Halloween playlist #16 - Burnt Offerings (1976)

I think Oliver Reed and Bette Davis are both fantastic, and the set-up for this movie made it seem like it could be great. But sometimes when we fly too close to the sun, we get hit by bird s@#$ and plummet down into the muck below. That is what happened here. And I find that very upsetting.

I have never been a fan of Karen Black and she is as annoying here as ever, handling an - admittedly - relatively tough role as if she's never been in a movie before. Too bad she couldn't use that excuse, or I might have forgiven her lousy acting. But she isn't the only flaw here. There is just nothing creepy or compelling about this movie, and the "twist" at the end is about as obvious as the end of Titanic. There was so much potential here, and it was totally wasted. Ultimately, that's why this rating is so low. If the movie hadn't toyed with my expectations and then failed to deliver, I might not have disliked it so much. But expectations aside, this movie was mediocre at best.

4/10