"Up the ancient stairs, behind the locked door, something lives, something evil, from which no one has ever returned." Most of us wouldn't describe Oakland's magnificent Dunsmuir Mansion, scene of many a charity Christmas tour, in such terms, but it was the shooting location for Burnt Offerings, and the film makes a pretty convincing case for urban renewal. Local critic Jack Brooks put it succinctly: "The house is the real star....The house is the possessor, not the possessed." Karen Black and Oliver Reed also star, as a couple who rent the place for the summer, bringing their son and aged aunt (Bette Davis) in tow. They are quickly absorbed, however, by the house. The film is an exercise in gothic horror-events are determined by the space to which they are confined, pretty much as they are in the womb. We won't make a case for Burnt Offerings as a masterpiece of the genre, but if you have a mother, or a house, you won't be unaffected by its particular brand of horror.