A popular male student has been wrestling with the suspicion that his equally popular girlfriend is an actual witch. This suspicion gets reinforced after the removal of one of the human obstacles standing in his way, to wit a teacher who wanted to flunk him. When a new student, a very pretty girl, joins the school it looks as though she might become toast too...
"Midnight offerings" is a modest but well-made horror/fantasy set in a quintessentially American high-school environment. (After class, students drive their car to the ocean in order to go surfing. USA ! USA !) The movie, which tells of the increasingly violent fight between two young witches, develops the premise a) that witchcraft is real and b) that it exerts genuine power. Here, curses and spells can be just as lethal as bullets or arrows ; even a small black cat has the potential to become an instrument of destruction.
Still, there seems to be some confusion about the metaphysical underpinnings of the whole. For instance, does the goddess Hecate exist and if so, is she a colleague/underling/superior of the Judeo-Christian devil ? Or are these names just random labels stuck on external powers of a malevolent nature ?
Behind all the occult trappings one recognizes a tale about the misery of adolescence, with its Sturm und Drang, its peer rivalry and its changing parent/child relationship. Adolescence is also the period in life when the really unpleasant people spread their wings. Here, our dark witch represents the kind of ultra-domineering, ultra-perfectionist go-getter willing to walk over corpses in order to obtain riches and status.
It's a bit of a pity that the three young protagonists look too old to pass as teenagers. Still, they do well enough, and Melissa Sue Anderson's bitchy, vicious witch is frankly terrifying. The movie explodes out of the gate like a champion horse, the pace is maintained throughout and the finale is thrilling. All in all, a pretty toothsome watch.
"Midnight offerings" is a modest but well-made horror/fantasy set in a quintessentially American high-school environment. (After class, students drive their car to the ocean in order to go surfing. USA ! USA !) The movie, which tells of the increasingly violent fight between two young witches, develops the premise a) that witchcraft is real and b) that it exerts genuine power. Here, curses and spells can be just as lethal as bullets or arrows ; even a small black cat has the potential to become an instrument of destruction.
Still, there seems to be some confusion about the metaphysical underpinnings of the whole. For instance, does the goddess Hecate exist and if so, is she a colleague/underling/superior of the Judeo-Christian devil ? Or are these names just random labels stuck on external powers of a malevolent nature ?
Behind all the occult trappings one recognizes a tale about the misery of adolescence, with its Sturm und Drang, its peer rivalry and its changing parent/child relationship. Adolescence is also the period in life when the really unpleasant people spread their wings. Here, our dark witch represents the kind of ultra-domineering, ultra-perfectionist go-getter willing to walk over corpses in order to obtain riches and status.
It's a bit of a pity that the three young protagonists look too old to pass as teenagers. Still, they do well enough, and Melissa Sue Anderson's bitchy, vicious witch is frankly terrifying. The movie explodes out of the gate like a champion horse, the pace is maintained throughout and the finale is thrilling. All in all, a pretty toothsome watch.