Oculus

Plot synopsis:
The movie begins with two young children trying to open the front door in the middle of the night. The children are Kaylie (Annalise Basso) and her younger brother Tim Russell (Garrett Ryan). The pair are obviously trying to escape from the house. They hear footsteps and turn around to see someone carrying a gun approaching. Kaylie steps between the menacing figure and her brother, staring up defiantly at the gunman. The camera rotates so we see a young man holding the gun, looking horrified. The gun fires and...The young man holding the gun wakes up from his nightmare. We soon learn that this young man is a grown up Tim (Brenton Thwaites). He is in a mental hospital. He tells his doctor that this is the first time that he, and not his dad, was holding the gun in his dream. The doctor says that this is Tim's final breakthrough (it signifies that he has finally taken responsibility for past actions) and will recommend that he be released.Meanwhile, we see his now grown sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan). She works for an auction firm and is overseeing an auction with her fiancée and co-worker, Michael Dumont (James Lafferty). They watch as an antique mirror is auctioned off. The mirror, called the "Lasser Glass," is in near mint condition except for a crack in the bottom right-hand corner. The mirror is sold for tens of thousands of dollars.Tim tells his doctor that Kaylie has found him an apartment and is helping him get a job. The doctor says that it is good for he and Kaylie to reconnect, but also reminds Tim that Kaylie did not receive treatment after the incident but was instead sent into foster care. He says Tim must guard himself and make sure Kaylie doesn't undo his recovery. Tim walks out and Kaylie is waiting for him, a smile on her face.She takes Tim out for lunch and they catch up. Suddenly, Kaylie tells Tim she found "it" and they only have a few days to keep their promise. Tim questions what promise she's talking about. Kaylie replies, "To kill it."In a flashback to 11 years ago, the Russell family is moving into a new house. Tim and Kaylie play happily with each other and their family dog. They are watched by their mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff) while their father Alan (Rory Cochrane) begins setting up his new home office and is on the phone with his boss. Although Alan is a workaholic, he loves his kids, calling them by affectionate nicknames. The movers carry the Lasser Glass into the home and place it into Alan's office. Marie is surprised that Alan bought this mirror, but does admire the mirror's beauty.Back in the present, Kaylie drops Tim off at what looks to be a hotel room, saying he could stay with them instead. He insists on staying at the hotel and Kaylie says he promised to not forget what had happened. Tim says he was only ten at the time. Kaylie says she is "doing it" the following night and would like his help. She then leaves.11 years in the past, we see Marie looking in her new bathroom mirror. She lifts up her nightgown to look at her C-section scar. She gets into bed and complains to Alan that her scar looks worse. He asks to look at it and begins kissing her belly while asking "what scar?" Marie is pleased at her husband's flattery and the two make love in their new home.We later see Alan downstairs getting a midnight snack. As he journeys back to the bedroom, he thinks he sees a ghoulish woman in the hallway. He turns on the light and walks into his office, where all he sees is the mirror.Present: Kaylie sleeps in her bed. She is awakened by a dog barking and goes into the hall to find the mirror hanging in one of the rooms. She steps in and examines it, then turns and is attacked by her father, strangling her with a demonic grin. She begins screaming... then wakes up in bed next to Michael who is comforting her. He says she was having one of her night terrors.The next morning, Kaylie is confronted by Michael at work. He notes that she submitted an order to have the Lasser Glass repaired before it is delivered to the winning bidder. Michael says that when he last spoke to the head of the company, the boss had not wanted to repair the mirror. Kaylie says the boss changed his mind. Michael also says that the I.T. department also found images of corpses on her computer. She asks him to have patience with her for a couple of days and then everything will be back to normal. He agrees to stand by her.We see Kaylie walk into the warehouse, where the Lasser Glass is covered by a sheet. She gives the warehouse employee the repair order and tells him she will personally drive the mirror to the repair center. The warehouse employee leaves to process the form and Kaylie takes off the sheet covering the mirror. She sees her reflection and two covered objects behind her. She runs her hand over the crack and then asks the mirror if it remembers her. She also notes that it is probably hungry. She looks up and now sees three objects covered in sheets behind her, and one of the objects moves. She looks behind her and sees only two figures. She turns