Here's an original story: A young boy is abused by his mother, a trashy, boozy, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking harridan. The boy endures her daily insults in silence. He never talks. Not to anyone. Not since dad "disappeared" (rumors vary). But at least Quiet Boy has a hobby — he tortures small animals.

The neighborhood kids think Quiet Boy is retarded, and so they relate to him in the time-honored tradition of how children deal with the mentally handicapped: they tease him. They play pranks on him. And then ... one of those pranks "goes wrong."

Flashforward ten years.

Quiet Boy has spent the past decade institutionalized in an asylum, horribly disfigured from that childhood prank. Doctors think he's a vegetable. Never talks. But one night, a nurse doesn't sedate him on schedule. It never mattered before. But on this, the ten-year anniversary, Quiet Boy escapes. He treks forty miles to his hometown in search of his former tormentors (who've all blossomed into stunningly attractive high school seniors, looking too old for high school) and ... the body count mounts!

Of the many slasher films "inspired" by Halloween (1978), Offerings is both a latecomer and one of the most slavishly unoriginal. Its ominous piano score sounds identical to John Carpenter's. And its killer is an Überpsycho, a dark avenging angel of superhuman strength and endurance.

[I coined the term "Überpsycho" in my essay, "But Is It Horror? Defining and Demarcating the Genre" to distinguish the indestructible post-Halloween "horror psycho" from the more vulnerable "suspense psycho" of such earlier films as Frenzy. For a fuller analysis, read this essay in my book: Halloween Candy.]

With one hand, he lifts a struggling victim off her feet. He tosses a noose around another victim and hauls him up the side of a house without trouble. He is shot several times, but continues relentlessly. A sign warns Danger! High Voltage, yet he grips the electric fence and climbs over.

(Blooper: the electric fence stands isolated. Aren't all "live" fences positioned between dead fences? Otherwise, innocent passersby, on either side, might mistakenly touch it.)

There are some clever deaths and attempts at black humor, and director Reynolds can stretch a low budget. One victim is dragged under bed, his legs flailing, then shuddering, then the blood. That's one way to save on effects: hide the mayhem under bed. Another cost-saving method is to show a screaming head set to be split, then cut to its shadow as it's finally cracked. We hear only the head split, and see blood spattering the shadow. Not necessarily great art, but journeyman competence.

As in Halloween, there's the requisite good girl, Gretchen (Loretta Leigh Bowman, who is pretty, but lacks Jamie Lee Curtis's range and intensity). As a child, Gretchen was the one neighborhood kid who defended Quiet Boy. As an adolescent, Gretchen honors her parents, and says "no" to the boys.