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January 11, 2023 3:23 pm
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‘Horror and Mysticism Fit Like a Glove’: New Film ‘The Offering’ Explores Jewish and Hasidic Themes

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avatar by Shiryn Ghermezian

A scene from “The Offering.” Photo: Provided.

The filmmakers behind a new horror film that tackles a Jewish storyline talked to The Algemeiner recently about introducing audiences to Jewish folklore and mysticism, maintaining the authenticity of the project’s Hasidic protagonists and building a new market for Jewish-centered horror films in the future. 

In The Offering, the son of a Hasidic funeral director returns home to Brooklyn with his pregnant non-Jewish wife, shortly after the disappearance of a young Jewish girl, in the hopes of making amends with his estranged father. As they arrive at the house, a dead body is brought in to the family’s Jewish mortuary, directly beneath the home. Little do they know that an ancient evil — known as “Abyzou” (a female demon that is the taker of children) — hidden inside the mysterious corpse has accidentally been unleashed and is coming for the unborn child.

The Offering is directed by Oliver Park, written by Hank Hoffman, and produced by Hoffman alongside Jonathan Yunger, whose credits include The Hitman’s Wife’s, Bodyguard and The Expendables franchise.

Hoffman’s personal experience as a shomer — someone who watches over the body of a deceased person from the time of death until burial as part of a Jewish religious ritual — and Hoffman and Yunger’s passion for horror and mysticism led them to create The Offering, they said. “What ultimately emerged is a byproduct of seven years of late night shmoozes at the Shabbos table and a drive to entertain, explain and inspire,” they added.

“It touches on elements that we all face in our lives that leave us open to suffering and fear — and in the case of our characters, it allows the demon to take control,” Park said in a released statement. “But even the demon herself is afraid, driven by hunger to survive, which mirrors our lead who is driven by the felt need to support his family. There are lessons in this film for all of us, and endless perspectives, as the characters, and world in which the story is set, are so rich.”

Jewish Mysticism and Folklore

Making a film based on Jewish folklore required some “serious levels of research,” the filmmakers said. Hoffman, whose father is Hasidic and lives in Safed, Israel — a major site of Jewish mysticism — speaks Aramaic, which he said helped him access ancient material, and has a vast knowledge of Kabbalah. On top of that, The Offering “draws from nearly 30 Midrashim (Jewish Biblical exegesis) which is layered into the [movies’] visuals with countless references to Talmudic teachings on demons, death, and the backstory behind why God really asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac,” they said.

As a young man, Hoffman worked as a shomer for the Jewish community in Toronto. Both filmmakers also studied in Jewish religious schools, also known as yeshivas, throughout Israel.

“Our approach to depicting the community was to draw from the various Hasidic men we encountered in our lives that we found memorable and lovable,” Hoffman and Yunger explained. “The lifestyle and culture is also one we know intimately. Horror and mysticism fit like a glove and lord knows, Judaism at the core is absolutely mystical.”

Hoffman and Yunger hope that The Offering will make audiences interested in more Jewish-related horror stories. They believe fans of the genre, which is largely focused on Christian themes, are “hungry for fresh horror tales and legends, and Judaism is just brimming with tales about the unseen creatures that hide behind the realm of space and time.”

“The demonology in Judaism is extraordinarily old and vast — there is an appetite for this material,” they said. “Hopefully we break open this subgenre. Our hope is that with the success of our film, other filmmakers will feel confident to further examine the rich and vibrant Jewish imagination.”

Jewish Horror Films: A Small Genre with a Long History

Jewish-themed horror films are few and far between. That makes The Offering a rare breed. It’s already been screened at the annual Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, the largest genre film festival in the US, and at Los Angeles’ Beyond Fest, which is the highest attended genre film festival in the US.

The Golem, a German silent film released in 1915 and directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen, was one of the first horror films to tackle Jewish themes and ideas. Over a century later, the 2021 horror film The Vigil highlighted the Hasidic Jewish community of Brooklyn. The Offering is the first feature horror film getting an international release since The Vigil that is based on Jewish texts, sources and folklore, Park said.

As opposed to most horror films that are based on more Christian ideas, the storyline of The Offering is focused on Jewish ideals, rituals, like shiva, and Jewish main characters. Hoffman and Yunger were also very focused on portraying the Hasidic Jewish community as accurately as possible, without the stigmas and stereotypes that usually surround the community. 

“We wanted to dispel antisemitism by creating Hasidic characters whose deaths would elicit sympathy and care for Hasidic men whom, in the media landscape up to now, have been depicted as chauvinists and tyrants devoid of humanity and love,” they said. “And frankly, that really doesn’t do justice to the majority of them. So by evoking the tragedy of human loss, albeit Hasidic human loss, we hoped to bridge the cultural divide where anyone outside of Judaism can identify and feel for these men.”

The Offering will be released in theaters in the US and online on Jan. 13. Watch the film’s official trailer below.

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