Oculus (2014)
Directed by Mike Flanagan
A woman tries to exonerate her brother's murder conviction by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon.
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What critics say influenced Oculus
He also has Kaylie read aloud the long, sordid history of the mirror—a dread-building strategy lifted from both The Shining and “1408.”
Sure the film’s central, malevolent mirror is able to alter the perception of those caught in its grasp, but this is really more of a gonzo elaboration of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining than yet another Paranormal Activity style spooker.
Whether it's using them simply to induce jump scenes (usually when a medicine cabinet is closed to reveal someone or something in the room with the character) or to create a memorable scene (who can forget the imagined moment in "Poltergeist" when the dude starts digging into his face or when Wendy notes in "The Shining" that "redrum" gains an entirely new meaning in the bedroom reflection), mirrors are a staple of the genre.
Tim and his sister are convinced an antique mirror made their father insane - a la The Shining - driving him to kill their mother (Katee Sackhoff).
Sackhoff and Cochrane’s sober descent into flesh-rending insanity, to the horror of their helpless children, recalls The Shining .
It has a few jump out scares and gross out moments, but is mostly just a jumbled, forced together jigsaw puzzle of films like " Frailty ," " Into the Mirror ," and " The Shining ."
The mirror problem stems from the evil antique at the center of this intricate horror story from the producers of "Insidious" and "Paranormal Activity."
Appropriately being co-released by microbudget fear factory Blumhouse Production — its founder, Jason Blum, helped turn the scrappy productions “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge” into profitable franchises — much of the new movie’s chilly atmosphere involves the experiences of two characters in a room with one very ominous mirror.
Sure the film’s central, malevolent mirror is able to alter the perception of those caught in its grasp, but this is really more of a gonzo elaboration of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining than yet another Paranormal Activity style spooker.
Just to name a few, we’re talking about “Paranormal Activity” (2007), “Paranormal Activity 2” (2010),” “Paranormal Activity 3” (2011), “Sinister” (2012), “Paranormal Activity 4” (2012), “The Purge” (2013)”, “Insidious: Chapter 2” (2013), “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” (2014) and now “Oculus”.
He has turned an enormous profit on similar films in the Paranormal Activity series, Insidious: Chapter 2 and The Purge .
Jason Blum, who produced Oculus, also produced Paranormal Activity 1, 2, 3, 4 and the upcoming 5 as well as Sinister, Insidious, and more.
What ensues is a claustrophobic mind-freak à la Roman Polanski’s 1965 “Repulsion” that — thanks to co-writer and director Mike Flanagan’s ironclad grip on the material — smartly grounds the showdown in the roots of childhood trauma and the adult siblings’ warring views on how to deal with it.
The mirror problem stems from the evil antique at the center of this intricate horror story from the producers of "Insidious" and "Paranormal Activity."
Director Mike Flanagan integrates these concerns into the horror-movie mechanics with some grace, making for a more involving entertainment than Insidious or The Conjuring, recent haunted-house films by his contemporary (and Saw alumnus) James Wan.
This trend is a welcome refresher, pioneered by James Wan with the films “Insidious” and “The Conjuring.”
Jason Blum, who produced Oculus, also produced Paranormal Activity 1, 2, 3, 4 and the upcoming 5 as well as Sinister, Insidious, and more.
Recent films like “The Conjuring” and “Sinister”–and even nonsense like the “Paranormal Activity” movies and the enormously overrated “Insidious”–have a family where there’s an issue between spouses or siblings or parents and children.
Fans of Insidious, Sinister and the like, will just want to know what Oculus wants, and the answer appears to be, yes you’ve guessed it, souls.
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Filmed almost entirely in one house on a very low budget with two almost-name actors (Katee Sackhoff from TV’s Battlestar Galactica and Rory Cochrane from Dazed and Confused), it adheres to the high-concept micro-budget ethos that has built Blum’s reputation in Hollywood.
(Credit where credit’s due: Katee Sackhoff, of Battlestar Galactica fame, tackles the thankless role of the heroes’ doomed mother with more conviction than was probably strictly necessary.)
Before things start going crazy, Cochrane and Sackhoff make for a fine pair of parents (Sackhoff, so often cast as a tough chick after her killer run on Battlestar Galactica, is refreshing as a nice, cheerful mom).
Sci-fi geeks will enjoy both Karen Gillan (who played the companion Amy Pond in recent seasons of “Doctor Who”) as well as Katee Sackhoff (who played Starbuck in the re-imagining of “Battlestar Galactica”).
Katee Sackhoff was Starbuck in Ron Moore's reimaging of Battlestar Galactica.
He also has Kaylie read aloud the long, sordid history of the mirror—a dread-building strategy lifted from both The Shining and “1408.”
Knowing that the mirror's primary tactic is to alter people's perceptions of reality, she has rigged up numerous cameras, timers, lights and fail-safes in order to record what actually goes down as opposed to what her mind will perceive (a nod to Blair Witch 2, I thought while viewing, and director Mike Flanagan has since confirmed ).
Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) and I Walked With a Zombie (1943) hinge on their heroines' dread of being vulnerable to sexual predators.
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Take, though, the entity's absurdly elaborate sense of humor, and strange propensity to cause dehydration, as a given and the film may be enjoyed as a throwback to such low-rent, psychologically charged chillers as Sandor Stern's Pin, another slow-burning yarn about siblings tormented by a maybe-not-so-inanimate object.
In 1990, another Mirror Mirror told of a possessed looking glass.