tormentors, whose body parts he intends to offer up to the only person in his life who ever gave a damn about him--a certain girl by the name of Gretchen.

Tags: cult, revenge, murder

Review:
It is dialogue like this which make "Offerings," an otherwise blatant "Halloween" rip-off, a worthy entry into the slasher genre.
The film is such a blatant "Halloween" rip-off, from everything to the music, to the plot elements, and even some scenes, it is surprising it ever got green-lighted in the first place.
And then how the fat, dumpy sheriff shows up with lines like "What's all this I hear about an ear?" and "So now you found a nose?" or even "Let's take this pizza in and have the meat evaluated!"  We even have the dedicated doctor who tries to put a stop to his patients murder spree, but unfortunately fails.
Offerings is of course a very blatant ripoff of the core idea of John Carpenter's classic Halloween, almost scene by scene at times.
The guy who played the Sheriff also deserves an honorable mention.Offerings is a pretty fun slasher movie to watch just for a good laugh.
When you first watch Offerings, you notice that it relates to the Halloween film...right down to the story line and even the music.
Even though this film practically ripped off the formula from Halloween (metal case escapes, goes to his hometown, seeks revenge), all-in-all, Offerings is a fun, yet cheesy film filled with cheesy killings.--If you have friends over while watching this film, make sure your not eating pizza or at least give a quick glance at the toppings.--Like many slasher films, this one has only one cop dedicated to the case, and he is so nerdy and dumbfounded, it makes it all the more hilarious.
Lines like "What's all this I hear about an ear?" adds to his gumpy character.--Only thing that was annoying about the film was that the two lead girls always stayed in the house even though body parts were showing up around the house for a few days.
After spending years in a coma, he awakens, escapes and heads home for revenge, leaving body part "offerings" from his victims to the one girl who was his childhood friend (Loretta Leigh Bowman).Entertainment value is not hard to find in a cheap, stupid regional concoction like this.
Or laugh at the brain dead cops on the case, who might remind you of Barney Fife on an especially bad day and seem to have nothing better to do than chew out little boys for hanging out in condemned buildings looking at spank magazines.
Personally I don't care that it rips off Halloween, if anything I see it more as a tribute.The concept is good - a mute young boy is pushed into a well by local bullies, kills his abusive mom when he gets out, and ends up in mental hospital (he must have put a lot of weight on while in hospital, I might add).
Ever get the feeling that winning his friendship wasn't worth the effort??This is a standard slasher flick with the usual assortment of dumb teenagers who just wanna make out, an overweight sheriff who becomes slowly more exasperated about what is happening in his formerly peaceful town and the remorseless killer who has just one line of dialogue at the end.
When I first saw OFFERINGS three years ago I absolutely despised it for being a complete rip-off of one of my favorite horror movies Halloween.
The basic story of a little boy returning home after a stay in a mental hospital and terrorizing young women is Halloween to a T.
The music is so similar to John Carpenter's seminal classic that one wonders how the filmmakers of Offerings weren't sued.There isn't really a scary or suspenseful bone in Offerings' body, but there's tons of downhome charm, quirky performances, and entertaining set pieces to keep it from being an unwatchable rip off.
All the girls seem to have some dazed expression on their face for most of the film and a few of them speak in a strange southern meets valley girl accent that's a real hoot.A few of the murder scenes are fairly well staged and done with a bit of panache as well.This one won't reinvent the wheel, but it's a fun time killer..
"Offerings" by Christopher Reynolds tells the story of mute serial killer John Radley who after killing nurse and escaping from mental asylum stalk and kill all those that tormented him when he was a kid.His bloody rampage is obviously Michael Myers influenced.John is no ordinary killer for example he killed and ate his own sadistic mother.He has only one friend from childhood:blonde girl named Gretchen."Offerings" is a blatant and unapologetic "Halloween" rip-off.Even its musical score clearly reminds John Carpenter's famous music.Black humor sprinkled death scenes are quite inventive but mostly goreless.Still fans of cheesy slasher movies will enjoy this low-budget horror.6 body parts out of 10..
There was also a few predictable scenes of when someone was going to die.I won't be in denial, but I admit I liked this movie a little bit.
(*1/2 out of *****) The general plot, the piano music score, and some of the scenes from this movie copy the original `Halloween' so closely that John Carpenter could probably sue (not that it would be worth his time or money -- this movie looks like it was probably made for the price of a push lawn mower.)  Filmed in Oklahoma (and most of the actors have the accents to prove it), this concerns a young mute boy named Johnny who is accidentally pushed down a well by some kids, and, after spending ten years vegetating in a mental institution, he suddenly decides it's time to bust out and come home for (yawn) bloody revenge.
