Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan

Saw this at the Dead by Dawn film festival in Edinburgh and it was the best short film screened there this year in my opinion.

Essentially this is a one man show with Scott Graham alone with an evil mirror for much of the running time. While this doesn't sound particularly exciting, this growing feeling of paranoia and the increasing madness of the lone character propel the story.

Keep an eye on the video monitors that have been set up for the experiment, it's a small but very creepy touch.

Oculus is part 3 of a 9 part story. If Mike Flanagan can keep up this level of invention then I look forward to further entries.

This is the short film which director Mike Flanagan made which was a precursor for his 2013 feature film starring Karen Gillan. Once again it is essentially about an antique haunted mirror. Given the short running time and low budget its perhaps not too surprising that this is a pretty minimalistic bit of work, which boils down to one man locking himself in a room set up with recording equipment in order to observe the fateful mirror. It is a bit limited given the basic set-up but Flanagan nevertheless manages to keep this involving enough, with several odd moments and some historical background on the deadly artefact.

PS: I have no idea why this is titled 'chapter 3', as there does not seem to be a chapter 1 or 2 that I am aware of!

Can't rate it as I have only seen the trailer, but it looks phenomenal. I love the minimalism, and that Flanagan doesn't try to do more with effects than his budget allows. He seems to work well within his limitations, rather than trying to stretch beyond them, which might distract the viewer from the atmosphere he intends to create.

I need to find this on DVD, ASAP. Any suggestions?

I went to school with Scotty Graham. Best friend I ever had. When he becomes famous, I'll make him buy my silence on all sorts of drunken childhood exploits the two of us shared. Just kidding about the last part. He was my best man at my wedding. Really happy for him.

Mike Flanagan's first short film is a mere exercise in the techniques that the director would incorporate into his films. Something this short film does well is the setting and psychological tension. The actor overacts too much, but in part you can feel how he is going crazy due to the evil presence of the mirror. It can be said that it is a short film with a pleasing atmosphere. It's a shame that as far as production goes, it doesn't move away from being a homemade project. Flanagan was not yet a high-level filmmaker and did not have the necessary elements for this short film to be something a little higher than a project made for a film festival. A mistake was to title this short film as the third installment of an anthology that in the end did not materialize. It would have been convenient for the short film not to have the word "Chapter 3" in the title or at least for more short films to be made focusing on Tim's tragedy that was materialized in the feature film. The Man With A Plan is nothing more than another of the many projects made by filmmakers who were just starting out and it is only suggested to see it when there is interest in studying the career of Mike Flanagan. My final rating for this short film is a 4/10.

THIS is what real inventive indie film-making is all about! Thanks to my connection to the horror review site KILLER REVIEWS.com (I'm a staff writer there), I had the privilege of finally seeing this. I'm still amazed at how much of it was based solely on building a sense of ever-increasing dread without so much as seeing a single limb hacked off and barely any blood at all!

Director Mike Flanagan reinforces the theory that still stands the test of time: it's not what you can see that really scares you, but what you CAN'T. Kudos as well to Scott Graham for a tremendous performance as a young man trying to solve the mystery of his parents' deaths and the connection the antique mirror (the focus of the story) has to what happened. No spoilers here, folks: if you haven't seen this yet at a local festival, hopefully you'll get the chance if this becomes part of a horror shorts collection in the future.

Mike Flanagan is definitely a director to watch, and Scott Graham is well on his way to following in the footsteps of great genre actors such as Jeffrey Combs and Bruce Campbell.

Outstanding first effort, and I hope to see MUCH more...