Oculus - Il riflesso del male

Convincing horror effortlessly weaves together past, present, truth, & perception. Makes you question what you're witnessing while remaining completely believable. Twisted & unsettling, it's also cinematic proof redheads are crazy.

#nitrosMovieChallenge.

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

When her younger brother is finally released from a psychiatric facility years after his conviction for the murder of their parents, a woman seeks to prove the existence of the malignant and supernatural force she believes actually responsible. Conveniently, the locale of said force is a mirror and therefore easily transportable back to the family home-come-erstwhile crime scene.

Playing out less like the haunted house story one might expect from the outline above, this interesting take on psychological horror initially subverts expectations by presenting us with a brave and capable heroine with a well thought out (though necessarily flawed) plan. Writer and Director Mark Flanagan who later made the derivative and lacklustre Hush (2016)* and valiantly attempted the 'unfilmable' Stephen King adaptation Gerald's Game (2017), has made female protagonists with agency a feature of his work.**

There is some real artistry in the way Oculus employs the storytelling technique of constantly shifting between flashback and present day. Over and above using this device as a clever short cut to character development, it is in the moments where past and present seemingly overlap that the viewer receives the most vivid portrayal of the characters' fraying mental state.

Yet it is perhaps these intriguing elements which become the film's worst enemy. In allowing these glimpses into the mind of the characters, there are hints of a rich vein of storytelling left unplundered and therefore 'setup' without payoff. Rather than leaving us wanting more, the untapped potential of Oculus has the unintended effect of relegating it toward mediocrity.

Oculus is not without gore nor jump scares and most fans of the horror genre will therefore find it serviceable. Yet in setting up something truly unique and promising a subversion of the genre, there is the abiding feeling that the film lacks the courage of its convictions.

* Specifically derivative of the excellent Wait Until Dark (1967). ** Deaf and Mute or handcuffed to a bed though they may be.

Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) gets released from a mental hospital. Eleven years earlier, his parents (Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane) get a mysterious mirror. His father supposedly tortured and killed his mother. In the present, his sister Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) rediscovers the mirror. Tim has only fragmentary memories of the incident. Kaylie aims to prove the murderous supernatural nature of the mirror. Michael Dumont (James Lafferty) is Kaylie's boss at the auction house and her boyfriend.

This movie has great moodiness. Much of it is due to the cold look and the vibrating sound design. Gillan is great. There is real tension about memories and reality when Tim disagrees with Kaylie. It's an old fashion horror like a ghost story told by the camp fire. It is expertly revealed. Everybody including the kids are great. The last act does get a little muddled as it tries to ramp up the excitement while trying to wind down the plot. It would have been great to have Gillan continue as the lead as the franchise inevitably continues.

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.