Oculus review

                It’s no exaggeration to say that haunted-house movies are in vogue right now.  Why, probably because they are cheap to produce and boo-scares are easy to manufacture. Unlike a slasher flick or a gore-fest, ghost thrillers can remain relatively bloodless, thus allowing for that coveted PG-13 rating that can bring in as many young mall-dwellers as possible.  “Oculus”, however, was bought at this year’s SXSW festival and later released by the same producers who brought us “Sinister”, “Insidious” and “The Conjuring”—three reasonably scary movies in a currently overplayed horror sub-genre.

                Unlike most of it's contemporaries, “Oculus” boasts an ambitious screen-play full of brilliant shocks, and tricky sequences of psychological editing. Within every scene the movie is working on multiple levels. It’s a satisfying gotchya shrieker, a wildly structured procedural thriller, and thoughtful allegory about domestic abuse and childhood trauma.

                Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) has recently been released from a mental institution and on high-alert by his care-takers and therapists. After years of convincing himself that the brutality he experiences in his past is explainable in natural terms, his older sister Kaylie (Karen Gillen) decides to bring him to the house where they grew up to take on their past-demons face to face. Over the night, the two argue about what’s real, what’s memory and what’s impossible.  With many cameras and safeguards in place, Kaylie is determined to convince his brother that he isn’t crazy and that they can destroy the evil that savaged their family 11 years prior.

                “Oculus” is an efficient little horror movie that cleverly keeps the audience fighting between hiding behind their palms and leaning into their chairs to keep up with its complex, puzzle box plot.  Shifting back and forth from past to present, this duel narrative builds in a psychological spring-loaded trap, where, without even realizing it, by trying to figure it out you end up within its grasp. Actors Brenton Thwaites and Karen Gillen look and behave like television actors and much of the first third is spent trying to get the audience to forego their obnoxiously milk-toast appearance. But as the movie dives deeper into the abyss, the scares are delivered in a way that both offsets the goofy Twilight Zone set-up and televisual appeal of its younger cast.

                In the flashback sequences, the main players, led by Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff and Argo’s Rory Cochrane, are much stronger. The pain of the family’s deterioration is palpable and even if you can’t buy into the plot’s mystical conceit the tragic subtext is wrought with emotional truth. The movie ties together fuzzy dream-like memory with supernatural terror expertly and ends in a somewhat depressing but thematically satisfying way.

                Written with consideration and shot with economic skill, “Oculus” is a tight little genre treat that nobody asked for but will ultimately please those who take a chance on it.  It tries something new and mostly gets away with it. Even as some of the cast are annoyingly nondescript the material doesn’t allow them to be boring.

               

Grade: B+

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/April-2014