Though it doesn’t quite reach the potential of its premise, Oculus packs in enough tension to make it a solid horror movie
Yet another entry in the psychological horror rooted in childhood emotional trauma genre. Running in two different timelines, Oculus follows a brother and sister as they try to destroy a mirror that contained the ghosts that haunted them in their childhood.
Although it is void of any big scares that would have made it the movie horror fans were looking for, Oculus targets something far more terrifying. Your mind. Mike Flanagan’s focus on the feeling of dread and underlying darkness will take you, chill you to the bone, and make you reevaluate your own sanity, which is all we can ask for when it comes to the horror of today.
The premise of Oculus is simple and neatly explained in its tagline: “you see what it wants you to see.” The aforementioned “it” being a mirror in this case. However, it has been told in many forms throughout the years. A music box, a haunted doll, the line of haunted object movies is endless, but Oculus is more successful than these entries because of its clear focus.
The film begins with Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) just before he is released from a psychiatric hospital. Eleven years prior his father murdered their mother under the influence of a malevolent supernatural force, however through intensive therapy doctors were able to convince Tim that it was solely his father who tormented the family.
Shortly after his release, he meets with his older sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan), who his doctors warn did not have the benefit of therapy following their childhood trauma, which shows. Through her work at an auction house, Kaylie is able to track down the mirror that tormented them in their youth. Almost immediately after her brother’s release (and when I say immediately I mean at lunch on the way home from the hospital) Kaylie reveals her plan to document the mirror’s evil intentions and powers before finally destroying it. Not the best idea ever.
The mirror is able to change your perception of reality. So when a man thinks he is taking off his band-aid with a staple remover, he is actually digging into his flesh. Isn’t it a lovely image? However, it isn’t the gore that is terrifying, it is the idea of not being in control.
The siblings return to their childhood home armed with cameras, timers (reminding them to eat and drink), thermometers, and an enormous anchor designed to destroy the mirror should anything happen to the pair. Kaylie even has her boyfriend Michael (James Lafferty) call them every hour to ensure they are still alive, although he does this under the impression that she is fearful of her brother. Nice. It’s clear Kaylie has been planning this for a while. Eventually, the film spirals into a dark pit of disturbing images that make the siblings question their own sanity.
Throughout the ordeal, the film flashes back to the siblings’ childhood and the events that started their torment. The screenwriters didn’t do much to differentiate their “dad’s an assh**le because he was possessed by a ghost and is probably going to kill us” premise from other movies like The Shining and The Amityville Horror. However, unlike these movies we don’t have an emotional connection to either their father Alan (Rory Cochrane) or their mother (Katee Sackoff in a wonderful performance). The story felt contrived and familiar without any deep rooted baggage to go along with the insidious darkness that consumes them. However, the saving grace were the fine performances by Annalise Bassoa and Garrett Ryan as the young Kaylie and Tim.
Despite this setback, the beauty of Oculus lies in its unnerving ability to get you to question the sanity of the two leads. In turn, we question our eyes. What we see on screen isn’t necessarily real either. The result is the questioning of our own sanity. It’s the perpetual unnerving dread of the film that creates most of the horror. Even in light, there is an insidious darkness lurking.
But where the film finally does fail is where countless horror and psychological thrillers fail. Once you are able to forgive the screenwriters, who also must be blamed for some clunky dialogue, for the well-realized yet terribly feigned procession of scenes that build up to the climax, we are let down by an inevitable final act twist that we can see coming a mile away.
In the end, Oculus doesn’t become the film we wanted it to be. Its brilliant first two acts suggest that there may be something new and fresh hidden underneath, but it is never fully realized. Either way, the final product is a beautifully shot and wonderful acted entry in the never-ending pool of niche horror movies looking to shock, scare, and unnerve.
6.5/10
Oculus is available on Digital HD on Amazon!
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.
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