back to the mirror and says she will be destroying it. Kaylie then sees all three figures behind her move. Kaylie turns around and now there are three objects behind her. She walks over and pulls the sheets off the first two objects, revealing statues underneath. She begins to tug at the third sheet when the warehouse employee comes back in and distracts her. Kaylie looks back and once again sees only two statues. They load the Lasser Glass into her car (covered once again) and Kaylie drives off. Tim calls up Kaylie and says he apologizes for the other day. He wants to see her and asks where they can meet. Kaylie says to meet them at their old home.Past: We see Marie going to water her plants only to find they're all dead. It then cuts to young Kaylie running through the yard, playing laser-tag with her brother. She looks in her dad's office and thinks she sees a woman rubbing Alan's chest. She blinks and the woman disappears. Later at dinner they sit around talking. Alan seems distant and is chewing his nails. Marie says that she always hated that habit. Alan accidentally chews his nail completely off. He goes and puts on a bandage. Kaylie asks him who the woman in his office was. He responds that there was no woman in his office.Present: Tim and Kaylie arrive at the house, Kaylie letting a small dog out of a carrying cage. She tells Tim to look around. Kaylie tells him the house sat on the market until she leased it when she turned 18. She asks him to help her with something before he goes. Tim helps her carry the mirror, still covered, inside their father's old office where there are numerous computers and cameras set up, and some kind of device on the ceiling. Kaylie tells him it's a kill switch. She tells Tim he can leave if he'd like, but she needs to get started. He says he will stay for a while.Kaylie turns on one of the cameras and introduces herself and her brother before detailing her numerous precautions she has set up. She explains the cameras and computers all have their own power source, that there is an alarm to remind her to change the tapes, another alarm to remind them to eat and drink, and that there are thermometers in each room which will go off if there is a significant change. She explains the point of the experiment is to prove the mirror possesses a paranormal entity. She also receives a phone call from her fiancée and explains that she has requested he call her each hour.She has researched the history of the Lasser Glass and begins telling it to the cameras. Every person who has owned the mirror ended up dying a gruesome death, often mutilating their own bodies or being driven to madness. Many of the victims were found dehydrated or malnourished. With each victim, she holds up photos of the victims, crime scenes and locations, which were the pictures previously printed off of her work computer.One of the timers goes off. The two sit down and eat. Tim asks her who the tapes are meant for. She says everyone who ever accused Tim and her father of being murderers. Tim says their father was a murderer and a sick man. Kaylie slaps him and tells him not to speak of their father that way. She then resumes detailing the mirror's history for the camera. We learn that their father had tortured and killed their mother before Tim shot their father in front of Kaylie. She says she intends to prove that they were all victims of the mirror and not responsible for their actions.Tim asks why they don't just destroy the mirror now. Kaylie tells him to do so if he can. We see a quick flashback of Kaylie and Tim swinging golf clubs at something. Tim takes a stool and walks over to the mirror to smash it. He then puts the stool down and tries to convince Kaylie that she is delusional and this is just her trying to cope with what happened. Kaylie points out that Tim has put the stool down and asks if he remembers putting it down. He doesn't answer, but Kaylie says that the mirror has defenses against a direct human attack. She says in its recorded history only one person ever tried to attack the mirror. He tried to hit it with a fire poker, but stopped just before he struck it. After staring at it for some time, the man left his home and walked into traffic where he was killed. Tim says he did not destroy the mirror because Kaylie must break her own delusions.Kaylie then demonstrates the kill switch rigged to the ceiling, which is an axe connected to an egg timer. If the timer isn't reset every half hour, the axe will swing down from the ceiling right into the center of the mirror.Past: Alan types away at his computer in his office. The bandage is still on his injured finger and is bothering him. He takes it off and begins typing again, only to see the bandage is still on his finger. He tries to take it off, but it is stuck. He uses a staple remover to try and grip it, but ends up digging it into his own finger, drawing blood. Alan realizes that the bandage had not been on his finger after all. He looks up and approaches the mirror. He then calls the children into his office and accuses them of moving his things around, though the children