2/5 A Mediocre Book-To-Film Adaptation
  by Brian Lueth (Chicago, IL United States)
Folks, it was bound to happen to Ketchum, it happens to authors all the time, amazing books occasionally end up as barely tolerable cinematic adaptations. In this case the bad cinematic adaptation was spawned from a mediocre novel and, unfortunately, Ketchum is partially to blame as he scripted this adaptation. Thus far Ketchum's work has remained safe from the usually withering touch of death wielded by Hollywood, The Lost and Girl Next Door were both fantastic films and the as-yet unseen Red starring Brian Cox is still highly anticipated. You win some, you lose some though, right?

Offspring isn't a horrible film, it just wasn't very good at all; the directing wasn't strong, the dialogue was clunky and the characters clichéd, the entire thing felt amateurish (especially the acting) and incomplete.

Many people enjoyed this film due to the fair amount of gore on display, and there was, but it just doesn't change my opinion of this film. Gore, when done right, is certainly a plus but it can never make up for a wobbly story that depends on the opening title sequence to fill in the back story viewers will no doubt be asking about by closing credits. By far this is the weakest entry in this year's Ghost House Underground series and, without a doubt, the low point of Ketchum's films. No biggie though, it happens to King all the time. Hell, I'm not sure there's EVER been a decent Koontz film!

I just didn't dig Offspring, it was my least favorite of the films based on Ketchum novels, but that's just inevitability, it would have only been a matter of time before there was a dud. Andrew van den Houten's company Modernciné has produced and released some good stuff so I don't want to come across as being a hater but this was a swing and a miss.

2/5 GUESS WHOS COMING FOR DINNER
  by Michael Butts (Martinsburg, WV USA)
Maybe I'm getting too old or maybe I've seen too many horror movies but it seems that there's a fine line between entertainment and exploitive voyeurism. OFFSPRING lays on the gore and blood without any real regard to plot or acting, offering nothing but torture and sadism. This is the weakest of the recent Ghost House releases--THE THAW and THE CHILDREN are much better. If you're into this type of film, you'll probably enjoy this one.

2/5 Good for direct to DVD
  by L. Kiss (Los Angeles, CA USA)
Since I am a fan of Jack Ketchum's novels and this was one of my favorites I had to see it (although I have no interest in seeing his other film adaptions).

It's direct to DVD and I knew what to expect. I wasn't that disappointed, mostly because the running time is short and it has some ok production design. The location scout deserves most of the credit in this movie and it was filmed in the US (I have a thing about runaway film productions, they should be labeled as "foreign films")

This film had so much potential but is extremely lackluster. Who thought crazy, cannibal kids could be so trite? The costumes, wigs, and makeup effects look like leftovers from the bargain bin at a Halloween store a week after October 31. This alone could have saved it even from the poor acting performances (which could have been saved through editing).

I have to admit it was nice not to be bombarded with bad CGI for once.

I gave two stars for effort, the location captures the setting in the book, short running time, and being filmed in the US. You won't loose any sleep if you don't see it.

2/5 CHILDREN OF THE CORNY
  by Robert F. Powers (Quincy, Ma USA)
The Offspring is one of those movies that's so awful you have to stare at the screen and keep watching to see if it can get any worse. It does. Cannibalistic, feral children whose idea of show and tell is disembowelment-and a simple disembowelment is a slow night to these kids. They grunt, stab, grunt, mutilate, grunt,and the quickly passed over reason for their existence is that they are the offspring of the children of a lighthouse keeper gone missing off the coast of Maine in the 19th century. I gave this movie two stars because despite the lousy plot, lousy script, lousy acting--the cannibal kids can't even grunt convincingly, the movie is so fascinatingly bad that everyone should watch it to see just how bad a movie can be. Oh scratch that thought----don't watch it.





4/5 Offspring Delivers Undemanding Fun
  by Crawlspace Man (USA)
I definitely agree with the reviews for this film that tagged it a bit of a disappointment. A lot of the horror and character development present in the novel just does not come through even though Ketchum himself penned the script. However, I AM a major Ketchum fan and, on a fun level, I thought this movie delivered. Feral, cave-dwelling children? Art Hindle? Mutant intercourse? How could you go wrong? I guess I'm just a little easier to please. I felt there was some decent gore and violence, and I thought that the direction, while not stellar, was adequate. I really don't need any sweeping crane shots of pots of boiling human innards, anyway. I don't need to see the artful lighting of a man's intestines being pulled from his belly by hungry teeth. Well, I'm sure that anyone who is as big a fan of Ketchum as I am would agree that, overall, the film was disappointing. But, like I said, I can overlook the flaws in this ugly little flick and dig on the fun parts. But, anyway, if you're a big Ketchum fan, are you really going to listen to what any of these reviews have to say? If you're like me, you're going to watch it anyway. Just keep in mind it's far from perfect.