Burnt Offerings
The Rolf family, Marian, Ben, Davey, and Aunt Elizabeth, have rented an old, worn-down mansion from the creepy Allardyces. They tell the Rolfs that the only condition to renting the house is that they must care for the elderly Mrs. Allardyce, who is a recluse that collects photographs.
Marian quickly warms up to the house and decides to take care of Mrs. Allardyce herself. However, things start going wrong almost immediately. Ben almost kills Davey while roughhousing in the pool, Marian's temper starts flaring at the mere criticism of the house or Mrs. Allardyce, and Ben starts having nightmares about the chauffeur from his mother's funeral. After Davey almost dies from carbon monoxide poisoning, Elizabeth starts getting suspicious about the house's nature, but dies from mysterious circumstances the next night.
Ben soon finds out that the house has the ability to regenerate whenever someone dies or has an injury. Realizing that the house is eventually going to kill them all, Ben tries to take Davey and flee, but the house, and Marian, won't let them get away so easily.
Originally a novel by Robert Marasco, Burnt Offerings was adapted into a movie in 1976 starring Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, and Bette Davis.
- Dead All Along: Mrs. Allardyce.
- Downer Ending
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The house itself will use any way to attempt to kill its victims.
- Extremely Dusty Home: The inside of the house is extremely dirty and neglected when the Rolfs get there, despite having four people living there previously.
- Haunted Hero: After moving into the house, Ben starts having nightmares about his mother's funeral and starts seeing the car and chauffeur from the funeral in both the driveway and in the house itself.
- Haunted House
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel
- Hope Spot: Marian regains her sanity and agrees to move out of the house. But, at the last minute, she's drawn back in the house ends up getting completely possessed by Mrs. Allardyce.
- Mummies At the Dinner Table: The Allardyces' keep their mother's spirit around so that she can posses the next potential victim, turning them literally into Mrs. Allardyce.
- Never Trust a Title: There are no offerings in the film, burnt or otherwise.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Despite their efforts, Ben and Davey are killed before they can escape the house. Not to mention the Allardyces wanted the deaths to occur just so they'd have a nice house again.
- Slasher Smile: The chauffeur.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Rolfs probably would have survived if Marian hadn't decided to not go back in the house at the last minute.