Oculus (4/10)

Hey, it's James Lafferty from One Tree Hill! Haven't seen him ever since. But only a few scenes and a few phone calls.

I'm going to ignore being careful about spoilers so if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading right here!

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After having a bit of time to digest what I just saw, I'm a bit disappointed and disgusted. Mike Flanagan created and directed this horror flick which on the surface was very well done. I was impressed, at first.

Then after having some thoughts about it when I had to wake up and pee that night, I realised, it was a bad storytelling experience.

Let's talk about what was good first. Karen Gillan and her character was the main star. Together with her character's younger brother portrayed by Brenton Thwaites - who could have used just a bit more expression, I was sold on the first half and was with them all the way.

And Katee Sackhoff, after her tough-as-nails performance in Riddick, had a complete 180 degrees turn playing a housewife. But it was a great casting choice because she was scary as hell. That crawling on the floor chasing the kids made the skin on my arms crawled too.

The two kids playing the younger versions of the siblings were great. Annalise Basso was very convincing playing the older sibling protecting her brother. And Garrett Ryan had better expressions than his older counterpart.

Overall, I thought this was a brilliant take on a horror story because the siblings were there on a mission, to destroy the one thing that destroyed their childhood and family. They specifically went back to their old house, acquired the evil mirror just so they could destroy it.

Everything was set up so nicely that I was totally engrossed in it. I didn't even mind the unexplained finger nails bit because I was enjoying it so much. I just wanted to know what's going to happen next.

But what followed was a messy blend of past and present. Nothing was clear as to what was going on, what was real and what wasn't. And if it wasn't real, there was nothing to support it in terms of explanation. Like when Gillan killed her fiance, sure if it was unclear to the characters whether it was real or not but at least let it be clearer for the audience's enjoyment.

But having said that, I did appreciate the editing between the younger version and the present time. Everything seemed smooth and coherent albeit messy.

And I did really appreciate the ending, it was creepy and very distraught. The way it ended being almost exactly like how their childhood ended was a nice full-circle conclusion. But I never for once bought the fact that Basso's character at that young age would be able to comprehend everything that she has witnessed and immediately wanted revenge.

So here are the points where I had a lot of beef with.

The siblings were there to destroy the mirror. So what was Gillan's character doing after she had proof that it was the mirror that was evil? Why continue to change lightbulbs? Why have a fail-safe and not use it? What was she waiting for once her brother was convinced?

Who was the lady in the room with their dad? Why was she controlling him and him only? And why pull off his finger nails?

Why did the mirror want to torture Sackhoff's character? Why chain her up? And then let her go? And why did Sackhoff want to kill her daughter? That didn't make sense at all.

And when Thwaites younger self saw the "spirit" with his dad, there's no way he would go and risk opening the door to take a peek again, which was when he "deduced" it was the mirror. And at that age to put two and two together so quickly? Bad storytelling.

If someone can explain all these to me, then maybe I'll give this movie a 6. But having realised all these loopholes, it's going to be a fail for me.