MovieChat Forums > Burnt Offerings (1976) Discussion > was 'the shining' a ripoff of this movie...

was 'the shining' a ripoff of this movie?

posted 11 years ago by clockworkorange13
28 replies | jump to latest

(Spoilers)

I mean the similarities between the two movies are very obvious. And "The Shining" was written one year after this movie came out. It even says in the trivia for this movie that its one of Stephen Kings favorite movies.

-the building is alive and evil in both movies
-in both movies one person wants to leave (oliver reed in this movie and Shelly Duvall in the shining) and someone wants to stay in order to fulfill their duties (Karen black in burnt offerings and jack Nicholson in the shining)
-both movies end with a shot of the picture(s) of the people that are absorbed by the building

[–] potiukd 9 years ago

I was thinking the same thing while watching Burnt Offerings the other day. It seems that there are a lot of similarities between the two movies.

[–] bigdaddyboxmeal 8 years ago

Massive reach to be honest. There are definitely similarities in the very very basic general outline of the plot but the actual ways in which the films progress are entirely different.

Technically you could say it's the same as Amityville Horror because of the pervading evil of some sort within a house that plagues a family.

Technically you could say it's the same as Poltergeist because of the pervading evil of some sort within a house that plagues a family.

And so on. And so forth.

These are all very different films.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Come on, man.

The similarities go a lot further than the things you describe, which are pretty common in ghost stories.

The characters and other details have so much in common.

[–] marquettam-68611 8 years ago

I was once told that 75% of the horror movies made have similarities to an episode Twilight Zone.

[–] kenburke (2285) 6 years ago

I felt the same way. I KNOW imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but...

[–] atd8vii (592) 6 years ago

When watching this movie I got more of an Amityville Horror vibe than The Shining, not to say that King wasn't influenced by this which very likely since it's one of his favorite films, but the similarities and played out in different ways.

[–] jlam888 (576) 4 years ago

The Shining is more Amityville Horror than Burnt Offerings IMO.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

They definitely have some similarities.

[–] ReneeFindley (34) a year ago

Oh, DEFINITELY.