Oculus movie review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic reviews...

So, I've been a little behind recently. Yes, I'll review Joe, I'll review The Raid 2, just once they both come out in my area. However, I've been promising a review for three weeks on now, and that film is Oculus. This film is directed by Mike Flanagan, and it stars Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Kattee Sackhoff, and just a few other unknown actors. The film is about these two siblings who are victims to the torments of a supernatural mirror.

Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaits in Oculus 

Now, this film was very intriguing to me, mainly because of it's main idea behind it. Basically, the film actually takes place at two different points in time. One of them takes place in the present, with Tim and Kaylie trying to prove that the mirror has supernatural forces behind it. The other takes place eleven years in the past, with young Kaylie and Tim witnessing the mirror doing it's haunted mirror stuff to their parents and driving them insane. And it switches back and forth between these two points in time at various points, which creates an interesting gimmick with the past and the present interplaying for the film.

The cast in the film does a good job with their roles. Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites play Kaylie and Tim as adults, and they're both pretty good. Nothing to get too excited for, but they did a good job. Kattee Sackhoff from Battlestar also does a very good job acting wise, she was very convincing as her character. The dad is played by Rory Cochrane, who I know as Jon Slater from Dazed & Confused, so that was interesting. But, there were two actors who I think did a fantastic job with the film, and those are the actors who play young Kaylie and Tim. When it comes to young actors, it's really hit or miss, but fortunately for the film, these two totally kill it in the flashback scenes.

Is the film perfect? Well, as with most horror films these days, no it's not. The first section of the film uses a few jump scares, a few really predictable moments. Not to mention it takes longer than I expected for supernatural stuff to really start happening, so it was kinda slow at first. But those are minor gripes, nothing that takes away from the film too much.

The horror elements in this film are it's strongest point. The director Mike Flanagan did a really great job with some of these scenes. Like I said earlier, the story plays into both the past and the present, which creates for some interested and actually unexpected moments where the two kind of blend together. But mainly, what I liked about this film was the fact that it doesn't rely on CGI, it mostly doesn't rely on jumpscares. Hell, there's not even too much violent and disturbing imagery until the last bit. The real centre of this film is very clever camera work and awesome editing on the film. I know it's early in 2014 to guess oscar nominations, but I seriously hope this is nominated for best editing, if not wins for best editing.

Final Rating
Oculus is a very disturbing and fantastically executed horror film. The cast does a great job with the characters of the film, and create interesting people. The gimmick in this film (for once) totally works to make this a great horror film. If you're someone like me who hasn't lost faith in horror films, I'd say go see it. Although, seeing as how this review is three weeks late, it's a safe bet you've probably already seen it.

Oculus: 4.7/5