deny it. He tells them they are not allowed in the office.Present: Kaylie is telling Tim that the mirror feeds off of life force, starting with plants and animals. Thus, she has healthy, live plants and the dog in the house so that the mirror can begin feeding from them while she records it. Tim says the plants in their house likely died due to poor water quality, and notes the plants throughout the house are all alive and well. Kaylie tells him to give it time and places the dog she brought back in the cage, placing both in the front of the mirror and covering it. The Lasser Glass also interferes with electricity, which is why she has plenty of spare light bulbs and battery-powered devices. Its power also causes extreme changes in temperature (thus the thermometers). It eventually consumes its owners, dehydrating and feeding off them, often after driving them to madness in the process (thus the timers to remind them to eat and drink). She says that she has a couple other safeguards. First Michael has agreed to call Kaylie every hour (though he is unaware of her plan, her belief that the mirror is evil, or why Kaylie wants him to call) and if she doesn't answer, to call the police.Past: We see the Russell's family dog, Mason, laying on the ground, looking very ill. It then cuts to Alan and Marie discussing the gun he has bought for safety. Marie is very upset and he agrees to lock it up. As she leaves the room, she hears Alan call her a "grotesque cow." When questioned, he says he did not say anything. Her already sensitive psyche is wounded.Later, Marie is woken by the sound of their dog barking outside Alan's closed office. She goes to let him in and he bites her and runs away. She pulls on the door again and yells for Alan, who yells back that he is working. Marie hears him talking to someone and she attempts to listen in when Alan suddenly opens the door. She asks who he is talking to and he says he isn't talking to anyone. Marie, upset, says there is something wrong with the dog and that Alan is lost in his own world. They begin arguing loudly.The next day, Alan leaves to go golfing with a client and tells the children to stay out of his office. Marie becomes annoyed with Mason, who is once again barking outside Alan's office and lets him in, closing the door behind him. The dog begins to whimper but Marie is unable to open the doors. When Alan gets home, Marie says she had to lock the dog in the office, telling the kids he was "grounded." Alan unlocks the door but the dog has disappeared.Present: Tim tells Kaylie she is remembering the events wrong and that Mason got sick and had to be taken to the vet. Kaylie insists they sat outside the door and that Tim has been brainwashed.Past: Marie and Alan are fighting again, Alan telling Marie she is losing her mind. They are loud enough to wake up the kids. When tucking her in, Kaylie asks Marie if they're fighting because of the woman in the office.Present: Tim tells Kaylie their father was having an affair and her memories regarding the mirror are fabricated; that it was a bad marriage and that was it. Kaylie argues she went through everything in the estate and there was no proof of an affair. The two continue arguing until Tim gets frustrated and lets the dog out of its cage and out of the house. He points out that the plants are still alive and the only one endangering the dog is Kaylie. He then begs Kaylie to leave the house with him, saying they can go somewhere and deal with everything together. Kaylie agrees to disarm the trap and take the cameras down, but just as they are about to do so Kaylie sees that the plants in the house are dead and the cameras have been turned away from the mirror. They replay the tape and see that during their argument they were subconsciously moving the video cameras. Kaylie also knows that the temperature has gone up over five degrees but the alarms have not gone off. Tim goes to call his doctor but Kaylie stops him and says to make any calls outside, as the mirror can mimic voices on the phone so long as they are within its range.Tim runs outside and attempts to call his doctor, getting an error message each time. He is suddenly distracted by Kaylie saying his name. It turns out he never left the house but had crouched in the hallway and spoke to nobody.Past: Young Kaylie walks into the office to find her mother there with the vacuum, gently swaying in front of the mirror but otherwise not moving.Later, Marie, Tim, and Kaylie sit at the dinner table without Alan. Marie is drinking an entire bottle of wine herself and has made toast for dinner. She looks physically ill. Marie asks the kids to tell her more about the woman in Alan's office. Kaylie lies and says she didn't see a woman after all, but Tim says that he has now seen the woman. Tim says the woman was standing on the stairs the previous night and it scared him. He says he thinks she lives in the office. Marie tells them to go upstairs and play.Marie enters the office and sits at Alan's desk, where she sees a paper covered with scribbles and the name "Marisol." Devastated, she shoves the items