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Oculus (2013)

DVD Cover (Twentieth Century Fox)
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Overall Rating 65%
Overall Rating
Ranked #1,328
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Two siblings haunted by a childhood tragedy learn that the source of their horror is a mysterious mirror with a dark history. Tim and Kaylie were merely teenagers when both of their parents were brutally butchered. Convicted of the killings and sentenced to protective custody, Tim serves his time while Kaylie drifts into a deep despair. Years later, a newly free Tim does his best to lay the past to rest. Meanwhile, Kaylie is certain that her brother was innocent all along, and that the antique mirror their parents used to own holds the answer to her darkest questions. Upon locating the long-lost looking glass, Kaylie's deepest fears are confirmed -- a menacing force inhabits that mirror, and it has plagued every owner who has come into possession of it. Now, as curious Kaylie reacquires the mirror, the nightmarish cycle of horror returns with a vengeance.. --IMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: May 10, 2014
It's pretty much a given in horror that if a character is looking into a mirror, the director is probably about to pull a flash-scare on you. Because of this, mirrors have enjoyed an implicitly creepy reputation, and movies completely centered on them are not unheard of. Tonight, we focus on another haunted looking glass.

While most people celebrate their 21st birthday in style, Tim's birthday is pretty unusual. You see, Tim is "celebrating" by being released from the psych ward he's been incarcerated in for the last eleven years. His sister, Kaylie, picks him up from the hospital and tells him it's time to fulfill their childhood promise and "destroy it". Flashback: shortly after moving into a new house eleven years ago, their father slowly lost his mind, tortured and killed their mother, and tried to murder his two children before Tim was able to get the gun and kill him. There's another variable here however: you see, as soon as they moved into that house, their father had bought an antique mirror for his office. An antique mirror that seems to have incredibly evil powers. Naturally, after eleven years of doctors telling him his incredible story is just his mind coping with a traumatic experience, Tim isn't buying this story about a killer mirror. Kayleigh refuses to be dissuaded though. She's begun a career in antiques with the sole purpose of hunting it down, and have researched the path of pain and death that have followed it over the centuries. She's set up an entire operation at the old house with plans to destroy it, and despite his disbelief, Tim agrees to stick around for the night. However, the mirror has some plans of its own.

The mirror's M.O. is to alter the perceptions of people within it's circle of influence. For example, when the siblings go out into the hallway and have an argument, they come back to the room and find it's been completely rearranged. After checking the cameras, it turns out they were actually the ones moving everything around while having that discussion. Obviously, the super-surrealist scenes just write themselves, and Mike Flanagan nailed them, hitting all the right twists. As an added bonus, supernatural horror tends to leave you as confused as possible until the last minute, where things are explained in a big monologue. It's an archetype that's gotten pretty old as of late, and fortunately, Oculus has taken a fresh direction. The siblings' night versus the mirror runs intermittently with their ordeal as children, and there's no telling how much is a regular old flashback and how much is the mirror forcing the kids to relive that terrible memory, and to that end, how much is actually what happened. It works together brilliantly.

Kaylie and Tim are played by Karen Gillan, Annalise Basso, Brenton Thwaites and Garrett Ryan, adult and child respectively. Every one of them carry their portion of the film quite nicely; even the kids which was something of a pleasant surprise. In fact, as far as children actors go, these two were pretty damned good. Each kid reacted differently to their little predicament, which was a nice touch. The adults didn't slouch either, and again Thwaites' exasperation was a good foil to Gillan's obsession and matter-of-factness. And when the shit hits the fan, all four of them hit the mark. I can see Karen Gillan's performance in particular launching her onto bigger and better things. Also, Rory Cochrane superbly pulls off their father's descent into madness.

As much as I enjoyed it, there's some serious logical problems that might affect your enjoyment. Basically, it all boils down to how far you're willing to suspend your disbelief. For starters, it's obvious that their father was violently insane and Tim had acted in defense of himself and his sister, so even though you shouldn't just brush off a ten year old killing his father, I don't find eleven years of incarceration to be that realistic. A metric shit-ton of counseling sure, but that was a bit much. More than that, however, is how these two had any hopes of protecting themselves after seeing what the mirror can do. It completely removes any aspect of control you have, what hope do you possibly think you have against something like that? Sure, I know that characters doing stupid things is kind of a horror trope, but this is a whole other level. I think the idea was that it was her obsession driving her forward, but it was still a bit much.

Oculus is bringing in some rave reviews, and I fully agree with them. The movie stays creepy as hell throughout it's running time, and delivers a payoff that had me grinning ear to ear. Definitely worth hunting this one down. 8.5/10.
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