Oculus

Even though it wasn't as scary or gory, as I wanted it to be. It still managed to creep me out and get on my nerves, with it's very creative and elaborate story and excellent performances from all it's cast. I really enjoyed the chemistry between the two younger actors played by Annalise Basso & Garrett Ryan, and the relationship they had as characters, which added a lot of heart and sentiment to the whole story. Moreover, this movie was more a drama with some horror, because it didn't played with the whole scare and gore factors, but instead it was more about the the story behind the mirror and the effect it had with the people that surrounded it. It would be a good idea to make this a franchise because of how extensive its universe could be, as well as how many different stories and characters it could incorporate and continue to haunt, even though it's ending was melodramatic to me, it felt conclusive and eerily heartbreaking. Overall, it was a very good little drama-horror film that goes more farther than you could imagine and think.

This was really not that bad for a horror movie. The whole mirror monster sort of thing has been done before but what made this movie refreshing to me was the complete mind trip that was going on throughout the movie. I spent more than like 3/4ths of the movie utterly confused yet it made sense by the end. It was all over the place but slowly, I was able to piece things together. I personally thought it had the right amount of horror that it was actually able to make me jump at some parts without being too cringe worthy like most horror films are. Also, I was impressed with what was done despite the simplicity of the film. Tons of thrills, tons of fun. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this.

Far more than a tale of supernatural horror, "Oculus" explores the fundamental terror of not being able to trust one's own mind. Newly released from mental institution incarceration, a young man is swept along by his sister to confront the demon in the mirror to shattering results. Too often, an evil force is described as unbeatable, and then easily beat. Not so here...

As ends go, this one goes dark-perhaps to realism within the rules of the world, but unsatisfying to those wishing for any kind of redeeming factor.

Other points dissatisfy, such as the amount of dialogue the actors have to say as quickly as they can, particularly Kaylie. And then Kaylie's odd face-framing bangs and her extension ponytail.

Overall though, a terrifying experience. If you'd like to watch a movie by this director Mike Flanagan that does balance a sense of consequence as well as victory, watch "Doctor Sleep" based on Stephen King's sequel his classic story The Shining.

This is a classic ghost story.

I won't spoil anything, but for a haunted mirror movie, I found it VERY effective.

There are only really 6 people in the film. The parents, and the children at 2 different ages. The film is not really linear, and it took me a while to get the flow of the constant changing from today and yesterday. Once I got it, I found it very clever.

What impressed me the most, however, is that there is hardly any blood, no nudity, no profanity, no sex, no gore and it scared the crap out of me!

No, it doesn't reinvent the genre (can you even really do that with the haunted mirror genre?), but it is a well crafted, well acted movie that really kept my interest all the way through.

The young girl was especially effective.

The film starts off slow and methodical and really hits its stride about the half way mark.

We need more films like this. Smart, clever "little" films - a few characters, a few props and lots of chills and thrills.

Please see this!

8/10

A while ago I reluctantly accepted that we will probably never see a truly groundbreaking horror movie again. A film that is both truly cinematic and gut-wrenchingly horrifying. Hollywood has just become to commercialized, too calculated, and to conveyor belt-like in its approach to horror. Everything is summer blockbuster, Oscar season, and the crap that comes out January-March. Horror has become a get-rich- quick investment for producers. Invest small, obtain profit 10-fold.

But once in a while, a horror film gives us a glimmer of hope. Not redemption, but a little window of light from someone who almost gets it. And the skunkworks group from the Saw-Insidious-The Conjuring clan are to thank for that. They're latest work, Oculus, is the story of a brother and sister who obtain a mirror from their childhood that (they think) was responsible for the possession and murder of their parents. They rig their childhood home with cameras and lights, and wait for the proof that the mirror is possessed to get captured on camera.

Oculus is properly scary and, once you get past the awkward first 20 minutes, has a wonderfully progressive nature to it. Too many "horror" film nowadays deliver an uneven stream of gut-punches in the form of BOOM scares and disfigured faces. Oculus relies on an unsettling tonality, and a quantum state of uncertainty, making it a much more effective scare. The colors and set design is vintage Gothic horror, and the majority of the film is flashback driven which is was a very creative storytelling method and integrates perfectly with the story. And there's a scene or two that were so intense, I was making noises like I was lowering myself into scalding water, and fighting the intrinsic urge to turn my head.

My frustrations are centered on the beginning and the end. The first 20 minutes of the film, which set the story in place, is the only part of Oculus that takes place outside the house. It feels tacked on, ham-fisted in its delivery and lacks narrative, especially against the rest of the film. And given the flashback-heavy story, I believe the setting of the story could've been built into the flashbacks, strengthing the narrative and setting the whole film inside the house, which would make the film feel terrifyingly claustrophobic. And about the ending... It's just clichéd, predicable, abrupt and leaves too many questions unanswered.

Oculus isn't the last word in horror or quality, but it's scary as hell and it does what so few horror films do nowadays; it dissolves the world around you and makes you buy into a ridiculous story. The weak narrative gets a little long in the tooth around the third act, and I was left wondering if the script was ever going to reveal anything worth discovering. And ultimately it doesn't. Much like the never-ending winter we've had, we've had so many lackluster horror films lately, that when an average film comes along it feels like a gift.