off of Alan's desk. While cleaning the mess, she runs her fingers over a family portrait before yelling and throwing a pen holder at the mirror. It misses and hits the wall. The lights suddenly dim and Marie sees a smiling reflection of herself in the mirror. The reflection looks down and undoes the buttons on her dress, revealing her C-section scar has reopened. Marie screams and Tim and Kaylie run downstairs.Marie turns around and tries to strangle Tim. Kaylie pulls him free and they run away, Marie chasing them. They lock themselves in their bedroom while Marie slams on the door. Alan comes home and runs upstairs. Marie grabs his head and he pulls her arms away. She begins slapping and fighting him. He gets her in a chokehold until she seems to pass out. Kaylie sticks her head out and Alan tells her to go back inside. Alan pulls his cellphone out and dials 911. We hear whispered voices from the mirror and Alan hangs up his phone. He pushes Marie off of him and drags her away. Kaylie opens the door again and sees her father walking down the hall with chains in his hand.Present: Kaylie is comforting Tim, who seemed to be having a flashback. They return to the room with the mirror, where Kaylie is turning the cameras back on. On the computers, Tim sees Kaylie approaching the screen. The lights dim and we see brief flashbacks of him and Kaylie.Past: Tim and Kaylie are in their father's office, where he tells them their mother is very sick and will need to rest for a while but that they are not to bother her. Kaylie asks what's wrong with her, but Alan does not answer, instead telling them they can hang out in the office and play video games. Tim says he thought they weren't allowed in there. One of the lights goes out.Present: The alarm goes off for them to eat. Kaylie hands Tim an apple and asks him to help her replace the lights that have gone out. We see a brief flashback of Kaylie yelling at Tim, who seems to be in a trance, as well as Alan going up the stairs with a plate of food. The light Tim just replaced goes out. Kaylie replaces another light, which immediately goes out. She replaces it again and picks up the apple she had set down. When she takes a bite out of it, she finds she has bitten into a light bulb. She pulls the bloody piece of glass out of her mouth in horror. Tim then appears and she finds that it was in fact the apple she had bitten. She tells Tim they should stay together.Past: Tim watches cartoons when the TV suddenly turns to static. He and Kaylie hear pounding from upstairs and Tim says he's hungry. They look in the fridge but it has barely anything in it. Kaylie storms into her dad's office and tells him that he needs to go grocery shopping. She also tells him the TV is out and they need to call a doctor for their mother. Alan simply stares at the mirror, distracted, and says it's on his list. Kaylie becomes frustrated and leaves.The two go upstairs and Kaylie decides to tell their mother they are out of food. She opens the door where their mom is. It's filthy and there's broken glass on the floor. When Kaylie approaches the glass, Marie suddenly lunges at her. She is chained to the wall by her neck and is missing most of her teeth. Kaylie runs out of the room.Back in the office, Kaylie demands they call a doctor. Alan becomes angry and says Kaylie's problem is that she does not listen. He says she and Tim are not to set foot outside the house.Kaylie later calls a doctor. When she gets off the phone, Tim asks what he said. She said he told her to have their father call and had the same voice as the last doctor they called.We cut to Kaylie walking up the lawn and knocking on their front door with one of their neighbors. Alan apologizes and tells their neighbor Kaylie is upset about Marie's illness and is acting out. We also see Alan has chewed his nails almost completely off. He looks up at Kaylie and goes into his office.Present: Kaylie leans against the mirror with her eyes closed. She opens them to find the timer for the kill switch is about to go off and runs to reset it. She yells for Tim and one of the timers goes off. She throws it on the ground.Tim is upstairs, looking at his younger self, who looks up at him. The lights go out and older Tim disappears. Young Tim walks down the hall and yells for Kaylie. We see older Kaylie walking downstairs with a lamp. The power has gone out so she turns on some emergency lamps throughout the house, kicking and smashing a pot in anger as she does so. As she goes upstairs, young Tim walks down the stairs past her. While turning on one of the lights, she see broken ceramic and chains. She tells herself it isn't real and leaves the room.Young Tim opens the office door and asks his dad to fix the lights. He sees a gruesome woman hunched behind Alan, and she comes to the door. Young Tim screams and runs back upstairs, where he locks himself in his room and hides in the corner. Older Tim is on the other side of the room watching.Kaylie is back downstairs, where she sees broken plates all over the floor. She picks up a piece, pulls out her cellphone and uses the camera to scan