One of the free horror movies you can catch on-demand or perhaps a horror streaming platform is the Oliver Park directed film ‘The Offering’ which made it’s initial debut on September 23rd, 2022.
According to the official synopsis: “The son of a Hasidic funeral director returns home with his pregnant wife in hopes of reconciling with his father. Little do they know that an ancient evil lurking inside a mysterious corpse has sinister plans for their unborn child.”
The film stars Emily Wiseman, Nick Blood, Paul Kaye, Allan Corduner, and Sarah Scheindal.
The film starts off with a bang, laying the foundation for what is to come as Yosille is conducting a ritual by spreading ash within a protective circle. Am elderly and sickly woman Aida, his wife, tells him to stop but Yosille tells her to burn in hell as she is obviously is a demon trying to coerce him to ending the ritual and continuing to feed it.
As Yosille completes the ritual, he brings the demon into his body and kills himself with a ritualistic knife that helps seals the demon in an amulet he is wearing around his neck, trapping it.
Yosille’s body heads to the Jewish funeral home of Saul, who is in charge of it’s care. Saul has been estranged from his son, Art, who is now visiting, along with his pregnant wife, as the two sides hope to reconcile, but Art has an alternative motive.
Art is hoping that his father can mortgage his home to help a failing real estate business, something he has been keeping secret from his wife.
Art has conflict with his father, wife, and his father’s employee, Heimish, none of whom are aware of the demon locked into the amulet. The demon still has powers, but needs to burn the amulet to be freed fully.
The movie drags following the opening scene, slowing down an otherwise promising pace. While it doesn’t completely ruin the movie, the horrible look of the demon – which is a walking demonic goat with a ridiculous looking face more suited for a comedy than a horror – the film does itself no favors with a rather boring run between “scares”.
While it is free on-demand, it may not be worth the 90+ minute run time. A botched film that had all the elements to be so much better. A strong setup. Good story. Character development, all ruined by a funny-faced goat demon.
