Oculus

Halloween time again, folks. Time to decorate the house with pumpkins, candy, and decapitated heads -- and If you work at a department store, you're already late to putting out the Christmas decorations. Oh! And, of course, tis the season for horror movies. First up on the list is a recent hit, Oculus.

This is a story about a haunted mirror. (Which has nothing to do with Keifer Sutherland's film Mirrors. You see, Oculus is a story about a family who has this antique mirror with a demon or something in it that torments them to death while Mirrors is about Keifer Sutherland hunting down a demon who only seems lives in mirrors in some sort of mirror universe. Yes, everything has slightly been done before.) Now that I've confused you all with something entirely irrelevant to the post, we can begin.

A movie about a haunted mirror is told in a very intelligent and compellingly complicated way. The story unfolds two storylines simultaneously. We start with our main characters, brother and sister Tim and Kaylie (both children), are in their new home hiding from their insane father who's wielding a bloody axe and trying to murder them after already killing his wife. Smash cut 11 years into the future. Tim is being released from a mental institution into the custody of his older sister for the murder of his father when he was a kid. It's quickly pieced together that the horrible tragedy they witnessed is remembered differently for both children. After years of therapy, Tim has chosen the rational belief that he has a nutzo father who was having an affair with some mysterious lady which lead his wife to go nuts as well... and everything ended in catastrophe. Then there's the other belief -- the one that Kaylie supports -- that their old antique mirror their father bought for the new house is evil and brainwashed everyone into going crazy against one another. Not only that, but Kaylie hasn't forgotten their pledge to one another after that fateful night: they will get their revenge again the evil that lies within the mirror for destroying their family. Working for an antique auctioneering company, Kaylie has finally tracked down the mirror again and is in the position to fulfill the promise to herself.

Next thing you know, Tim and Kaylie are back in their old house and with the dreaded mirror Kaylie has absconded away with from the auction warehouse. Only this time Kaylie has tricked out the house with various supplies to help her defeat the evil within. One thing that stands out most of all is her kill switch. A 50-pound pointed anchor hanging from a pendulum and mounted to the ceiling. In case things go bad, the anchor is set to be released by a 30-minute timer unless someone resets the timer. If not, it will swing down and bash the mirror, which everyone just takes for granted is the way you stop this monster. (It's also just an over-elaborate, and, frankly, dangerous way to destroy something like a mirror. Even if it's capable of defending itself -- in that it will get in your head and stop if you come at it with a hammer -- just burn the house down with the sucker inside while standing far away from its influence. Ugh... Just comments from the peanut gallery as I replay the film in my head. Back to the post!)

So that's the layout for the film. Brother and sister have returned to their childhood home to destroy the horror that ruined their lives. Only, they're not quite on the same team as Tim thinks his sister has gone crazy, yet refuses to walk away from the whole thing altogether. Meanwhile, we continue to flashback to their past as we learn everything that lead up to that terrible night that started everything off in the first place.

I'm doing my best to restrain myself from ruining anymore of this film (not that I've exposed anything you wouldn't learn from the first 10 minutes), but I could go on-and-on about this movie. Why? Because it's fucking great! It's really one of the smarter horror films I've come across in a long while. At least story-wise. The way the movie flips back-and-forth between the past and present so fluidly shows a strong understanding of story development. (It's framing style is similar to Slumdog Millionaire and they won an Oscar for their script!) On top of that, we still got our suspenseful moments of things that go bump in the night -- that's always fun. And for those squeamish about gore, the film doesn't rely too heavily on that. (In fact I would says Black Swan is more gory with those hangnail scenes... yesh!) While there are disturbing images from time to time, it's really more about what you may-or-may-have-not seen lurking in the shadows that will haunt you. Not some monster running at you wielding a chainsaw ready to cut you in two. 

Perhaps the best part of the film is it's editing. (Note: slight spoilers here.) The monster in the film kills its victims by slowly confusing them into hurting themselves and others. At the beginning of the movie, Kaylie has the mirror being monitored by two cameras in their office. The two kids leave the office to have an argument on whether or not the mirror is actually evil and return to the room to see that the cameras have been rearranged so that they're facing away from the mirror. The kids quickly check the footage expecting to see a ghost or something moving things around and are surprised to see it was them doing it, yet they believed they were in the kitchen or something having a talk. That sense of delusion and confusion is what the editing of the film is able to achieve on the audience. The past and present begin to flip back-and-forth so quickly, actors being interchanged with their younger and older versions of themselves, that the audience can't help but begin to become confused. Mind you, not confused at what's happening in the story, but confused and terrified for the safety of our heroes. It's mind-numbing fun. 

The one thing that really holds this film back are the actors. It's not that their bad, but they're not all that great. Older Kaylie, played by Doctor Who's Karen Gillan (who I have a bit of a crush on -- as do many other nerds), does an alright job, but her character just seems too strong-headed at destroying this mirror. As she meets her brother (freed for the first time in years), she instantly recruits him on this mission. It seems a little too aggressive and farfetched. Not to mention that the chemistry between the actors of the siblings isn't all that compelling either. However, the film does leave me wondering if Kaylie's obsession at destroying the mirror (and documenting it's destruction in such a drawn out and dangerous way) might be influenced by something more than just her desire for revenge. Have I said too much? Then I suggest you stop reading and watch the film for yourselves. 

It's October. Go get scared already!