The American Film Institute inductively reasoned the book may have been written based on the un-produced screenplay. Burnt Offerings was directed by Dan Curtis, most known for television horror works such as the TV series Dark Shadows (1966–1971) and made-for-TV films like The Night Stalker (1972). Not counting House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971) —theatrically released feature film adaptations of the TV series— it was the only original theatrical feature he ever directed. When offered to do the project, he found the novel uninteresting, particularly what he called its "nothing" ending, and joked to himself, "I bet some idiot who doesn't know what he's doing will come along and make this." William F. Nolan removed the first third of the book where the family was in New York City, finding it didn't work, and the chauffeur was conceived by him and unique to the film. Filming took place in August 1975 at the Dunsmuir House located in Oakland, California. Burnt Offerings was the first movie to be filmed at the Dunsmuir House. According to a commentary with Dan Curtis, William F. Nolan, and Karen Black, Curtis reveals that his rationale for the fog machine was to shoot "motes." Bette Davis reportedly had conflicts with Karen Black, feeling that Black did not extend to her an appropriate degree of respect and that her behavior on the film set was unprofessional. Critical reception Arizona Republic critic Mike Petryni was creeped out by the film, particularly the smiling chauffeur, but felt it was ruined by an emphasis on constant thrills over subtle horror. He also was confused about several concepts, such as why Marian was handling Mrs. Allardyce's trays. George Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette criticized the film as dependent on typical horror tropes such as shocks and loud music hits; he also described the tension as "a lot of sinister huffing and puffing to little effect", noting how most of the runtime is spent on mystery of which characters are the antagonists or protagonists. While calling Meredith and Heckart the best performers in the film, Richard Dyer of The Boston Globe argued the material gave the actors little to work with; he called Black "particularly inconsistent", Reed "looking like an eggplant", and stated Davis "tries to create a Bette Davis character without any Bette Davis lines to work with, so all she can do is puff and