I knew when I sat down to watch this, that I wasn't in for a masterpiece.

That being said, I was still left a bit disappointed with how reliant on (predictable) jump scares and the classic "eery soundtrack" this movie was.

At times it felt like a knock off of The Conjuring movies, with judaic lore sprinkled in to give it a semblance of originality.

If the characters had been more developed and they had been less indulgence on generic tropes, it might have been a movie worth rewatching.

All that being said, it wasn't a bad movie either. The special effects are well done, and the set design is above average. I also enjoyed the attention to detail in some scenes.

If you like possession films I think you'll enjoy this one!

As it stands it's an okay movie to watch at home in the couch with a large bowl of popcorn, and maybe some hot sauce to bring the spice this piece is lacking.

The Offering is a new horror movie from Oliver Park, the director of A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio.

In the film, Art (Nick Blood) and his pregnant wife Claire (Emily Wiseman) go to visit his Orthodox Jewish father Saul (Allan Corduner) after fifteen years. Saul lives above a morgue where a new corpse is just brought in. This is corpse possessed by the demon Abyzou, who mainly drools children and babies.

Claire and her baby are in danger of being possessed by this demon. If Art and his father have worked through their differences together, they have a better chance of protecting Claire and her baby.

Director Oliver Park is more known in the movie world as an actor, but he does everything besides acting to do more in the movie world like directing. Unfortunately, for his second film, he chose to collaborate with aspiring writers. Unfortunately, this is against the lesser quality and lack of originality of the story in the lost film. This film is quickly reminiscent of a lesser mix between the films The Autopsy of Jane Doe from 2016 and The Possession from 2012. Both films are themselves energetic, creative and contain better acting.

The horror elements in The Offering remain on the simple side and jump scares are often used. Most then lead to moments when the sound slowly decreases and becomes difficult to play again at the end. After the umpteenth time, this becomes more irritating because of the loud noises than it is really scary. Furthermore, the jump scares are also on the predictable side at a time, so you don't really get scared anymore. The visual effects aren't always spread out either. They sometimes work in dark scenes where you cannot immediately see that you are watching something in CGI, but in overexposed scenes this is clearly noticeable. For example, the fire in the film is clearly placed in the film with CGI.

Also, thanks to the lesser script, the film's actors don't get much detail to work with. The characters begin the familiar horror clichés and often make illogical, stupid decisions. Thus, they only cause additional unnecessary problems in the film. Because of this lesser disc work, as a viewer you don't really care about the characters and you almost hope that after the biggest cliché Abyzou just catches them.

I thought this would be a cool mix of The Autopsy of Jane Doe and The Vigil, but this movie completely missed the marked. This wasn't even half as good as either of those films.

Let's start with the pros:

Good lead actors.

Some parts of the soundtrack were creepy and unnerving.

Now the cons:

Every cliche scare you could think of, from someone getting dragged off somewhere, to something nonterrifying suddenly appearing with a loud sound effect is in attendance.

This film seemed to have little driving force, no character development or any plot whatsoever. If you asked me what the plot was I couldn't tell you without effort.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

You would think that the plot is going to revolve around the main character's relationship with his father, who is easily the most likeable character in the film. That is quickly thrown out the window.

The plot itself seems to jump out the window as well about half way through.

I can't even tell you the main characters name and I just finished watching this film not even twenty minutes ago. There was nothing likeable or noteworthy about him.

The demon is shown about half way through the film and you never stop seeing it once you do. The monster is 2007 CGI from Beowulf and it lost all impact after the first time it was seen.

This film wasn't remotely scary. The ending was clear about half way through, and what a terrible ending it was. Watch The Autopsy of Jane Doe or The Vigil instead if you want a film that actually knows what makes a movie terrifying or the least bit interesting.

Great work from the cast though. These few stars belong to you.