the floor. The shards do not show up on the camera. She turns and sees her mother standing behind her. She screams and instinctively stabs her mother in the neck with the broken plate. Her mother is shown to actually be her fiancée, who drops to the ground, bleeding. Tim comes downstairs and Kaylie asks if he sees him, unsure if he's real or not. Tim crouches by him and Kaylie's phone rings. She answers it and it's her fiancée on the other line. Kaylie says she couldn't have killed him because the plate wasn't real. Tim looks at the floor and sees the broken pot. Kaylie uses the camera on her phone to look at the body and finds it shows up on camera. She begins to sob.Tim takes Kaylie outside and calls 911. Kaylie tries to run back in and Tim stops her, telling her they just have to wait for the kill switch to go off. Suddenly all the lights in the house come back on and they see themselves in the room with the mirror, standing in front of it. Tim says it's a trick to get them back inside, and Kaylie says it may be a trick to keep them standing there. She tells Tim to call for help again. He calls 911 again and gets the response that he's going to have to have his father call. Kaylie breaks the phone and asks Tim what they should do.Past: Alan is in the office, leaning on the mirror. He then sits at his desk, pulls out a gun and begins loading it. Tim, outside watching, runs upstairs and tells Kaylie. Kaylie says they're going to have to smash the mirror.Present: Tim and Kaylie enter the room with the mirror, seeing themselves still standing in front of it. There is now also the woman from before, speaking with their father's voice. Kaylie keeps repeating that it's not real. She looks down and sees young Tim holding her hand. He pulls away and runs. The woman smiles at Kaylie and she follows Tim.Past: Kaylie and Tim run upstairs, locking themselves in their room. We then see their mother break a plate and begin eating one of the pieces. The door opens and Alan enters with the gun. Marie crawls towards him and tries to lunge at him. He puts the gun under her chin and she freezes. He unlocks the chain around her neck and she slowly stands.Present: Tim and Kaylie are in the bathroom, Kaylie on the floor. Kaylie asks if he's still there. Tim says he was never there, that he's upstairs. Kaylie asks how he can be sure. He tries to reassure her and opens the door but their mother is standing on the other side.Past: Kaylie and Tim hold the door shut. Kaylie says they have to get downstairs. Tim says she's not gone. Kaylie says they have to open the door and run downstairs. She opens the door and the two run down the hall. Marie lunges at them from the down the hall and Kaylie hits her with a golf club. Tim runs downstairs only to find Alan in front of the office, while Kaylie runs down the hall into the room their mother had been in. She opens the window and jumps out, hurting her leg on the landing. She gets up and limps to the front yard, where she sees two ghastly people standing in the window, smiling.Present: Tim watches Alan walk down the hall, telling himself it's not real. Alan fires the gun.Past: Kaylie goes back into the house.Present: Kaylie walks into the room with the mirror where she sees her fiancée's corpse standing in front of it with a smile. She walks down the hall, calling for Tim.Past: Kaylie walks down the hall. Tim gestures to her but she doesn't understand. Suddenly Marie lunges at her and knocks her to the ground, where she begins strangling her. After a few moments, she loosens her grip, seeming to return to normal. She is then shot from behind by Alan. Kaylie grabs Tim and runs while Alan, surrounded by the corpses of the past victims of the mirror, kills her.Kaylie and Tim hide behind a door, watching until their father is gone. They then run, grabbing golf clubs and head into the office where they begin to strike the mirror, only to find that they are only hitting the wall. Alan enters the room, gun in hand, and points it at Kaylie. Tim strikes his arm with the golf club, knocking the gun down. Alan starts to strangle Kaylie, but lets go when Tim picks up the gun and yells at him. Alan turns around and kneels in front of Tim. He points the gun at himself, wraps his finger around the trigger and nods. The gun goes off and Alan falls, dead.The corpses of the past victims approach them from behind, cornering them against the wall. They open their mouths and the sounds of the alarms are heard.Present: Tim is in the room with the mirror on the floor, covering his ears to block out the alarms. He yells for Kaylie.We cut to young Kaylie in the office. She sees her mother in the mirror. She walks towards her, her mother holding her arms out to hug her. They embrace.Tim walks to the kill switch and sets it off, only seeing afterwards that Kaylie was in front of it and has been killed by the kill switch. The mirror appears unharmed.Past: Kaylie makes Tim promise they will destroy the mirror and make things right.Present: Tim is arrested. As he is driving away, he sees the corpses of his entire family in the window of the house.