Some mildly violent scenes involve a syringe stuck in a forehead, another head crushed in a vice until it pops, and the unintentional group cannibalism of a pizza delivery man (even after the two female leads find out that the strange-tasting `sausage' they were eating was actually human flesh, they don't seem to react too strongly over it and, in fact, even make jokes about it the next morning!)  The disfigured killer leaves body parts of his victims (a finger, an ear, a nose) for the girl (Loretta Leigh Bowman) who was his only friend as a child.
Even after finding the bloody ear on the front porch and then the bloody nose folded up in the morning newspaper, the girls don't consider leaving the house (ironically, after they watch a generic slasher movie on television, one of them comments, `The people in these horror movies always act so stupidly!') And, rather than suggesting they stay somewhere else, the dimwit local sheriff (G.
Michael Smith) places an even dimmer-witted deputy outside of the house to watch them (anyone who watches these kinds of movies knows that that's like painting a bright, red target on the guy's chest.)  My favorite part was in the beginning, when one of the doctors who comes in to check on Johnny (who's still a comatose vegetable) sticks his gum on Johnny's nose until he's done and then nonchalantly puts it back in his mouth when he leaves.Lowlight:  I mentioned the pizza man, right?.
Boring, slow paced, ineptly acted teen driven slasher film rips off every movie in sight, especially Halloween, Friday the 13th.
What little story there is, is about a young man escaping from an asylum to seek revenge on a group of kids who caused him to be disfigured and then offers the spare body parts to an old friend.
As a youngster, mute animal-torturing weirdo John Radley (Josh Coffman) is bullied by most of the other neighbourhood children, his only friend being pretty blonde girl Gretchen (Kerri Bechthold).
After the local bullies cause him to fall down a well, disfiguring his face and damaging his brain in the process, John kills and eats his mother, resulting in his incarceration in a high security hospital, where he is heavily sedated.
Buswell) escapes, intent on wreaking revenge on those responsible for his accident, making grisly offerings to the girl who was once his friend.Over a decade after the success of seminal slasher Halloween, most aspiring horror film-makers had stopped looking to the seasonal classic for inspiration.
Not so with director Christopher Reynolds: for Offerings (1989), his first movie, Reynolds does very little to disguise the fact that he is blatantly ripping off John Carpenter's '78 box office smash, the story, the characters, the events, and the music closely mimicking Halloween.
The only (big) difference is that, where Carpenter's film is a flawless exercise in nerve-jangling terror, Offerings is a total mess, with uninspired direction, lousy performances and terrible dialogue.Reynold's doesn't even do the decent thing and try to compensate for the lack of originality with an excess of gore or gratuitous nudity, his kill scenes being frustratingly free of splatter, and the actresses remaining full clothed throughout (a shame, because Loretta Leigh Bowman as the grown up Gretchen is a hottie, and her friend Kacy, played by Elizabeth Greene, ain't too bad either!).
Michael Smith), who struggles to squeeze behind the wheel of his police car, and the fact that the girls and their boyfriends unwittingly eat a pizza topped with human flesh instead of sausage (although quite how the killer managed to prepare such a dish is never adequately explained)..
Even though it came out over a decade later, "Offerings" is a generic, but decent little low-rent, shot-on-video slasher offering which resembles the influential John Carpenter slasher "Halloween".
I expected much worse and came away rather enjoying (even if it was for a good laugh), but nonetheless it was efficiently executed for such a trim, low-scale production.A young, slightly disturb boy John Radley accidentally falls down a well, which was caused by some bullying.
Offerings (1989)* 1/2 (out of 4) Ten years after being pushed down a well and cracking his skull open, a psychopath escapes from a mental asylum and returns home where he plans on killing those who pushed him.
There's simply no way around that but at the same time it's a must-see simply because of how much of a rip-off of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN it is.
You might be saying to yourself what's the big deal because countless movies ripped HALLOWEEN.
Another highlight is a scene where the killer (off screen) kills the pizza guy and later delivers the pizzas to the house where our lead and her friends are.
No one is going to find it to be a "good" movie but the thing is so incredibly weird that you can't help but be entertained by it..
The grown Johnny escapes from a mental institution (he was there for killing and eating his mother, apparently a result of the brain damage he suffered from the fall) and heads back to his hometown to get revenge on the kids who tormented him.
Seriously, this rips off so much of John Carpenter's classic that I was surprised it didn't say "a Rob Zombie film" in the opening credits.
Everything from Carpenter's film is in here from the heavy breathing guy standing behind trees to the boarded up killer's house (where someone apparently still does the lawn).
Offerings is your basic slasher horror film.
To make a long story short, John ends up murdering his mother, being placed under sedatives in a pysch hospital for 10 years, and breaks out after impaling a few people with needles.
He severs off their body parts and leaves them on the now teenage Gretchen's doorstep as his 'offerings'.
One thing you're bound to notice in the first 20 minutes is that this is almost a scene-by-scene rip-off of John Carpenters 'Halloween' (Scott, I'm looking your way).
