Review of Offspring

Offspring (2009)
2/10
Carnivorous teens
27 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Fronted by the fame of Jack Ketchum "Offspring" does no favours for the man behind the idea. In a small lavishly situated in North-Eastern USA woodland area just next to the ocean, numerous series of morbid murders and disappearances have occurred in the span of the several generations. In the latest of them a young couple and their baby were brutally murdered and than dissected for meat by a group of roaming savage cavemen teenagers. But the carnage is only just begun, as apparently this is feeding season...

Devoid of proper pacing or acting "Offspring" puts all its money on one card: visceral brutal gore (including fairly graphic disembowelling, burning people alive, baby-killing, brain-munchies and a very disturbing biting off of a vagina). The plot that crudely staples the movie together is a whisker away of falling on top of itself, mainly due to some inept back-story, where apparently the police know about these 'cave-men' for decades, but just didn't have the proper motivation (?) to do something about the issue. Irrespective of how many people, including children, go missing due to their activities. Any doubts regarding this wanton incompetence is cast aside by a statement, that the wild people roam freely across the border with Canada and there is no exchange of information between the two countries.

This would however at least presume that however wild our rapturous cannibals may be, they still have a strong sense of self-preservation. Which unfortunately goes amiss at the start of this debacle, when they go on a killing spree and do not even bother to cover up their tracks, hence bringing about a hunt (however misguided it may turn out to be).

Mingling in between this nonsense is a yuppie group of cardboard characterisations, which only benefit to the story is that they turn out to be useful for nondescript morbid murder and torture (although I fail to see why a women breastfeeding someone elses baby would result in her screaming in agony and despair, but well... I ain't a woman).

Obviously filmed on a shoe-string budget and unfortunately the only thing that the creators were adept at was making proper disgusting and adequately gory special effects. Within the confines of the lack of money and filmmaking skills (strongly suggesting this was in all essence a student film) this pastes together to become quite an overdrawn, predictable and tiresome affair with substandard cinematography, lighting, sound, editing and acting (complemented by overflowing cheesy dialogue).
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