Burnt Offerings and Q&A with guest William F. Nolan

Thursday, November 14
9:00 pm
Burnt Offerings

1976 / USA, Italy / 116 min / 35 mm film Director: Dan Curtis
Cast: Oliver Reed, Karen Black, Bette Davis Print Source: Harry Guerro

Q&A w/ William F. Nolan, moderated by Jason V. Brock

When the mild mannered Rolf family moved into a grand old mansion, they should have been suspicious of the abnormally low rent, let alone the strange behavior of the bizarre landlord and his sister. The freakish provision that they leave meals outside of the attic door each night for a mysterious, unseen aunt would send most people running. It doesn’t take long for the weirdness to set in, beginning with bad dreams and then becoming so much more. The swimming pool tries to drown the kids on more than one occasion. The upstairs tenant, who may or may not exist, preoccupies the mom to an alarming degree. The dad begins to have flashbacks to another era, when something bad happened in the house. And then there’s the psychic grandma, who gets really sick. As the once happy family crumbles before our eyes, the house begins to rejuvenate itself, almost as if feeding on the grief of its ill fated occupants. A high point for mainstream horror movies in the 1970s, Burnt Offerings features a stellar cast that includes Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, and former scream queen Karen Black.