Oculus (2013)

Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Country: USA

Movie Review: Mike Flanagan gave life to “Oculus”, basing himself on his 2006 short “Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan”. After “Absentia”, the American filmmaker confirmed his predilection for the horror genre, having another one in agenda to come out in 2015, entitled “Somnia”, which like the object of this review has been co-wrote by Flanagan and Jeff Howard. “Oculus” tells the story of brother and sister, Tim (Brenton Thwaites) and Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan), whose parents died tragically ten years ago, supposedly shot by Tim. Now with the age of 21, the latter is given as psychologically apt and gets out of protective custody seeming ready to move on with his life. However, his still affected sister brings the subject all over again, after suspect that the cause of the misfortune could have been an old mirror that keeps leaving a track of blood or insanity in every house it passes by. The film was technically well executed, presenting a chilly atmosphere that could have been fruitful in case the plot has showed more creativity. By using a structure that is very conventional in the genre, “Oculus” needed some more credibility in terms of plot to be more spooky and less derivative. Basically, it is more of the same, and I wonder if Flanagan should have bothered doing this teen-horror-show with a magic mirror, which turns out to be tense in several occasions but also falsely complex and a bit dull in its backbone. The film was the second most voted by the audience at Toronto Int. Film Festival.