Although Oliver Reed and Karen Black are given top billing in this 1976 theatrical thriller by the director of the 1975 TV-movie TRILOGY OF TERROR, BURNT OFFERINGS' real star is Oakland, California's Dunsmuir House and Gardens, a 37-room mansion that doubles as the abode of the sinister Mrs. Allardyce.
The Rolfs and Aunt Elizabeth rent the house for a summer vacation and despite numerous near-death experiences refuse to leave! Although the film is fairly implausible for most adults, its parts are better than its sum: cinema's most frightening chauffer is brilliantly embodied by character actor Anthony James; a music box's seemingly innocent chime becomes a harbinger of inevitable doom; Robert Cobert's score is among the most frightening I've heard in a film; and the Dunsmuir mansion itself, with its beautiful grounds and foreboding swimming pool, later went on to be featured as the mortuary in PHANTASM, and 007's hideout in A VIEW TO A KILL, to name just a few. Definitely worth a look.
The Rolfs and Aunt Elizabeth rent the house for a summer vacation and despite numerous near-death experiences refuse to leave! Although the film is fairly implausible for most adults, its parts are better than its sum: cinema's most frightening chauffer is brilliantly embodied by character actor Anthony James; a music box's seemingly innocent chime becomes a harbinger of inevitable doom; Robert Cobert's score is among the most frightening I've heard in a film; and the Dunsmuir mansion itself, with its beautiful grounds and foreboding swimming pool, later went on to be featured as the mortuary in PHANTASM, and 007's hideout in A VIEW TO A KILL, to name just a few. Definitely worth a look.