In Kelvin Tong’s THE OFFERING (also known under an alternate title of THE FAITH OF ANNA WATERS), journalist Jamie (Elizabeth Rice) is summoned to Singapore when she hears of the sudden death of her sister, Anna (Rayann Condy). Anna has struggled with Huntington’s disease since childhood, and the evidence on hand suggests that she committed suicide to end her suffering. Jamie struggles to accept this, believing that Anna would never chose to simply end her life and leave behind her young daughter, Katie (Adina Herz).
As Jamie begins to investigate, she uncovers a series of other suicides that have taken place in recent weeks, similar to Anna’s - people struggling with illnesses but whose deaths came without warning to family and loved ones. She begins to suspect the deaths may be related somehow, and begins trying to find anything that might connect them.
Meanwhile, Katie has been behaving strangely since her mother’s death. She refuses to leave the house, insisting that Anna will return to her after seven days have passed. She also begins interacting with a mysterious entity that has been making its presence known on the property. She claims it is a little boy, but it quickly becomes clear that this is not a simple haunting, and that the presence has malevolent designs on the family.
Running parallel to the events surrounding Anna’s death is a pair of priests investigating a strange cult with a malicious internet presence. The group seems to center around an ancient prophecy that predicts the rise of the tower of Babel and the coming of a demonic entity.
On the whole, the film is a bit of a mess. Though built on an interesting premise and thankfully altering some of the standard tropes running through most possession stories (until the third act, anyway), THE OFFERING still stumbles often along the way. As Jamie’s investigation ramps up, we are introduced to several plot threads that never really manage to seamlessly join with the greater story. The investigation of the priests into the Babel cult offers an interesting theological subplot, but ultimately serves more as an exposition dump than anything else and fails to fully integrate itself into the narrative. Which is really a shame, because this is where some of the more interesting elements of the story lie – Tong skirts around a promising theological storytelling device and doesn’t take the time to fully implement it.
The script is often clunky, and the cast (with the exception of Rice who does bring a certain level of gravitas to her role) can’t really manage it. The dialogue doesn’t quite flow, and the story kind of collapses under its own weight. Certain moments of exposition are thrown awkwardly in, plot points aren’t fully explained, and the whole thing fails to gel as a cohesive narrative. Whether a script issue, or a problem in the editing room, there is just too much that doesn’t come together here to make this film a memorable or worthwhile entry. What few scary or interesting moments it does manage to execute are largely forgotten once the plot starts running away with itself.
