Offspring (2009)

Directed By: Andrew Van Den Houten
Written By: Jack Ketchum
Based on the Novel by: Jack Ketchum
Cinematography By: William M. Miller
Editor: Douglas Buck

Cast: Pollyanna McIntosh, Amy Hargreaves, Art Hindle, Ahna Tessler, Erick Kastel


Survivors of a feral flesh-eating clan are chowing their way through the locals. Amy Halbard and Claire Carey strive to survive their abduction by the cannibals and save their children. A subplot involving Claire's despicable husband, Steven, gives an opportunity to cleverly compare predatory civilized folk to the appetite-driven primitives


I will admit i am a big fan of Jack Ketchum and his novels. I will Furthur admit, i saw the sequel or continuation to it first THE WOMAN. I only decided to watch this to see where the sequel originated from. It would have been better for me to stay blind to this film. It has a great story, but the follow through is pretty bad.

it seems to focus more on the gory parts instead of any insight into the pack so to speak. we are presented characters in both the primal pack and the regular humans. We really know nothing about either of them other then 5 minutes of a introduction before they cross paths and the splattering begins.

I wanted to know about both the humans and the pack somewhat before any of the action starts. The film jus tleaves it open. i like the suggewstion that the ex-husband a human monster himself seems to undersatnd the feral creatures almost instantly as they seem to relate to one another.

I realize the book is so disturbing and graphic it would have been hard to adapt. It deserves better then this. The budget is low and it shows. there are ways around it. Look At STAKELAND which on a budget probably similar was able to give you scope and view into a world. It truly showed a talneted filmmaker and someone with an imagination.

The sad part is that the book's author also wrote the screenplay. It seems there was a attempt to earnestly bring the story to the screen. It's just it was trusted into the wrong hands who doesn't know how to fill the film with suspense at all. It's a shame because the previous film made from Mr. Ketchum's books haven't been perfect but they were at least noteworthy this is a complete failure. The only bright spot is that with this film came the continuation. Which more then makes up for this film and brings back Pollyanna McIntosh. who is the rare bright spot in this film. So that she get's her own film to shine in.

This film seems run of the mill with a different idea or two thrown in. It moves briskly. it was over before i knew it. I beleieve it was because they were more interested in showing the massacre instead of showing the lead up which might have made more of a impact. in such a way we know the characters and don't want to see the horrible things happen to them.

The film and book is dwonright cruel to it's characters, yet it gives you a understanding of things. Here it all seems randomly thrown together. Then just add kids to the mix to make it all the more shocking and distasteful. Hey i'm no prude buit watching this i kept wandering why bother.

Though with aqll the gore the film still doesn't make a impression as it feels like the primal characters are more playing dress up. Don't get me wrong they were vicious but at no point did this film feel real. It felt like a 70's exploitation film. Made to shock but it fails at it's mission.

Event he ending comes about abruptly.

It is definately a movie you can skip the original and go straight to the sequel. But read the book it fills you in a lot of details. I would have rather it had the reputation as unfilmable then this lame attempt. The bad thing is the movie gives the book a bad name.

SKIP IT.

GRADE: F