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| Review by Ben Robbins |
Produced by Marc D. Evans, Trevor Macy
Written by Jeff Howard
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Starring Katee Sackhoff, Karen Gillan,
Brenton Thwaites, Rory Cochrane, James Lafferty,
Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan,
Miguel Sandoval, Katie Parker, Kate Siegel
I am not really sure what I exactly watched in the theater during the screening of Oculus, but it sure was not what I had hoped for.
This film, was neither horror film or psychological thriller. It was kind of a mish-mosh of kinda scary ideas thrown together with a pretty good cast about a haunted mirror and a creepy, lady spirit.
It neither scared me nor made me think.
Based on his short film of the same name, writer director, Mike Flannagan, probably should have left this a half hour film instead of trying to pad it with nonsense and make it a feature.
The story is a cobbled together, loose fitting, group of different ideas, none of which cohesively make a single film.
From what I gleaned, an obsessed woman is convinced that a mirror, her dad bought when she was a kid, is responsible for him going crazy and killing their mother. In the aftermath her brother kills their father, is sent to a mental institution, and she is put in foster care.
All of this is shown through a series of poorly conceived flashbacks.
The movie is supposed to take place in present day, a decade or so after the events took place. Through really poor plot devices and ill explained means, the girl, now played by Doctor Who alum Karen Gillan gets ahold of the mirror through her work at her fiancee’s auction house.
Her brother, played by Australian soap star, Brenton Thwaites is now released from the mental institute and ready to get on with his life, seemingly over the insane events of his past. Too bad his sister never got the treatment he got because she has come up with this overly elaborate and totally non-evidentially supported plan to prove the mirror is haunted and makes people kill.
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