Offerings

88 Films continue their somewhat dubiously entitled 'Slasher Classics' range with this obscurity from 1988 (as it's dated at the foot of the end titles), spine numbered 36 for the disc series - apparently the film itself was released in 1989, although it could have ended up direct to videotape.  The tale goes as follows: an outcast child is knocked down a well by his friends (who needs them like these, eh?), only to spend the next decade in an institution due to his catatonic state.  Then one day he perks up, kills the nurse, and escapes.  Making his way back to the hometown he proceeds to also bump off each of the teenagers who were once responsible for bringing his childhood to such an abrupt end.

As it tends to be noted by reviewers, Offerings borrows liberally from Halloween, which is far superior it goes without saying.  Having said that, whilst suspense it notably lacking, this later effort directed by Christopher Reynolds does contain sequences that are likely to evoke amusement in the viewer - the way characters appear only to be bumped off minutes later, a bizarre segment where the teens find an ear on their doorstep, etc.  Naturally there are a handful of killings to behold, one of which makes me wince even though it shows very little gore-wise (this scene, where a guy gets his head jammed in a vice, is also quite funny because he actually thinks for some time it's one of his friends playing a joke on him...).  As the film reaches its climax it gets really cheeky with the Halloween inspiration: not only does the killer become a virtually unstoppable machine, à la Michael, but so too does the music increasingly ape John Carpenter's iconic score; a few notes are changed or dropped, possibly just enough to avoid the makers being sued.  It should be said also that the 'final girl', who inadvertently causes all the trouble back in the childhood days simply by befriending the boy who's to become a killer, is very appealing, although the actress herself (Loretta Leigh Bowman) did not remain in the business.

Previously issued on Blu-ray in the US by Dark Force, 88 bring an identical transfer to the UK shores.  It's touted as a new 2K scan of the original negative, but even though it was shot on 16mm I'm struggling a little with the soft nature of the image: either a) this transfer is not taken from the OCN (though I wouldn't blame 88 for that, they are simply reiterating what they've been told), b) it was taken from the OCN but has had noise reduction applied, or c) I've no idea what I'm talking about.  The colours also look a little pasty, the image lacking dynamism generally.  Personally I would say even 16mm should/can look quite a bit better than this (having seen what has been done with other horror pictures shot on this medium - in fact, a great example of this is Vinegar Syndrome's disc of The Dead Come Home, which I viewed a couple of days later).  The other thing that I would possibly raise issue with is the ratio: it's at about 1.78:1 on both Blu-rays, but the compositions often appear to be a little cramped and I'm guessing that an open-matte transfer would have presented the film better (I don't have the previous DVD's, which I believe were 1.33:1, to see how they stood up).  As I say though, it may be me not knowing what I'm talking about.  Despite my personal reservations, the picture quality could be said to be reasonable for such an obscure slasher movie that could easily have been left to disappear forever.

The disc offers up the same trailer that came with the Dark Force package, but 88 improve on the US edition in a couple of areas, notably the inclusion of an entertaining audio commentary from the Hysteria Continues guys - I quite enjoy listening to these and particularly here the banter enhanced my enjoyment of the film itself.  There's also a reversible cover (essentially eschewing the 18 certificate logo from front and spine, the Slasher Classics banner, plus the photos on the rear).  Therefore the 88 Films Blu-ray is technically the best available version of this moderately enjoyable but not quite classic little movie that is rammed full of slasher staples.