Forget the botched How I Met Your Mother ending. My new pop
culture disappointment is the ending of Oculus.
Oh man, this horror film was sooo good for most of its 105 minutes. And then that
ending…well, suffice it to say, I nearly yelled, “You’re better than that!” at
the screen.
Let’s focus on the good, shall
we? I love a horror film where we’re not quite sure if the protagonist is onto
something or completely off her rocker.
That’s Kaylie Russell (excellent
Karen Gillan). When the movie begins, she’s picking up her brother Tim (bland Brenton
Thwaites) from a mental institution, where he finally has come to accept the
fact that he killed his father (Rory Cochrane).
Kaylie, on the other hand, is
eager to fulfill a pact the two siblings made when they were children—to
destroy the demonic mirror that ruined their lives.
Tim’s vulnerability in these
opening scenes is key: His grip on “reality” seems fragile. Will his sister,
who never got the therapeutic care he did, drag him back into a world of
delusion? Or is he the one who is delusional? He spews out psychobabble phrases
for false memory and tricks of seeing patterns where there are none.
Kaylie, however, is all business:
She’s been researching the antique mirror—all of its past owners have died in
grotesque ways, often by their own hand—and strategies for destroying it.
(Since the mirror’s powers seem to extend to mind control, simply taking a
sledge hammer to it is not an option).
As Tim tries, with less and less
certainty, to convince his sister that she’s losing it, the movie flashes back and
forth from the present to their horrific childhood. You know the drill: New
house, new creepy mirror, mom and dad start acting strange. Is mom (Katee
Sackhoff) going crazy because dad is having an affair? Or is dad’s “affair”
actually him under the thrall of the evil mirror?
The casting of young Kaylie
(Annalise Basso) is absolutely key. Not only is she a great little actress, but
she looks so much like her adult counterpart—both have a long red ponytail that
swings like a pendulum when they run—we sometimes are briefly unsure what time frame
looking at. That is strictly intentional by smart director Mike Flanagan.
And whether she’s nuts or not, I
absolutely love the confidence with which Kaylie is attempting to exorcise that
mirror. In most horror films, the protagonists are running for away from the
danger. Kaylie tackles it head on—with a confident smirk and a downright
Escher-esque series of buzzers and generators and cameras and elaborate weaponry.
(The fact that her plan makes zero sense is only something that occurs to you
after the film is over.)
Just enjoy Oculus for what it is: Two-thirds of the best horror film I’ve seen
all year.