Odd Thomas

I didn't know while watching it, but this movie was based off of a book written by Dean Koontz. It involves a guy who is named Odd Thomas, and yes that is his real name. He has the ability to see spirits who are lingering in our world waiting to move on. He can also see other spirits that are more dangerous. At its core this is a mystery more then a horror movie, but it does have some great horror elements in it. Odd can see spirits that follow those around who are about to do harm. The more spirits, the worse the event and person is. Odd knows something horrible is going to happen, and he and his Girlfriend Stormy try to figure out how to stop it.

This movie had some very dark themes to it. Nothing to horrible, but given recent events and the context of it, I could see it offending some people. The movie deals with people killing other people, but in a public way. You are told many people will die, it will be in a public place, and it will be awful. You see bits and pieces of it happening in Odd's visions and dreams, but until the very end you don't have to see the actual events. Without saying what exactly the ending is, since the mystery of who what and why is the driving force behind the movie, I will say it lives up to those claims. If you are squeamish, the movie has some gore, but nothing over the top. No real scares, but it does have a few possible scenes that may make you jump. Overall the horror elements are just used in the story and overall design of the film.

Speaking of design and style, the cgi in this film was pretty damn good. For a movie I had never heard of, I was not expecting great effects. But everything looked good, and the evil spirits looked pretty cool. There was a scene where a portal of corruption appears on a wall and just shoots forth evil entities. These smoke like creatures always looked good, and everything about them was fantastic.

The actors all did well with their roles, most of them I had seen before in other things. Odd is played by Anton Yelchin who you will remember from the newer star trek films. He plays Chekov who nobody can understand. Thankfully in this film he speaks very clearly, though it would have been funny for awhile to see him using the other accent while trying to be all serious. Addison Timlin plays the girlfriend Stormy. She looked very familiar, but after looking at her past roles, I can't honestly say as I have seen her in anything else. She did very well in this role however, and was one of the stronger characters because of it. Willem Dafoe was also in this, playing the local police chief. As was Patton Oswalt, who is always a delight to see.

If you want a decent mystery, some good effects, and a great story, give Odd Thomas a chance. It is on netflix, so honestly what do you have to lose? While there was some slow down near the middle, the movie did mostly keep me interested. And once things started coming together, I was with it until the end.