Compared to other popular horror of its time (of which there was very little) BURNT OFFERINGS not a great book. It doesn’t match THE EXORCIST in its depth. It has not the character development and social relevance of ROSEMARY'S BABY. It’s character development is light and its plot linear. But, it’s a fun story and easy to read.It does have some glaring flaws and omissions. The glasses found in the pool seemed to be an important clue as to the nature of the house. But they never appear in the story again. Providing some motivation or explanation as to why Aunt Elizabeth ventured into David’s room would have helped that part of the story. We never learn if it was Elizabeth, guided by the spirit of the house, who turned on the gas, or if the house did it itself in the process of being reborn. The scene was purely incidental and only served to set up the short conflict between Marian and Elizabeth. It impacted David not at all.Nothing impacted David and no explanation is provided. His mother is going gray at a rapid rate and has developed an obsession that makes her neglect him. He doesn’t seem to care. His dad is going nuts. He doesn’t seem to care. His beloved aunt dies. He doesn’t care. Or so it would seem. The not caring might have been a clue unto itself, but Marasco gave us no reason to believe that it was a clue. We see the story from Marian’s point of view, Ben’s point of view, and Elizabeth’s point of view. Marasco never lets us into David’s head. It would seem to be a case of character neglect.There is a subtext, thinly veiled, about materialism. Marian loves the gold, the silver, and the expanse of the mansion and its grandeur. On several occasions she is asked to choose between her family or these beautiful things. While she always cops to the responsibility to the old lady in the attic, she chooses her new possessions, right up until the end when she loses her family. Even when she realizes the terrible choice she’s made, she must find out what it was all for.The book was made into a hit movie that starred Oliver Reed, Karen Black, and Bette Davis. The scene with the hearse driver, which is scarcely mentioned in the novel, became iconic in its own way. It terrified me as a child. If you mention the movie to casual fans of horror, they can recall that hearse driver with the evil grin and eyes hiding behind mirrored lenses.With a hit play and a decent novel under his belt, it seems that the late Robert Marasco (he died of lung cancer in 1998) was an underachiever. Like Frank DeFellita, he seemed to have a promising writing career that could have blossomed with honing his craft on new projects. But, unfortunately, it never developed.
I have a long and devout love affair with hungry, haunted house stories, from classics like The Turn of the Screw to Ki Longfellow's pomo weird-out Houdini Heart. I love them (almost) all. But these kinds of tales have evolved a great deal since Burnt Offerings was written in the early Seventies, which makes it seem stylistically dated in certain key points. That's such a backward view, though, because it's also immediately obvious how much influence this book had on tales yet to come. On the plus side, the narrative is fast-paced -- I was surprised at how short the book felt -- and the dread builds, steady and sneaky, until you almost don't want to see what, literally, is behind that door. In the minus column, I don't feel like I got to know the characters particularly well. I see symbolic echoes of Hill House's Eleanor in Marian (though the acquisitive weakness is all Mrs. Rolfe), and seeds of Jack and Danny Torrance in Ben and David. But, unlike the more contemplative pace of The Shining, Burnt Offerings doesn't allow a lot of time to get to know, or build sympathy for, the Rolfes before things conspire to turn them into different people. (Though I feel like I know the house pretty well, which is something.) Ultimately, though, it's a lush, creepy tale, and it stands the test of time and literary hindsight far better than Richard Matheson's Hell House, which I found quite disappointing.
What do You think about Burnt Offerings (1973)?
Any time this movie comes up in conversation, online or otherwise, I can never resist comment on it. So here it is again:When I was 14 years old, my cousin and I went to see Burnt Offerings in the theater. It still stands and the most terrifying cinematic experience of my life. This was also the only movie to give me a bonefide nightmare: I was running along a field and tripped. When I looked up, there was a hearse and directly above me was the chauffeur with his sinister grin. When I woke, my heart was about to burst through my chest.Almost 40 years have gone by and I still refuse to watch this movie alone. But, my fascination with the movie has stuck with me all this time. For something to have had such a profound effect on me that has lasted all but 14 years of my life is either a testament to its brilliance or my poor fragile mind.Whatever the reason, I've been obsessed with it and the novel has of course been on my to-read list ever since. For a couple of decades, I had searched for it in used bookstores as it had been out of print. No luck.Then, last month, I stumbled on the fact that it had been republished and was now available on Kindle.I downloaded it immediately and tried to rush through the book I was halfway through.Well, all that time of building anticipation did not lead to any sort of letdown. Turns out the movie was very much faithful to the book. In fact, I was pleasantly amazed that a lot of the dialogue in the novel made it verbatim to the screen ("Life sure as hell goes on, doesn't it Marion?")!There were also a few unexpected differences, one in particular was particularly awesome:(view spoiler)[Marion seeing Aunt Elizabeth's photo in the sitting room (hide spoiler)]
—Bill
The Rolfe's are looking to get away from the hassle of the big city. They are looking to rent a cottage for the entire summer. What they find is a mansion with 33 rooms and it will only cost them $900.00 for the entire summer. Ben has a strange feeling about this place and whats to look at other rentals. Ben's wife Marian, convince him that this is the place to spend their summer. Once they move in, strange things begin to happen. No one is safe from the evil that lurks in the house. This is an excellent haunted house story and one of the best that I have read. This was a fast pace story with never a dull moment. I was hook from the first page until the end. I highly recommend this book.
—Peter
One of the five iconic American haunted house (a malevolent dwelling, not a residence for spooks) novels. Clearly on the path from The Haunting of Hill House to The Shining. Marasco does a great job of describing the psychological effect on the Rolfes and Aunt Elizabeth as the Allardyce house takes over their lives a little at a time. Everyone goes along until it is too late and Marian has become the focal point for/of the nebulous unseen Mrs. Allardyce The creepiness and suspense escalates (Are they ever going to get out of this?) without much overtly supernatural happening, the changes are all subtle, like in a Robert Aickman story. One can see where Stephen King took the best of Marasco and Shirley Jackson and melded them together in The Overlook.The ending is for me more satisfying than Hill House or the Shining by being both more concrete than the former while less overt than the latter.Marasco's prose is easy to read without being dumbed down, more like King, but not as lyrical or as evocative as Jackson. Drags a little towards the last third as we see the inevitable already on its way but Marasco wants to fool around with expectations (or pad a novella) a little too much without succeeding in building any more real suspense.Anyone interested in American horror should read the five iconic haunted house novels: The Haunting of Hill House, Burnt Offerings, The House Next Door, and The Shining. The The Amityville Horror is optional since it purports to be nonfiction (it isn't) and therefore turns out to be a fun but ultimately unsatisfying and sloppy novel.
—Randolph Carter
