Search - Offspring [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 6/28/2018...

A brutal horror flick by Jack Ketchum. No way I could watch this again.

CHILDREN OF THE CORNY

Robert F. Powers | Quincy, Ma USA | 10/18/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The Offspring is one of those movies that's so awful you have to stare at the screen and keep watching to see if it can get any worse. It does. Cannibalistic, feral children whose idea of show and tell is disembowelment-and a simple disembowelment is a slow night to these kids. They grunt, stab, grunt, mutilate, grunt,and the quickly passed over reason for their existence is that they are the offspring of the children of a lighthouse keeper gone missing off the coast of Maine in the 19th century. I gave this movie two stars because despite the lousy plot, lousy script, lousy acting--the cannibal kids can't even grunt convincingly, the movie is so fascinatingly bad that everyone should watch it to see just how bad a movie can be. Oh scratch that thought----don't watch it.



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A Mediocre Book-To-Film Adaptation

Brian Lueth | Chicago, IL United States | 11/02/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Folks, it was bound to happen to Ketchum, it happens to authors all the time, amazing books occasionally end up as barely tolerable cinematic adaptations. In this case the bad cinematic adaptation was spawned from a mediocre novel and, unfortunately, Ketchum is partially to blame as he scripted this adaptation. Thus far Ketchum's work has remained safe from the usually withering touch of death wielded by Hollywood, The Lost and Girl Next Door were both fantastic films and the as-yet unseen Red starring Brian Cox is still highly anticipated. You win some, you lose some though, right?

Offspring isn't a horrible film, it just wasn't very good at all; the directing wasn't strong, the dialogue was clunky and the characters clichéd, the entire thing felt amateurish (especially the acting) and incomplete.

Many people enjoyed this film due to the fair amount of gore on display, and there was, but it just doesn't change my opinion of this film. Gore, when done right, is certainly a plus but it can never make up for a wobbly story that depends on the opening title sequence to fill in the back story viewers will no doubt be asking about by closing credits. By far this is the weakest entry in this year's Ghost House Underground series and, without a doubt, the low point of Ketchum's films. No biggie though, it happens to King all the time. Hell, I'm not sure there's EVER been a decent Koontz film!

I just didn't dig Offspring, it was my least favorite of the films based on Ketchum novels, but that's just inevitability, it would have only been a matter of time before there was a dud. Andrew van den Houten's company Modernciné has produced and released some good stuff so I don't want to come across as being a hater but this was a swing and a miss."

Good for direct to DVD

L. Kiss | Los Angeles, CA USA | 10/26/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Since I am a fan of Jack Ketchum's novels and this was one of my favorites I had to see it (although I have no interest in seeing his other film adaptions).

It's direct to DVD and I knew what to expect. I wasn't that disappointed, mostly because the running time is short and it has some ok production design. The location scout deserves most of the credit in this movie and it was filmed in the US (I have a thing about runaway film productions, they should be labeled as "foreign films")

This film had so much potential but is extremely lackluster. Who thought crazy, cannibal kids could be so trite? The costumes, wigs, and makeup effects look like leftovers from the bargain bin at a Halloween store a week after October 31. This alone could have saved it even from the poor acting performances (which could have been saved through editing).

I have to admit it was nice not to be bombarded with bad CGI for once.

I gave two stars for effort, the location captures the setting in the book, short running time, and being filmed in the US. You won't loose any sleep if you don't see it."