Offering to the Storm (original title Ofrenda a la tormenta) is a Spanish Thriller from 2020, directed by Fernando González Molina and the third of the Baztán Trilogy. Amaia’s investigation of the cult gets more and more entangled with her own personal life.
Since escaping after trying to kill her own grandson, thinking it was a girl, Rosário (played by Susi Sánchez) is missing and presumed dead by the authorities. Her daughter, Amaia (played by Marta Etura), however, is sure she’s alive, what leaves her family in constant danger.
Together with sub-inspector Jonan (played by Carlos Librado best know as Nene), Amaia keeps investigating the baby-killing cult, discovering a very long history of it and many more people with the lives touched by them.
Meanwhile, Judge Markina (played by Leonardo Sbaraglia), is still in love with Amaia, and now even verbalizing it to her. This situation creates a complicated work relationship that might get in the way of the investigation.
I’ll be referencing the two previous reviews in this one, so I recommend that you watch them before continuing here.
Offering to the Storm is much more similar to The Legacy of the Bones than to The Invisible Guardian. There’s more fluidity in the transition from the second to the third movie. The fact that only a month has passed also helps.
Some things from the previous two movies were elucidated in this supposedly last one. For example, the Serial Killer aspects I found unrealistic in “The Invisible Guardian”, were explained in “Offering to the Storm”. In that sense, the third film is like Steve Nash, with the role of making the others even better.
In addition to that, the movie leaves many things open, suggesting a possible continuation of the story, because the mystery is clearly not solved yet. Maybe a whole new trilogy, or a stand-alone narrative, or a big “fuck you” to the audience, we’ll see.
The group I’ve been calling a cult in the reviews seems more organized in this third film, and with tentacles in powerful positions credibly. By “credibly”, I mean nothing cheesy like controlling the King of Spain or some bullshit like that garbage series The Following.
The introduction of the character Yolanda (played by Marta Larralde), is a very welcome one. She’s someone who believes her children were victims of this cult, so we see a personification of the consequences of the sacrifices.
Another thing I liked about this movie was how emotional it was. I felt it was the one that played the most with the audience’s feelings with events that we really cared about.
However, this time I feel the movie was a little messier than the previous installments. Too many things happen and too disorderly, if I was a little disperse, I could have gotten a little lost.
Most of the characters I liked in the previous films I appreciate it again in the third. Amaia is great, Fermín Montes (played by Francesc Orella) is still funny, and Flora (played by Elvira Mínguez) surprised positively. Jonan was my favorite once again. In “Offering to the Storm”, we see more from him, his personality, and his personal life.
Aunt Engrasi (played by Itziar Aizpuru), James (played by Benn Northover), and Padre Sarasola (played by Imanol Arias) take a step back, having less important roles this time and having less screen time as a consequence.
Judge Markina is annoying, a typical melodramatic person in love, always looking sad and opening his feelings in the hopes of winning Amaia’s heart. He’s predictable from beginning to end.
I won’t talk about Aloisius Dupree (played by Colin McFarlane) in this video because I don’t remember if he appeared in the film. I remember he’s mentioned, but that’s about it.
The acting is excellent once again. As the most emotional movie of the three, “Offering to the Storm” has some of the best performances. For example, Elvira Mínguez, who shows with mastery a side of the character we hadn’t seen before.
The atmosphere, which was a substantial point in “The Invisible Guardian” and “The Legacy of the Bones”, is not as good in “Offering to the Storm”. The messiness I mentioned earlier was translated to other aspects of the movie, including production design, cinematography, and editing.
The cinematography has many qualities. The colors and lighting are always on point, and there are many compelling shots, some of them really beautiful. The camera movements and angles are mediocre in comparison to “The Invisible Guardian”. However, in some instances, things are so messy that the cinematography looks off.
Part of it is due to the subpar production design, with a chaotic police headquarters, and an awful location with utter importance to the plot. Lastly, some scenes are too packed with people, cars, or other things. The cemetery scenes, for example, are full of people, graves stones and statues, an absolute mess.
The score is good enough. Exactly the same level as “The Legacy of the Bones”. It’s very correct music for the movie, but nothing remarkable.
The stereotype is that the third movie of a franchise is usually the worst. I never really thought about that in other instances, but that’s definitely the case with Offering to the Storm. Although all three movies are at similar levels, in my perspective, this one is slightly below the others.
Offering to the Storm is as good as the others, being the one that most affected me emotionally. Besides that, it’s clear there’s more to the story, I’ll be hoping for new developments. Like the others, Offering to the Storm A.K.A. Ofrenda a la tormenta, gets 8 Moons.
That’s it for now. The trilogy is over, but there are many more movies and series to appreciate here in the future. See you next.
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