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Offspring is a film about cannibals in Michigan, even if I did think I detected Antipodean accents amongst the cast.
Starting low key, it’s one thing for a man to step outside and spot a strange, half-naked woman roaming around at the bottom of the garden, but it’s another for the woman who returns home drunk and discovers the visitors in her kitchen, eating away at the others who lived there, giving a good reason for the 18-certificate.
Lifelong cop George (Art Hindle, below) is called in to help. You’ll quickly spot him: he’s the guy who’s so jumpy, he sleeps with his gun in his hand! Then again, it’s a good thing in this environment, when these individuals have the strength of ten.
Offspring has some very weird sound FX, a female cannibal who whips herself, and a ton of grim dead bodies, for which the police can’t find any reason… and when they do discover it, they still won’t believe it!
Elsewhere, a Flash Harry, David (Andrew Elvis Miller) picks up hitchhiker Susan (Jana Veldheer), and given his actions, you do want him to get a slapdown at some point… but will it happen?
One issues is that the dialogue’s a bit muffled at times, and there were no subtitles on the version I saw, apart from when the cannibals are all talking in their own language.
Overall, Offspring isn’t great, but it’s worth a look as a precursor to 2011’s great cannibal movie, The Woman, since although I knew that Pollyanna McIntosh stars in the titular role, and since that film feels like a continuation of this one, I didn’t realise how that one is essentially a follow-on from this. Hence, why they’re now in the same boxset.
When I watched Offspring, it was just the film alone, but if you buy this package, then you also get the following extras:
- Brand new 4K restorations of The Woman and Offspring, supervised and approved by Lucky McKee and Andrew van den Houten
- Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork for both films by Vanessa McKee
- Collectors booklet featuring new writing by Michael Blyth, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Kevin Kovelant
Disc 1: The Woman:
- New 4K restoration supervised and approved by Lucky McKee
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- New commentary with director Lucky McKee, editor Zach Passero, sound designer Andrew Smetek and composer Sean Spillane
- New commentary by star Pollyanna McIntosh
- New commentary by critic Scott Weinberg
- Archive commentary with director Lucky McKee
- Dad on the Wall, a brand new 75-minute fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes documentary filmed by the director’s father Mike McKee
- Being Peggy Cleek, a newly filmed interview with star Lauren Ashley Carter
- Malam Domesticam, an archive making-of featurette
- Meet The Makers, a short featurette on the making of the film
- Deleted Scenes
- Mi Burro, a short film by editor Zach Passero
- Distracted music video by Sean Spillane
- Frightfest Total Film Panel Discussion, a 2011 onstage chat
- Theatrical trailers
- Image galleries
Disc 2: Offspring (Limited Edition Exclusive):
- New 4K restoration supervised and approved by Andrew van den Houten
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- New commentary by director/producer Andrew van den Houten
- Archive commentary with writer Jack Ketchum, director/producer Andrew van den Houten and producer/cinematographer William M. Miller
- New interview with Pollyanna McIntosh and Andrew van den Houten
- Fly on the Wall, a brand new fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes documentary
- Extended interview with Jack Ketchum
- Restoration comparison
- Progeny: The Birth of Offspring, an archive behind-the-scenes featurette including interviews with cast and crew First Stolen s Bailout, an archive behind-the-scenes featurette
- Webisodes, short featurettes used to promote the film online
- Archive Easter Eggs
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- BD-ROM screenplay
Offspring film score: 6/10
Offspring and The Woman Special Edition is out now on Blu-ray Special Edition. The Woman is also available on Amazon Video.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 79 minutes (Offspring) / 103 minutes (The Woman)
Year: 2009 / 2011
Distributor: Arrow Films
Released: May 25th 2020
Cat.no: FCD2007
Languages: English
Widescreen: Offspring: 1.78:1 (16:9) (Super 16) / The Woman: 1.78:1 (16:9) (HDCAM SR)
Director: Andrew van den Houten
Producers: William M Miller, Robert Tonino, Andrew van den Houten
Screenplay / Novel: Jack Ketchum
Music: Ryan Shore
Cast:
Woman: Pollyanna McIntosh
George Chandler: Art Hindle
Eartheater: Jessica Butler
Loreen Kaltsas: Kelly Carey
Vic Manetti: Holter Graham
Gloria: TJ Graye
First Stolen: Stephen Grey
Second Stolen: Leigh Shannan
Amy Halbard: Amy Hargreaves
Stephen Carey: Erick Kastel
Cave Baby: John Kochaney
Cop #1: Matt Larkin
Cop #2: Daniel Lemieux
Rabbit: Spencer List
Max Joseph: Jack Ketchum (as Dallas Mayr)
Luke: Tommy Nelson
Will Campbell: Frank Olsen
Detective: Scott Mellema
Baby Melissa: Emma Messing
David Halbard: Andrew Elvis Miller
Hitchhiker Susan: Jana Veldheer
Biting Baby Double: Will Miller
Boy: Preston Mulligan
Cow: Ed Nelson
Miles Harrison: Taylor John Piedmonte
Claire Carey: Ahna Tessler
Assistant Medical Examiner: Andrew van den Houten
Girl: Rachel White
EMS: Robert Tonino
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.