Oculus was a film I knew nothing about, except it was being put out by WWE studios. That usually means a wrestler is in the movie, though I don't recall that being the case this time. It also means every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and some Sundays, I was bombed with adds for this movie while watching the one tv show I consistently follow. It also meant I had zero interest in this by the time it came out, and had actually built up some detest towards it as well. That is also the same reason I never saw The Call or whatever the last WWE movie was called. However my wife was overly excited to see this, and constantly asked me if we could check it out. Finally that worked out, and we sat down to enjoy what I could only assume would be a waste of time.
I don't watch a lot of Horror, they just don't appeal to me very often. So while I have read some criticism about the plot to this movie, and how predictable and over done it is....well that didn't apply to me. It actually came off as a really neat idea, and a very unique movie. While I did call the ending about 15 minutes into it, the journey was more then enough to keep me interested. The story is that there is a mirror, that mirror is possessed and kills off its owners by feeding on their life force and driving them crazy. It can manipulate them and force them to do things they normally wouldn't, and can distort their views on reality and what they perceive is going on around them. What we get is a story that takes place in two times spaced out about 10 years apart. We see the mirror come into a family, and then we see the kids from that family trying to destroy the mirror 10 years later. The in-between is then filled in as we see both stories played out. We know the son Tim has spent most of his time in a psyc ward and his Sister was on the outside left alone to deal with her emotional trauma. She has re-acquired the mirror and when her brother is finally released, they decide to destroy it.
This is actually where the movie picks up. The sister Kaylie played by Karen Gillian goes very much overboard in her quest. She wants to show her family was not responsible for the tragedy that happens to them, and wants to prove the mirror has powers. She sets up many cameras in her house with there own power supplies, as well as many other items in order to prove what they capture on film is indeed real. She has timers for when they need to eat, drink, change batteries, and even outside sources calling her from outside the mirrors range of influence to constantly check in on them. There is more, and it all comes off as delightfully crazy, which added to the film for me. You see, Tim believes his sister is crazy, and for awhile so did I. The film does a good job of trying to confuse you by jumping back and forth between timelines. It also cleverly hides what exactly is going on. Tim and Kaylie each see different things happening at the same time, they have different memories of the past. The film tries to make you question whether the mirror really does have something inside of it, or if it is all in Kaylie's head. I enjoyed that aspect of it.
The movie does tell two stories, but they converge into one, in more ways then you might imagine. Remember how I said the mirror was able to manipulate people and change how they see what is going on? Well that plays into effect greatly here. The two time lines start to cross paths and the different versions of the characters start to interact with each other. It is almost as if they are reliving those moments, but they also appear to be there themselves. It was a cool effect, and further made me believe, damn these kids might just be crazy after all.
While the ending was a little weak, and you will see it coming a mile away, the movie over all was still very solid. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I enjoyed all the little twists and turns. Seeing the two siblings lose it was more satisfying then I thought it would be. And while there really were no scares, it still had some suspense to help out the pacing.
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