Metacritic reviews

By combining genuine human drama and an exploration of a mysterious sacred text with a ridiculously entertaining plot about a child-stealing demon, the film serves as a reminder of all the things that horror is uniquely equipped to accomplish.

The Offering won’t get any points for originality, but people looking for well-crafted horror can’t go wrong with Park’s latest film.

The plot is pretty routine, but its finer points about religious faith and rituals give the creep-outs and jump-scares real nuance. What makes this such a satisfying horror film is its cultural specificity.

Ultimately, my problem with so many religious horror films like “The Offering” is that they’re insulated in a way that makes them more often boring than terrifying, willing to let a languid pace try to set the mood instead of actual plotting.

The bar for this version of “J-Horror” is high (“The Vigil,” “The Possession”), but not so high that The Offering couldn’t have managed something fresh and more interesting and at least more sensible than this.

The Offering does move along at a brisk clip, so it’s at no risk of being boring even as its potential to terrify dissipates. But it ends up illustrating the virtue of “less is more,” particularly when attempting a serious occult horror story

A serviceable slab of possession horror.