Aahana Swrup
‘The Offering’ is a horror film directed by Oliver Park that features Nick Blood, Emily Wiseman, Paul Kaye, and Allan Corduner. It revolves around Arthur and his pregnant wife, Claire, who visit Arthur’s Hasidic father, Saul, in order to bury past hatchets. However, when a new body arrives at Saul’s morgue, an ancient demon named Abyzou, who feeds on little children, starts haunting the family’s every move. Ripe with family drama and supernatural interference, ‘The Offering’ is a classic horror flick that explores Jewish mysticism. If you’re curious to see where this demonic affliction leads Arthur and his family, here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘The Offering.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Offering Plot Synopsis
The film opens with Yosille, a scholar, performing a ritual in his house to seal an ancient Shedim, the Jewish counterpart of a demon. Afterward, when his body is found with an antiquated knife lodged in his chest, Yosille’s murder is written off as a suicide and sent to the morgue. Meanwhile, Arthur returns to Saul’s house in Brooklyn, New York, to patch things up with his Hasidic father. Their relationship had suffered from a rough patch after Arthur married Claire, a gentile. However, now his father tries to make up for his animosity and welcomes Claire with open arms.
Later at dinner, Arthur gets a call about his financial crisis. Arthur plans to apply for a loan from the bank and sort out his finances without his wife knowing. The only catch is: Arthur intends to have Saul put his house as collateral and needs his signature. The next day, a funeral is held at Saul’s house for a young girl named Sarah Scheindal. At the funeral, Arthur bumps into Heimish, his father’s close friend, who dislikes Arthur for abandoning Saul and his community.
Later in the evening, the authorities bring Yosille’s body to Saul’s morgue, and Saul enlists Arthur’s help in performing the mitzvah for Yosille’s body. While Saul steps out for a moment leaving Arthur in charge, Arthur finds a small pendant around Yosille’s neck. As Arthur takes the pendant off the body, a string of strange events happens, and Arthur drops the amulet, breaking it. Soon after, when Sault returns, Arthur discreetly shoves the amulet pieces down a drain. That night, Claire wakes from a nightmare in which Yosille’s dead body attacks her.
The next day, Saul calls a friend after getting suspicious about the knife found in Yosille’s body. Saul discovers that the knife’s handle has engravings of God’s hidden name written backward, a practice used when summoning a Shedim to seal them. However, to do so, there has to be a pendant carrying a holy letter. Otherwise, a seal cannot exist. Since Saul isn’t aware of the amulet Arthur found, he thinks there isn’t a Shedim sealed in the dead body.
Meanwhile, visions of Sarah Scheindal haunt Claire, following her around the house. Eventually, Heimish discovers Arthur’s financial situation and assumes Arthur is only visiting his father to butter him up. When he reveals the information to Saul, it leads to an argument between Arthur and his family.
Although Claire is disappointed in Arthur for keeping a secret from her, she urges him to talk to his dad and apologize. Nevertheless, Arthur loses his nerve at the last second and returns to bed without apologizing to his father. Later, when the house is asleep, Saul sits in his office looking over Arthur’s bank document. Shortly after he signs the collateral papers, the Shedim, Abyzou, attacks Saul and kills him. During Saul’s funeral, both Arthur and Claire suffer from their respective ailments.
After a hostile accusation from Heimish, Arthur’s guilt and grief over his father’s death torments him as he thinks his actions led to Saul’s heart giving up. Meanwhile, Sarah’s ghost continues to haunt Claire. Soon, Abyzou starts controlling Arthur’s actions as he mindlessly carves a sigil onto the house’s entryway floor at night.
Later, when Arthur tries to get Yosille’s body buried, he learns that since Yosille died of suicide, Arthur would need to provide a police report beforehand. His alternative is finding Yosille’s next of kin, so Arthur visits Yosille’s house. At the house, Arthur finds a tape that records Yosille’s attempt to summon an archangel, Martiel, to bring back Yosille’s dead wife. Yosille employs Sarah Scheindel’s help, but instead of Martiel, his ritual summons Abyzou, the taker of children who kills Sarah and enters the mortal realm.
The Offering Ending: Who Is Abyzou?
