Offspring (2009) Arrow Player Review
This month exclusively on ARROW comes OFFSPRING – director Andrew van den Houten’s brutal adaptation of cult horror novelist Jack Ketchum’s book about a deadly clan of feral cannibals on the prowl.
Showing in 4K exclusively via ARROW, OFFSPRING features Pollyanna McIntosh, who would reprise her role in Lucky McKee’s THE WOMAN. “It’s been fun producing and directing horror films all these years,” says van den Houten, “and I cannot wait for people to see my latest version of Offspring in 4K HDR.”
Against the backdrop of grisly murders and child abductions, a clan of cannibalistic savages who have plagued the North-east Coast since 1858, is after an unsuspecting family and their innocent baby girl. Does the family have what it takes to survive?
Directed by Andrew van den Houten and based on the novel of the same name by Jack Ketchum, OFFSPRING is for an acquired taste. Released in 2009, OFFSPRING was a comfortable bedfellow in a horror climate that saw the savage extremes of director Pascal Laugier’s MARTYRS (2008) spearheading a leaning for more full-on violence and gore in the genre. Whereas Laugier’s movie had a valid reasoning behind the constant torture, bloodletting and violence, OFFSPRING doesn’t really have a point. It’s cruel for the sake of being cruel, and that is something that just doesn’t sit well for me as a viewing experience.
It recalled a couple of the late Wes Craven’s earlier directorial efforts, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) and THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977), sharing the unsparingly bleak tone of the former and a similar plot to the latter. Whilst we shared in the American family’s fight back against the savages that attacked them and stole their baby in THE HILLS HAVE EYES here it’s one note brutality from start to finish – quite why the feral children would don an evil grin whilst killing and maiming was beyond me, they’re feral, not sadists. And what’s going on with their hair? Why are all the children replicas of The Kid from MAD MAX 2 (1981), and why are their elders so well-groomed in comparison? Are the same standards of general personal upkeep not afforded to the younger clan members?
The film is well made and acted, hence the higher-than-it-should-be review score, but as a viewing experience it fails either to be profound or, on the other spectrum, entertain. It also undoes the excellent work done in the follow-up THE WOMAN, where the titular character turns aggressor towards her abuser and captors. When watching THE WOMAN, you ache for her to turn the tables and seek revenge, however when you view what she does to people in OFFSPRING it does nothing except dissipate any goodwill you may have towards the character. Nasty simply for the sake of being nasty, this is one cannibal-horror flick that did not cater for my tastes.
Offspring is available on Limited Edition 4K UHD and available to stream on ARROW from 27th August 2024
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
