Anyway, the movie starts out with a married couple with a young son that is looking for a house to rent, they happen upon a mansion that is being rented out for the Summer at a suspiciously low price. The elderly and eccentric brother and sister that own the house have bestowed upon the couple one inconvenience that come along with the rental of the house... Their elderly mother lives in the attic bedroom and doesn't ever leave. This woman is to be left 3 trays of food every day and that's all.
Despite this incredibly odd situation, they rent the house anyway because the wife just won't shut up about how gorgeous it is and how much she instantly loves it. After a while, it seems almost to possess her every thought. She becomes more and more interested in the old lady's hobby of collecting photographs and even though the wife often tries to converse with the old lady, no response is ever heard. One odd aspect of the photos displayed is that not one of the people in the photos is smiling, in fact, they all look pretty miserable.
Their young son is seen accidentally falling and hurting his knee, moments later a seemingly dead plant has some new live growth on it. We begin to realize that pain seems to heal the old and somewhat decrepit mansion in some way. When the father cuts his finger on a champagne wire, a light bulb that previously had burned out, now works fine. The Mrs. embarks on a cleaning frenzy that Joan Crawford would have been proud of but is also growing increasingly worried about the old lady upstairs because she's not eating the food that is being left for her.
One day while cleaning the old pool out back, the father is overcome with the desire to drown his son and nearly succeeds. The son manages to get away and the next day, the shabby old pool has now become a sparkling oasis with fountains and statues. Again, the more pain that is experienced, the more the house seems to drastically improve and become less and less decrepit in its appearance.
As the mother grows more and more obsessed with the old lady upstairs, the meals have mysteriously resumed consumption. The mother also starts to lie about the old woman and the house in general in order to keep anyone from being suspicious. She notices the change in the pool and takes credit for cleaning it herself. She also becomes less and less receptive to her husband's sexual advances and ultimately finds him repulsive. To console herself, she constantly returns to the old lady's sitting room. Soon she starts dressing in the old fashioned clothing style worn by the women displayed in the old lady's photo collection, even to the point of getting gray hair.
Meanwhile, the aunt (Davis) who is usually so vibrant and witty has become a completely tired and worn-out woman. She seems drained of all her energy, sleeps all day, and her hair turns almost completely white and has also acquired enough luggage under her eyes to go to Europe. Soon after that, she becomes deathly ill. The father seems to be slowly losing his grasp on reality as well and keeps seeing a creepy smiling hearse driver, a memory from his mothers funeral that scared him as a child.
The boy is almost killed by a mysterious gas leak in his bedroom, with all the windows and doors mysteriously locked from the inside. Barely saved in time by his parents, they soon blame the aunt for this event and and they begin to fight constantly causing tension and turmoil to grow amongst the family. As mom fakes calling the doctor when the aunt becomes very ill and looks like she is gonna die any minute, then immediately withdraws into the old lady's room and starts eating the dinner that she's brought for her, letting us know that even though it appears that the old lady is eating, that it's actually the wife who's been consuming her dinners.
In a very simple but effective and frightening scene, a doctor is finally called to help the terribly ill aunt, but the smiley hearse driver shows up instead of the doctor, he slowly walks in and shoves a casket at the aunt, causing her to have a heart attack and die and the next scene is of the family returning from her funeral. We also start noticing even more changes to the house. The greenhouse that was originally full of dead plants is now full of beautiful plants with tons of blooming flowers. The house itself seems to be draining and almost consuming people and renewing itself with their death, pain, and sorrow. After the aunt's death, the mom doesn't even go to the funeral because she has to keep the old lady company. In fact, the mother now has fully gray hair, her wardrobe and hairstyles are strictly 19th century and she has become extremely overprotective of the old lady that apparently only she ever sees. When the dad actually sees the house changing, such as the roof shingles and floorboards, all falling off and being replaced with new ones from underneath, he decides the time has come to leave. Too bad the trees have decided otherwise. They block the road and attempt to drag the father off into the woods. The mother comes to the rescue and brings them back to the house.
Sometime later, the kid is swimming, and the pool itself attempts to drown him. This is apparently strong enough evidence that convinces even the mother that it's time to vacate. As they're leaving, she proclaims that she can't leave without telling her favorite old lady that she's going. In a creepy conclusion, the dad gets tired of waiting for her, so he goes back into the house after her. He enters the old lady's room looking for his wife, and sees the old lady sitting by the window. He attempts to communicate with her, asking where his wife has gone. She refuses to answer so he swings her around to face him. When she turns around, it's his wife with a very angry and possessed-looking face, dressed as the old lady. Soon we see Dad plummeting to his death from the attic window. He lands on the car containing his son, and the kid freaks out and runs. He is then crushed under the rubble of a falling chimney that is in the midst of "repairing itself". In the next scene, we see the house, completely restored to its prime-time glory and looking newly rebuilt, no longer the decrepit old mansion that it was when the family first arrived.
Upon their return, we also hear the oddball brother and sister bragging about how beautiful it is and how happy they are that their mother has been restored to them. The camera pans through the old lady's photos and there are some new additions..., the father, the son, and the aunt. OK, so what the hell does it all mean? I assume that the house is being rented out to unsuspecting families who then become the spiritual batteries that recharge the old mansion like sacrifices, hence the title "Burnt Offerings". But what's the story with Mom and the old lady though? I assume that there never was an old lady. I think it was just a ploy to get the mom interested in and ultimately possessed by the spirit of the old lady who was never really an actual person but the spirit of the house itself. That's why the food was not at first being eaten, but resumes when the mom becomes obsessed with the old lady and is subsequently possessed by her spirit, the house. Since the mother is not among the photo collection at the end, it's my assumption that she was always destined to become part of the house.
Well made mystery flick that requires some thought to figure out. Great mysteries are like puzzles without a box top to follow, only through a slow piecing together can we see the full picture. Being a fan of the 60s TV show Dark Shadows, I began to notice some similarities which were confirmed when I found out that this movie was written and directed by Dark Shadows producer Dan Curtis. All the elements were there, creepy old house, dark symbolism, haunting music, and a mystery that requires a little extra thought to understand.
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