Back in my pre-Dread Central Days, I was lucky enough to review Torin Langen’s Halloween-themed anthology 3 Dead Trick or Treaters for Horror Freak News. Here’s what I wrote back in 2017:
“3 Dead Trick or Treaters is a unique anomaly that’s beautiful and macabre in equal measure. Despite being thoroughly experimental in nature, it’s much more accessible than your typical arthouse offering. There’s a retro, indie aesthetic that will speak to fans of 1970s and early 1980s era horror, as well as aficionados of grindhouse and drive-in era splatterfests. The film is a creative and enjoyable experience throughout, a low-budget success-story that has me wondering what these crazy Canadians will offer us next.”
Now, I have my answer!
Langen’s latest is another hallucinatory creeper set to world premiere later this month at Nightmares Film Festival in Columbus Ohio. Here’s the scoop on Offerings, subtitled A Séance in Three Acts!
An exercise in ambient horror, Offerings is an expanded cinema project chronicling the rituals of a mysterious cult and the spaces they inhabit. Non-narrative and highly textured, the film functions as a distillation of folk horror imagery and expressionist filmmaking techniques. Largely inspired by underground album artwork and xeroxed gig posters, the costumed creatures found in Offerings function largely as black metal album illustration brought to hulking, lumbering life. A visual and aural assault, Offerings seeks to hypnotize and indoctrinate its audience into its fever dream nightmares cape.
Offerings Director’s Statement:
“After years spent on a single narrative-driven feature film, I wanted to take a step back and focus my energy on creating a film that functioned wholly as a piece of atmosphere. Over the course of production on my previous feature 3 Dead Trick or Treaters, I became increasingly interested with experimental and expanded cinema performances, ranging from non-narrative artist cinema to full-fledged installation projects. Offerings is a coagulation of several ongoing creative obsessions, including primitive pagan costuming, hastily photocopied gig posters, dark ambient music and the anarchic attitude of the underground film community.
“Functioning as director, production designer, costumer and editor, I took great care to add as much texture as possible through each step of production. Costumes were designed with bent twigs, high-contrast paint jobs and layered garments. Environments were carefully selected for their decay and visual noise, from chiseled stone to peeling paint. Although Offerings was shot digitally, I designed my own form of bespoke film grain and photo emulsion, including several sheets of scanned photocopier ink, digital grain and pages of crude watercolor streaking. The end result, combined with speed ramping and extensive digital filtering, leaves the final image landing somewhere between a damaged 16mm print and a DIY punk zine. The decision to make the film triptych was to amplify its texture, overwhelming the audience to the point of hypnosis.
“In addition to festival screenings, my goal is for Offerings to participate in the underground arts community in multiple capacities. The film is slated to premiere at Nightmares Film Festival with live in-theater soundtrack, and will be taking the form of an interactive installation at an upcoming genre festival. It is a versatile work that I hope to project wherever possible, from formal festival screenings to concerts and underground guerrilla presentations. The parallels between independent film and music are growing exponentially, and as the struggle to have a work seen becomes more challenging, all platforms become valid. Offerings embraces a DIY punk ethos, both in production and distribution, and the tour is just beginning.”
Have you seen 3 Dead Trick or Treaters? What do you think of the trailer for Offerings? Sound off in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
