Famous for his work in Asian Horror/Thrillers such as 2005’s The Maid and 2008’s Rule Number One, Singaporean Writer/Director Kelvin Tong makes a triumphant return with one of his most intricate Horror films to date, entitled The Offering. Also known as The Faith of Anna Waters, the film stars Matthew Settle (The Celestine Prophecy 2006, Gossip Girl 2007) as Sam, Elizabeth Rice (From Within 2008, Forgetting the Girl 2012) as Jamie, Rayann Condy (Dream of Emerald Hill 2015) as Anna, and Adina Herz (debut) as Katie. Released in the USA as of May 6, 2016 via Momentum Pictures, The Offering has been making waves among Supernatural movie lovers.
- Still from The Offering
When successful and career-married Jamie receives news about her sister Anna’s mysterious suicide, she travels to Singapore to say her last goodbyes and to take care of her newly orphaned – although her father is still alive – niece Katie. When Sam comes back to take full responsibility of Katie, it does not take long before strange things begin to happen. While Jamie is viewing the video where her sister Anna supposedly committed suicide, Katie is responding to patterns of light coming from her bedroom window. Those patterns are followed by stagnant objects being moved around by imaginary beings and Katie being led to a book on the Morse code.
Jamie realizes that there is a symbol on the back of her sister’s chair and as she researches it, she comes across other stories that are very relatable and similar to hers. It seems that a lot of people filmed their suicide, which only makes an unsettled Jamie even more unsettled. Everything this family is going through seems to have a connection with a tower rising, which is thought to have connections with demons and evil beings.
- Still from The Offering
When one of the world’s best priests comes in contact with Jamie and her niece Katie, he believes that the evil entity he had encountered before has somehow gained access to a new vessel in Katie’s body. The priest begins making preparations for an exorcism that may or may not work depending on how strong the demon possessing Katie’s body is, and as holy chants begin to come out of the priest’s mouth, he soon realizes that this will be the most challenging exorcism he has performed, ever.
The Offering, aptly entitled that way, offered not one, nor two, nor three, but many different elements a Horror movie should have. In an effort to contort to the audience’s views on how a Horror movie should be made, The Offering tried to combine different themes in the hour and thirty-five minutes it had on run-time. Sometimes, this could severely decrease the film’s creativity, instead of making it more pronounced, but this was not the case with this Thriller.
- Still from The Offering
Every element The Offering has serves as a scary moment that surely made people jump out of their seat, which is what scary movies are all about. In addition to the cast, all contributed to the success that this movie had, and every jump and scare were all possible thanks to Wade Muller’s great cinematography. The fact that this movie was filmed in Singapore gives an Asian component that many fans connect with. Although it has received mixed reviews about how extreme or lack thereof, The Offering will probably go in history as one of the best movies Singapore has ever shared with Hollywood. CrypticRock gives The Offering 4 out of 5 stars.
- Momentum Pictures
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