Burnt Offerings

Tampa Theatre is screening Burnt Offerings on Saturday, October 24, as part of A Nightmare on Franklin Street, the horror series the theatre runs every October. The film is a 1976 supernatural horror that runs an hour and 56 minutes, and it'll be introduced by film historian Rob Kelly.

If you haven't seen it, Burnt Offerings follows writer Ben Rolf (Oliver Reed), his wife Marian (Karen Black), his aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis), and their 12-year-old son Davey, who rent a run-down mansion only to find the sibling owners' elderly mother still living upstairs. It's a slow-burn kind of ghost story, and it's one of those films that didn't quite find its audience when it first came out. It's often described now as a fascinating summertime take on The Shining.

Part of the film's draw is the drama that happened off-camera. The production was famously troubled: Bette Davis called Oliver Reed "one of the most loathsome human beings I have ever had the misfortune of meeting" and seemed to hate Karen Black even more, and United Artists hardly knew what to do with the finished product. That chaotic energy sits right alongside the movie, and Rob Kelly's introduction should set the stage before the lights go down.

The screening is in the Taylor Screening Room at the Tampa Theatre, 711 N Franklin St. Doors open at 7 PM, and the movie starts at 10 PM. Tickets are $13 for general admission and $10 for Tampa Theatre members, plus a $2 service fee for online purchases. The theatre itself opened in 1926 and is considered one of the most haunted places in the city, which is a fitting enough backdrop for a late-night horror screening.