Tags: paranormal, insanity, murder, flashback

Review:
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.
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.
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.
I really enjoy the horror film genre however it's a real cynical bunch of viewers ("not scary enough", "not enough gore", "this has been done before"), and with the reviews coming down like "never seen anything like this", I was interested and skeptical.Oculus is a slow-burn.
You will either really dig the layers of how things work in the horror realm or try to poke holes through everything (ex: 30 ft safe radius).The genius of Oculus isn't the concept (haunted mirror) but the screenplay of disjointed story telling and flashbacks mixing into a coherent and perhaps a complex story.
The plot of the movie revolves around a brother and sister trying to prove that this weird mirror is haunted and is responsible for many deaths over the years, including their father's death.
I haven't reviewed any films here (except for some TV series), but for this movie i had to.This is an excellent work from the director Mike Flanagan in a horror genre.
Their children counterparts also do an impressive work in portraying two small, terrified brother and sister with no one to turn to for help, slowly accepting the fact that they are both alone against the mirror.The second good thing about it is the staging of the story.
Both helping in making this horror film one in which the audiences are actually engaged and interested in what will happen next, and at the same time they can have fun in the direction the story advances to.
While the final events fit into the pattern of what the mirror does, it feels like it should have had a more surprising ending due to the excellent build-up the film provides in the first two-thirds.
You saw things coming a mile away, and that left out some rather great moments that could have become scare moments or moments to throw the storyline way off the predictable course it was heading down.The acting in the movie was one of the brighter points throughout the movie, because for a horror movie then "Oculus" was horribly devoid of scary moments and things that will make you check twice under the bed or curl up when something sounds in the hallway.The storyline did have some adequate moments.
And I did like the thing about the entire 'haunting' or whatever it was, taking place around an object; in this case the old mirror.And the camera-work throughout the movie was quite good as well, sort of had that feeling like the audience was right there in the house with the brother and sister.
The twisted, mind-bottling scenarios set up by this evil mirror with a soul crushing oculus are the perfect way to set up suspense while maintaining the psychological aspects necessary for a horror movie.
But overall, Oculus is the best horror movie since The Conjuring, and it certainly will be remembered as one of the best psychologically disturbing films ever made.GRADE: 94 / A.
The creepy characters from the mirror looked good, but that's all the 3 point's I give to the movie.
Director and co-writer (with Jeff Howard) Mike Flanagan crafts an intelligent, inventive and really creepy horror film that certainly has it's share of out-right scares, especially in it's last act.
The Newton Brothers did a good job on it IMO.And the ending was satisfying and left you with a new small fear for mirrors.This is the best horror movie yet!
In recent times it's difficult to find horror movies that aren't either completely unrealistic or poorly done.Oculus is a really interesting storyline that combines past and present (each tense could be a movie in its own!) and is able to keep you guessing about what you think you know and what's really going on.Although it does have a supernatural element to it (which can usually tend to cause a movie to seem overly unrealistic), Oculus combines the supernatural theme with realistic events that keep you on your toes and are definitely able to give you a proper scare (which seems rare in horror movies these days).I've watched a lot of horror/thriller movies, but this one is definitely one of my favourites!9/10.
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 movie goes out of its way to make X's death ambiguous, yet we, the audience, get nothing out of it except a "huh?" moment.Add to this the fact that they kept overlapping flashbacks to the point were the present and the past were almost speaking to each other.
However, the beginning of the film made me feel as if something spectacular or jaw-dropping was going to happen, but I was left feeling totally neglected at the end of the movie.
I never experienced such a drop in pleasure watching a movie, at first I thought it would become one of my favorites, later on I was at the brink of skipping a few scenes because I began to understand that nothing actually is going to happen.I still recommend this movie to horror fans, since apart from the things stated before, it is a very well executed movie, sadly though the second half falls flat for me and even made me somehow a bit mad (probably because of the wasted potential)..
The haunted mirror is a good start, a mechanism used very effectively in much earlier films, such as one of the stories in "Dead of Night" from 1945.