We have a few Carpenter-isms to point out: An almost EXACT copy of his synthesized music, a pudgy cop who would rather bust a kid for porn then find out why body parts keep showing up randomly, horny teenage girls who would rather wear belly tops then watch the news, a psychology professor who thinks he can catch the killer and of course several ominous camera angles that either show us whatever the killer sees or shows us his eyes.
Movie viewers who like to watch low-budget horrors with a talentless unknown cast, this is right up your alley.The only thing I liked about this film, was that redheaded kid the fat sheriff caught looking at girly-mags, who teased the obese officer saying his name was Ben Dover, which the sheriff never got.The plot centers around a shy child, with a terrible home life(his mother happily incorporates cigarette ashes in his breakfast) who is tormented and later pushed down a well by kids his age.
Years pass and our shy kid is now a disfigured freakshow determined to get revenge.The title Offerings was used because of the killer leaving body parts on his only friends doorstep, much in the way a cat does when devouring a mouse..
A boy gets pushed down a well at the start by his friends then returns about 10 years later to kill them.
It has some quite funny death scenes and a fat redneck sheriff as the hero who provides comic relief but don't watch it unless you like the Halloween films.
Okay, what movie's plot goes like this:A young man, after killing his mother, breaks out of an insane asylum ten years later, and starts killing teenagers as a three noted theme song is played on a piano?If you guessed any of the Halloween movies, I'm sorry, you're wrong.NO, this is Offerings.
Horrendous acting, heavy on the cheese, and weak story.Some guy is pushed down a well as a kid while playing with this group of bad kids and his friend Gretchen.
Ten years later, he decides to escape the mental hospital (the fall gave him brain damage [!]) and kill those who did this to him.
Her friends are all so typical, and soon move to a night of pizza and horror movies, with Gretchen, her boyfriend, and Casy and her boyfriend.
As I said in the summary, the film is an obvious rip-off of John Carpenter's classic slasher movie, Halloween (1978).
It's not good at all as a horror, but if you watch it for the bad acting and (original) plot-twists (for example, the killer takes the time to lace the unknowing teenagers' pizza with human flesh.)  I laughed all the way through this movie.
I had a hard time watching it and i saw to much of other horror movies in this, like some of the killing and other small things, The acting was not so great and plot grew very poor as the movie went on.
In all i would say 2 stars out of 10 because of bad acting and a weak ending to the movie..
Although it does have one really great scene I liked:Dumb Sheriff goes into the killers old home thinking he might be there.
Emerging with a head that looks like a canned ham, an odd immunity to electrified fences, and a vengeance for those who bullied him it's not long before John Radley is eating duck guts, putting heads in vices, and delivering pizza with mystery sausage on it to his old friend from the neighborhood.
Sample: "This is Gretchen Peters and I called like a looong time ago for some pizza." Oh my goodness.
There's also a great sheriff who looks more than a little like Tool Times Al Borland.
Sheriff Borland (I forget his name) likes busting little kids reading porn in abandoned houses and asking for leftovers at crime scenes.
Picture Halloween and The Slumber Party Massacre put together with glue on a low-budget and you have Offerings.
This movie is the ultimate Halloween rip-off.
He goes crazy and escapes from an asylum 10 years later to kill them and leave their body parts on the doorstep of the girl who was nice to him as a kid.
The movie is basic slasher stuff and is kinda fun to watch if you're in a good mood and you like slasher films.
It's fun to see how far this movie will go to be like the original Halloween because it's constantly obvious.
I doubt that someone becomes a serial killer just because he fell on his head as a child as well as it is pretty cheesy how the movie ends.
Sure, you could have made it a better movie by providing a more emotional or detailed background story, you could have depicted the character in a more realistic and less plump way.But if you are just looking for an entertaining one-time watch this will serve you well.
OFFERINGS is a cheap and low budget rip-off of HALLOWEEN, featuring a tinkly score that openly rips off John Carpenter's music throughout and a plot which is very similar.
The acting is as typically poor as you'd expect from a B-movie, with lots of stilted dialogue from the guys and endless screaming from the girls.
Although released more than a full decade and approximately five hundred other low-keyed slashers later, "Offerings" is a blatant and shameless rip-off of the 1978 genre classic "Halloween".
The bullies from ten years ago are getting slaughtered one by one, and Johnny leaves their amputated body parts as romantic little gifts on Gretchen's doorstep.
Yet, you wonder if the killer gets they already have revenge knowing they have more brain cells than anyone else in town.The acting is bad and the storyline seemed to have been invented by someone sort of watching a slasher film one night before a deadline of some sort.AVOID-I can't say this enough.That said-it does have material to make fun of for about 15 minutes.(it just gets to pathetic to continue).
(Includes spoilers) OFFERINGS is the biggest and best HALLOWEEN rip-off to date.
All in all, this is one pretty good movie that is enjoyable and fun!
**1/2out of****Watch this one after HALLOWEEN and you can tell Reynolds even ripped-off Carpenter's music score.