Choosing Better Endings

Make peace with the past before it's too late.

Emily Wiseman as Claire in “The Offering.” Source: Decal

The Offering
1 hour 33 minutes
Directed by Oliver Park

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A stream of crimson oozed from the flesh between my father’s forefinger and thumb. He had gashed himself with a linoleum knife and did not even flinch. He paused to examine his hand. Thick droplets of blood beaded on the floor near my shoes. He went to the sink and ran cool water over the cut and wrapped a cloth around it and got back to work. I looked at him and wondered if I would ever be so strong.

I could have been a better son. He could have been a better dad. But I learned a lot from watching him. How and how not to be. His toughness. His volcanic anger. Thinking too much about the way things could and should have been would probably drive me crazy. His secret pain, for he was a hard man who hardly shared what ate away at him, drove him to drink more than a little. He was a Seagram’s Seven Crown guy.

I took this trip down memory lane after watching “The Offering” (2023), directed by Oliver Park, with a screenplay credited to Hank Hoffman. I saw it on Father’s Day and started writing about it that night. I thought maybe the moment had passed, then decided it was still worth reviewing and reflecting on.

“The Offering” is a horror flick based on a story by Hoffman and Jonathan Yunger about a female demon associated with miscarriages and infant mortality. But it’s really a film about how our inability to forgive our parents and ultimately forgive ourselves prevents us from forming our own flourishing families.