This film should have started with Rod Serlings immortal words; "imagine if you will..." because this film is a little like a patchwork of 'Twighlight Zone' episodes.This film relies too heavily on 'cut backs' to scenes from the past and then flips to the present in a desperate attempt to sew the two together, it honestly doesn't work (imho) and the characters are to under written with the focus being on the haunted mirror.Sadly this was all rather predictable and pedestrian and you just know what's going to happen (if you're as old as me AND seen as many horror flicks) it offered nothing new and I just can't bring myself to like any of it.Sorry..
Absolutely stupid movie, total waste of time, not really scary at all, the worst part is that the story was 100% nonsense illogical and senseless, not a sign of intelligence or anything worthwhile to pull out of this to entertain.
Kaylie blames the mirror and now she wants to destroy it with Tim. Will they succeed?"Oculus" is a horror movie with a story of madness and possession that deserved to be better written.
Usually when you are watching a horror flick, you do so with a sense of laid-back detachment thinking none of this could ever happen to you, and even if it did, you wouldn't be so stupid as to do what the protagonist or the other characters are doing but in this movie, you will find yourself powerless to do anything other than what the mirror wants you to do and all the while you will be thinking you're doing the right thing cuz' that is the illusion the mirror surrounds you with.
I tend to jump at some point at most horror films normally because as bad as most of them are nowadays at least there's something which draws you in be it the plot or the characters performances.
However I love both movies, they're both dealing at the complete opposite ends of the horror spectrum.I keep on hearing people saying they're disappointed with Oculus because the frequency of jump-out-of-your-seat scary moments is too low.
You're excited beforehand, after the first minutes in the chair you feel relieved because the pain is easy to deal with, after half an hour the constant scratching gets irritating and after an hour all you want is to be done with it.Translated to Oculus and without trying to spoil the plot: at the beginning you're asking yourself whether you're even watching a horror movie, after half an hour you feel the palms of your hands getting sweaty and your gaze transfixed to the screen, and from then on the pressure keeps on building, building and building until you can't hold it anymore and you feel yourself praying for the end credits to roll over the screen.It's such a good thing for this genre people like Mike Flanagan still exist.
He already showed some early potential with the low budget horror thriller Absentia (2011); with Oculus he has made a classic film like I thought they don't exist anymore in this fast food decade.
I'd heard a lot of positive things from the festival circuit and it had good reviews, so I was pretty excited going into this, but in the end I can't get over how average and even boring it was, and this is not being said by someone who enjoys constant action and explosions--I can watch Lars von Trier films and not be bored, so what does that say about this thing?The plot is fairly straightforward: a mirror has caused the deaths of its owners throughout the four centuries of its existence.
But before another unlucky owner can fall victim to the curse of the mirror, our female protagonist has a few days to arrange an elaborate experiment in the hopes of proving it houses a supernatural force...and she wants little brother to help her.The set up to this was very interesting: our female protagonist shows a great deal of cleverness in designing her experiment that includes timers to remind them to eat and drink as well as thermometers installed in every room and multiple battery-operated cameras to document everything going on.
And it constantly wrong foots you about what's going on, at times this makes it hard to track, but it didn't really bother me.I took a star off because the ending felt slightly predictable and I would have wanted it to end differently but this leaves it open(ish) for sequels and I'm OK with that.The point is that you should watch this movie, totally watch it.
the performances from all the casts were outstanding..they certainly nailed it to perfection...dozens of jump scares n some of it really made me jump out of my seat :) ..last but not the least, one mind twisting story arch, that will hook you onto your seats from the very first minute, till the credits roll.Oculus is not just another movie experience but rather a journey to one's deep psychic which I am sure will leave you with a lasting impression...Kudos to the crew..and hope you enjoy this wonderfully haunted tale of Oculus!!!!.
Overflowing with half-baked ideas, moments of pure unbridled terror and enough haunting mirror shots to put you off seeing your reflection for some time, Mike Flanagan's low budget and meandering horror Oculus is a movie too short on genuine quality filmmaking and due to some annoying central acting turns, a movie that never engages in the way in which its story could've allowed.Oculus is a lot different to many other recent horror films in that it wastes barely any time by jumping the audience straight into the thick of it concerning brother and sister duo Kaylie and Tim and there vendetta against one very nasty mirror.
