Director Mike Flanagan produced a short film called Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan, using a single setting, and a single mirror, in 2005. This short film garnered acclaim, and studios began to offer him deals to turn the short film into a feature film. However, most of these offers wanted to turn the feature into a "found footage" movie. After passing on most such offers, Intrepid Pictures finally made an offer which actually said not to do it found footage. It eventually got other production companies involved after completion including.... wait, WWE films?But, this has nothing to do with wrestling. Apparently, they got involved after the film was shown in Toronto, but still. Why? Anyway, filming was completed in 24 days in Fairhope, Alabama, and the film was released in 2014 to generally good reviews and good box office.There is apparently a Hindi remake called Zahhak. Flanagan has gone to direct more feature. As of this writing, (October 23rd, 2016), his most recent picture Ouija: Origin of Evil is out in theaters.
The film follows two narratives. One narrative revolves around siblings Tim (Brenton Thwaites) and Kaylie (Karen Gillian) reuniting after Tim has been discharged from a psychiatric hospital. Tim was accused of having murdered his father, who had killed his mother, while stating he had been under the influence of a mysterious mirror 11 years ago. Kaylie and her boyfriend (James Lafferty) have managed to retrieve that same mirror, and Kaylie, having documented the extensive history of it and strange occurrences around it, tries to find a way to destroy it by researching it. Tim has been convinced at the psychiatric hospital that he had hallucinated the whole incident, despite Kaylie's insistence on the contrary. As Kaylie tries to research the mirror, and the siblings argue, the second narrative arises, this one dealing with the incident itself, when Tim (Garett Ryan) and Kaylie (Annalise Basso) were pre-teens. After their father, Alan (Roy Cochrane), a software engineer, gets a new mirror, he and their mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff. Yes, Starbuck) begin to act strangely, with Alan remaining in his office all day, becoming obsessive with it, and Marie having disturbing hallucinations, about scars. This slowly degenerates their minds, as their children watch helplessly, all while in the present, similar things begin to happen to them.
This film has some of the best use of jumpscares I've seen. Unlike other films, sometimes, the tension doesn't build to a jumpscare. Sometimes, it just happens out of nowhere, and the tension is there just to build atmosphere. Most of the actors do good, as a family that is slowly degenerating into madness. The breakdown of the nuclear family is nothing new, but it's portrayal here is disturbing, with the mental breakdown of the mother in particular being very graphic in nature. There is also the psychological aspects to consider. Perhaps this was going on entirely in their heads. Perhaps, Tim's comments on possible rational explanations were plausible. There could be some sort of placebo effect on them. Or, the mirror subtly brought out the baser instincts of the people it comes into contact with. I enjoy films with multiple interpretations.
The interaction between the two narratives sometime murky. While it's usually easy to tell which timeline we're in, by the end, it sometimes gets confusing. While I praised the jumpscares, the film itself isn't very scary. It is more creepy and unnerving than actually scary, and frankly, it didn't stick with me the same way a very scary horror film can (I had the same problem with The Witch). It is more interesting than scary. Finally, it lags a bit, though not enough to slow it down.
Like I said, I didn't find the film very scary, so if you want a scary film to watch with your friends, then you won't find it here. If you want to see a film to ruminate and contemplate over, and have a brief unnerving experience, this would be a good one.
Next time, we go in a different direction. Vincent Price's Theatre of Blood.
The film follows two narratives. One narrative revolves around siblings Tim (Brenton Thwaites) and Kaylie (Karen Gillian) reuniting after Tim has been discharged from a psychiatric hospital. Tim was accused of having murdered his father, who had killed his mother, while stating he had been under the influence of a mysterious mirror 11 years ago. Kaylie and her boyfriend (James Lafferty) have managed to retrieve that same mirror, and Kaylie, having documented the extensive history of it and strange occurrences around it, tries to find a way to destroy it by researching it. Tim has been convinced at the psychiatric hospital that he had hallucinated the whole incident, despite Kaylie's insistence on the contrary. As Kaylie tries to research the mirror, and the siblings argue, the second narrative arises, this one dealing with the incident itself, when Tim (Garett Ryan) and Kaylie (Annalise Basso) were pre-teens. After their father, Alan (Roy Cochrane), a software engineer, gets a new mirror, he and their mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff. Yes, Starbuck) begin to act strangely, with Alan remaining in his office all day, becoming obsessive with it, and Marie having disturbing hallucinations, about scars. This slowly degenerates their minds, as their children watch helplessly, all while in the present, similar things begin to happen to them.
This film has some of the best use of jumpscares I've seen. Unlike other films, sometimes, the tension doesn't build to a jumpscare. Sometimes, it just happens out of nowhere, and the tension is there just to build atmosphere. Most of the actors do good, as a family that is slowly degenerating into madness. The breakdown of the nuclear family is nothing new, but it's portrayal here is disturbing, with the mental breakdown of the mother in particular being very graphic in nature. There is also the psychological aspects to consider. Perhaps this was going on entirely in their heads. Perhaps, Tim's comments on possible rational explanations were plausible. There could be some sort of placebo effect on them. Or, the mirror subtly brought out the baser instincts of the people it comes into contact with. I enjoy films with multiple interpretations.
The interaction between the two narratives sometime murky. While it's usually easy to tell which timeline we're in, by the end, it sometimes gets confusing. While I praised the jumpscares, the film itself isn't very scary. It is more creepy and unnerving than actually scary, and frankly, it didn't stick with me the same way a very scary horror film can (I had the same problem with The Witch). It is more interesting than scary. Finally, it lags a bit, though not enough to slow it down.
Like I said, I didn't find the film very scary, so if you want a scary film to watch with your friends, then you won't find it here. If you want to see a film to ruminate and contemplate over, and have a brief unnerving experience, this would be a good one.
Next time, we go in a different direction. Vincent Price's Theatre of Blood.
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