Abyzou is an ancient demon whose myths date back to the 1st Century AD in Near East and European regions. After killing Saul, Abyzou visits Claire in the form of Aida, Yosille’s late wife, and asks Claire to show her Yosille’s dead body. Once Abyzou finds Yosille’s dead body, she manipulates Claire into finding Yosille’s amulet and asks her to burn it. After Claire destroys Yosille’s amulet, his dead body catches fire with it, and Aida disappears. By burning the amulet and Yosille’s body, Claire unknowingly breaks the seal keeping Abyzou trapped.
Now that Abyzou is free, she holds Claire hostage. When Arthur returns home, Abyzou prevents him from fleeing the house with Claire and asks him to bring her a young kid in exchange for his wife’s life. Arthur refuses and seeks out Heimish’s help regardless of their differences. After Arthur shows Heimish the tape, Hemish recruits the aid of a kabbalist he knows named Chaymin.
When Chaymin arrives, he tells Arthur that the sigil he has carved on the floor is a sacrificial altar used to offer sacrifices to Abyzou. A long time ago, Abyzou used to inflict misery upon families by causing miscarriages and manipulating people into making them offer sacrifices to her. By doing so, she preyed on young children and fed on them. However, she was concealed by God with the help of Abraham. After Yosille accidentally brought back Abyzou, he sealed the Shedim to himself with the amulet by sacrificing himself. As such, in order to save Claire from Abyzou, Arthur must sacrifice himself and trap Yosille in his dead body.
Does Arthur Die?
Chaymin asks Arthur to use the remaining pieces of the amulet to perform the sealing ritual. He also collects Yosille’s ashes to create a protective circle for Arthur. However, Abyzou kills Chaymin before he can guide Arthur through the ritual, leaving Arthur and Heimish to their own devices. While they work on finishing the ash circle, Abyzou shows Arthur visions of his father to trick him. Heimish brings Arthur back to reality and grounds him by giving him Saul’s praying book, Siddur.
Soon, Arthur hears his wife’s screams as she cries out for his help, and he leaves the ash circle. At the house’s entryway, he watches as the Abyzou lifts Claire in the air and traps her against a wall. Arthur recites prayers that make Abyzou enter his body in a reverse exorcism. He then crawls towards his knife but is unable to reach it. In the nick of time, Heimish shows up and hands Arthur the blade. Arthur tells Heimish he won’t be able to take his own life and begs him for help.
After Heimish helps Arthur stab himself, Abyzou reveals the Heimish in front of Arthur to be a fake. The real Heimish lies dead nearby. While struggling against Abyzou’s powers during his prayer, Arthur lost his amulet. As a result, when he finishes the ritual by killing himself, he fails to bind Abyzou, and his sacrifice goes in vain.
What Happens To Claire And Her Child?
Ever since Claire’s nightmare about Yosille attacking her, she gets infected by visions of Sarah. Abyzou uses these visions to try and trick Claire into giving her what she wants. Similarly, Abyzou also visits Claire as Aida and gets her to burn Yosille’s dead body and amulet that frees Abyzou from her entrapment. Afterward, she tries to compel Claire to step into the sacrificial altar. Since Claire is pregnant with a child, Abyzou wants to feed on the unborn baby to quell her hunger.
After Arthur’s sacrifice fails, Claire wakes under a table as if all that had happened since Aida’s visit had only been a dream. She hears Arthur return home and runs to the entryway to see him. However, as she makes her way to Arthur, she steps into the center of the sacrificial altar. Throughout the movie, Abyzou only ever feeds on Sarah only when Sarah remains inside the sacrificial altar. Even after, Abyzou escapes Yosille’s seal, she asks Arthur to bring her a child. As such, it becomes clear that Abyzou cannot feed on a child until they are an offering to her inside the altar.
Therefore, after Arthur and Heimish’s death, Abyzou deceives Claire into a sense of security by showing her a false vision. When Claire wakes under the table, she is actually experiencing a hallucination that Abyzou wants her to see. Abyzou uses Arthur to draw Claire out so that she willingly steps into the altar. Once Claire is inside the altar, Abyzou kills Claire and takes her unborn child as an offering.
Since Abyzou has killed everyone who knows about her escape into the mortal world, no one is left to send her back. She now exists among the humans, tormenting them and feeding on their children until someone finishes what Arthur started and traps Abyzou with a binding ritual.
Read More: Is The Offering Based on a True Story?