It's in Oculus's present day scenes in which the movie gets bogged down the most and with Flanagan's tendency to mix in flashbacks with present day scenes, often in conjunction with one another the films impact to scare and thrill is lessoned despite the fact the film really comes to life when the flashback scenes are given time on their own.It's in these flashbacks to when Kaylie and Tim were children and their parents Marie and Alan played by Katee Sackoff and Rory Cochrane were experiencing some "issues" that Oculus really showcases just what could've been.
Not only are these scenes a lot more interesting that what is happening in the present there often downright creepy, giving the film a unique horrific feel that mixes in real life horrors and that of the more supernatural kind to great effect.
With these scenes being the films best, you really do wish that the film focused more on the past and far less on the present.Oculus has some very recommendable elements, from some fine musical cues, some neat unique ideas for scares and some truly frightening gross out moments, but overall the film fails to capitalise on the pieces of the puzzle that is laid down and come the films forgettable final act, you'd wish that all involved had seized the moment and produced something far more memorable as a whole, not just sparse moments of genuine horror goodness.2 extra crunchy light bulbs out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check into - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com.
Does "Oculus" feel like exploring any of that territory?Of course not, for the mirror in this film has some kind of supernatural power.
"Oculus" makes up rules to advance the story, gives us characters that make odd decisions, and even the film's centerpiece (a killer mirror, oh my!) is given no logical origin or purpose for existence.
Karen Gillan deserves a mention for an excellent performance as the lead character.And I'll seriously be on the lookout for Flanagan's future projects.My Rating: 4.5/5 - It's not the best horror film ever and I doubt if it's gonna be a cult classic, but for the genre it belongs to it surely deserves better recognition.READ MORE OF MY REVIEWS ON BLOGGER: http://strangereview.blogspot.com/#sthash.k9wDSUgJ.dpuf.
You are waiting for something to happen and it is like they ran out of money and just ended the show.I am pretty sure most who watched it left disappointed with the time wasted and money spent.
In recent years, most film makers who want to direct a horror movie simply employ the same formula of blood, suspense and shocks with an open ending.
It's a very attractive film with characters that you begin to care about and relate to, which is not often the case with most horror movies.
As a horror fan, this was probably one of the worst horror films I ever watched (this movie is definitely making my list.) It was one of those horror films that have a good plot and trailer but turned out to be boring (fell asleep a couple times).
I've tried to watch this movie once before but after 20 minutes turned off as the acting felt wooden and the actors appeared very disinterested.But having read so many reviews and comments that seemed to think of this as a great movie in the genre I gave it another try today.Sadly, nothing changed.I think that, with Karen Gillan's start being on the rise, and her being a bastion of all things geeky/nerdy, people just assumed she wouldn't do a bad movie and decided that, despite the low production values & 'made for TV' feel to this, it must be good.I know a lot of people will disagree (some will, not doubt, even give me some abuse) but it really isn't a very compelling or interesting horror movie.Jump scares, poor effects and no real explanation for why a mirror could have so much power over people.
There were far too many times when I just wasn't sure if the whole mess was all in Kaylie's head, and that kind of uncertainty made the movie hard to enjoy on that level.I would have liked if the slow pace near the beginning moved quickly into creative, fast-paced horror action; instead, there was a lot of talking (mostly between Kaylie and a disbelieving Tim) punctuated by intermittent pieces of propelled plot.
Absentia is one of my favorite horror films, and that's why I was very interested in watching Oculus, director Mike Flanagan's following movie.
"Oculus" is one of those horror films that you rarely see in recent years: a wide-release scary movie with an actual sense of dread and horror.
This story failed to grasp the really interesting parts- the paranormal phenomena surrounding the circumstances, the two lead characters having opposing ideas about what had happened, and how what happened in the past is explained (or in this film, not explained.) Basically it's a bad horror movie, not a 100% waste of time, but certainly not a memorable film, and not one that leaves you thinking about it afterward, except to wonder about how very little of it seemed to make any sort of sense..
This movie follows the story of a brother and sister and their family who are haunted by a mysterious mirror in their house.
What follows is a series of events that leads the main characters to question what's real and what's not.Unlike most horror movies, Oculus doesn't rely on violence to deliver its scares.
Oculus doesn't rely on cheap scares like most horror movies do.
Oculus is not a film for everybody, but it is definitely a must see if you like psychological horror movies.