Review:
During the 2022 Christmas season, one of the Hallmark holiday movies I watched was “The Holiday Sitter.” The hook for this particular movie was that, instead of a traditionally attractive actress from a ‘90s TV show playing a workaholic woman who unexpectedly finds love while saving a small town business, the film starred Jonathan Bennett as a workaholic gay man who unexpectedly finds love after reluctantly returning to his hometown where he’s left alone to care for his niece. Other than that sexuality switch, it was a standard Hallmark holiday story of meet cutes, quirky characters unhealthily obsessed with Christmas, momentary misunderstandings, and ultimately learning to sacrifice self-induced stress for what really matters most: romance and/or family.
After I got a fair way through “The Holiday Sitter,” I noticed that Bennett’s character’s homosexuality hadn’t received a mention. It didn’t need to be since it was already understood. It’s just that queer characters in mainstream movies often have a seemingly mandatory moment where their orientation gets acknowledged, either directly or as a questionable comedy bit that plays on a stereotype. And so the thought occurred to me that it was refreshing to not see that status openly addressed at all for a change. Finally, it seemed like an ordinary movie was saying, yeah, so what if he’s gay, that doesn’t mean we have to discuss it or do this any differently than we would if Jonathan Bennett were Danica McKellar or Lacey Chabert.
No sooner was I congratulating “The Holiday Sitter” for being progressive without blaring trumpets about it, Bennett’s character then did make a mention about how difficult his love life had been due to not being straight. This bummed me out a little because I had been appreciating seeing gay characters normalized by not having their sexuality specifically spelled out in dialogue, only for that predictable thing to end up occurring anyway.
How does this have anything to do with “The Offering,” an atmospheric horror film in an Orthodox Jewish frame? Well, whenever I cover horror movies with stories rooted in Judaism, I’ve noticed that I may call them out for not leaning hard enough into their cultural uniqueness, citing them as being too similar to Christianity-based terrors, just with rabbis swapped for priests and dibbuks swapped for demons. But in light of how I had an inverse take on “The Holiday Sitter,” which was initially doing just fine without overplaying its hook, it occurs to me I could be a hypocrite regarding imaginary standards for representation.
After all, if the way to put gay leads on par with straight leads in holiday rom-coms is to not make sexuality a centerpiece until all audiences come to see them the same way, then maybe the way for Jewish horror to be even with every other paranormal possession movie is to forgive them for following formulas, and to let them be basic even when that means being redundant. If following in familiar footsteps is how “The Offering” loses the “Jewish” to simply be regarded as “horror,” then maybe it doesn’t matter that its plot echoes “The Corpse of Anna Fritz” (review here), “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” (review here), or any number of other efforts where occult rituals invoke demons, and protagonists piece together a second ritual to banish an evil entity before it’s too late.
That’s what Arthur has to do after bringing his pregnant wife to Brooklyn to make amends with his estranged father Saul, who runs a family funeral home. Saul’s basement morgue just took in a man who stabbed himself in a suicide. What they don’t yet know, but will find out later when Arthur recovers a conveniently located videotape containing all the missing exposition he still needs, is that this man died as part of a pact intended to bind a shape-shifting spirit that murders children. With the corpse’s presence unlocking a plague of paranormal activity that now haunts the house, Arthur becomes embroiled in a supernatural mystery that threatens to tear his family even further apart than they already were.
“The Offering” is mostly a mood movie. Lights flicker. Doors swing. The camera creeps down dimly lit hallways toward a suspicious shadow, or cuts to show feet creaking on floorboards while someone hides under a bed. On occasion, slow-burn suspense flares into an audiovisual cue such as suddenly waking from a nightmarish vision or editing into a ghost appearing out of nowhere.
Typical though its subdued spooks may be, “The Offering” serves them up with elegantly unsettling flair. Every frame of the film comes packed with eye-catching detail, from intricate wallpaper patterns to interior architecture adorned with delicate engravings. There’s a lot to look at, and the dread draws your attention with a complementary color palette of cold blues and warm brown tones, along with a fluid camera to keep eeriness constant using subtly mesmerizing movements. Of all the movies whose buckets scoop water from the same well of exorcism/possession tropes, few are as finely crafted as “The Offering.”
Can the terrific textures of the movie’s cinematography, staging, and production design meet the criteria to earn a recommendation for viewers who enjoy engaging with patiently plotted suspense? I think so. Excellent acting adds dimension to routine family drama. Creature design and fiery FX turn up the heat on scares with otherwise low temperatures. Does “The Offering” need more to bump it over the line of being a casual haunter whose most distinguishing mark comes from its Orthodox Jewish overlay? Maybe its religious aspect shouldn’t come into consideration. As I seem to be coming around to consider, maybe a polished presentation is merit enough for an average story to earn an above average grade.
Review Score: 70