An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at Mike Flanagan’s first theatrical release, the 2014 psychological horror film, Oculus.
The story of two siblings, played by Karen Gillian and Brendan Thwaites, looking to take revenge on a mirror that haunted them 11 years prior. Told in flashbacks, the haunting from 11 years prior is told in parallel with their plan in the present.
Quick Review:
If not seeing anything in a mirror on Halloween is bad and seeing a full apparition of a demon is good, this movie is you breaking every single mirror in your home without hesitation.
Is Oculus Scary?
Looked behind me once and debated breaking a few mirrors in my home. This is definitely a good spooky time movie that will make you not want to look at a mirror at night.
Mike Flannigan, as he has done in his The Haunting of Hill House series on Netflix and other projects, is great at quickly creating tension and providing a scare without relying heavily on jump scares. Not saying jump scares are bad but the scares that are caused from tension and suspense stay with you long after the movie has ended.
Oculus (2014) Detailed Plot:
The movie starts with 12-year-old Kaylie Russell (played by Annalise Basso) and her 10-year-old brother Tim Russell (played by Garrett Ryan Ewald) hiding from their gun-wielding father, Alan (played by Rory Cochrane) who is looking for them. And, if someone holding a gun is looking for you, it’s never a good sign. As soon as he passes by, they run out of the room and head for the front door.
While Kaylie struggles to open the door, Tim looks towards his father’s open office and sees a woman, or should I say g-g-g-ghost!
Tim yells out for his sister which alerts their father to their whereabouts. Alan pops out from around the corner and points the gun at Kaylie. The camera pans over to reveal an older Tim (played by Brenton Thwaites) now holding the gun instead of their father.
This turns out to be a retelling of a dream sequence. It’s revealed whatever incident happened that night landed Tim in a psychiatric hospital and the opening scene was him retelling his doctor his dream. His doctor believes Tim has now come to accept the delusions he experienced that night and now that he has reached his 21st birthday, he recommends he be released.
Meanwhile, Kaylie (played by Karen Gillian) now works at an auction house along with her fiancé, Michael. The two oversee a bid for a large antique mirror, with a crack in the bottom right, called the Lasser Glass. She then leaves to pick up Tim from the psychiatric hospital and takes him to, what at first, appears to be a normal lunch. After Kaylie gives him a list of apartments in the area and some money to help his transition to society, she gets creepy by whispering “I found it”.
She explains, to the shocked Tim, that she has been tracking “it” down for years and after finding it, it took her a year and a half to get it to the auction house. Now that the bid has happened, she has access to it for a few days, giving them enough time to fulfill their promise and kill it.
If it’s not clear, “it” is the Lasser Glass. although the movie tries to make it ambiguous at this point as if the mirror hasn’t been the center of the marketing.
There’s a flashback to 11 years prior when the family is moving into their new home and the movers bring in the mirror to Alan’s office. His wife, Marie (played by Katee Sackhoff) jokingly comments on the mirror and the family seems happy… for now.
At 14 minutes in, the movie’s first of very few jump scares occurs in another dream sequence when the grown-up Katie is wandering their old family home. She walks into her father’s office and is attacked by him as he attempts to choke her. She wakes up experiencing night terrors and is comforted by Michael, it’s clear this isn’t the first-night terror she’s had.
The following day the Lasser Glass arrives at the auction house and Kaylie lies to multiple people to get it delivered temporarily to the old family home. Before it’s moved, she spends some alone time with it where her obsession is on full display.
She talks to the mirror and taunts it telling it she hopes the crack in the bottom right still hurts it. The Lasser Glass responds by playing tricks on her, it appears as if the mirror is able to alter, not just reflections, but what the person sees in a given radius.
The mirror makes Kaylie see three statues behind her covered in white cloths where previously there were only two. When turning around she now sees the three so that’s pretty creepy, before she can remove the white cloth she’s interrupted by the movers and it vanishes when she looks again.
A flashback shows the beginnings of the mirror’s attempts to torment the family. While playing with Tim outside of the home Kaylie sees, through a window, a woman in her father’s office rubbing Alan’s shoulders. Later this is revealed to be the main ghost, Marisol.
At dinner that night, Alan appears distant already being influenced by the mirror, continuing to bite one of his nails until it bleeds. As he puts on a band-aid Kaylie asks him who the woman in the office was. Since he couldn’t see Marisol, he responds there wasn’t a woman but the question begins to sow distrust within Marie.
Back in the present, a reluctant Tim helps Kaylie bring the Lasser Glass into their old home. The two place it back in their father’s old office where Kaylie has put together an elaborate set-up. Here, she breaks down her entire plan and honestly it’s a good one, a super smart decision in a horror movie. Which as I stated in a previous review, the “Law of Horror” means an equally stupid decision is coming up but we’ll get to that in a moment.
Kaylie’s set-up includes multiple cameras pointed at the mirror each with its own independent power circuits, a thermostat in every room to check for fluctuating temperatures, multiple battery-powered alarm clocks that go off at different intervals to remind them to change the camera batteries; lightbulbs, and to eat.
She has also placed plants at different radii’ around the home to measure the sphere of influence of the mirror and has instructed Michael to call her every hour on the hour.
Finally, the last piece of her plan is a yacht anchor attached to the ceiling by a wire, if the connected kitchen timer isn’t reset manually every 30 minutes, the 20-pound anchor will come down and break the Lasser Glass. This forces the mirror to keep them alive for its own survival.
Because of his time in the psychiatric hospital, Tim believes all of this is nonsense and tries to explain to Kaylie their father simply had an affair and went crazy killing their mom. The two argue for a little when Tim asks the question that reveals the stupid decision in Kaylie’s plan, “Why don’t we just break it now?”
Kaylie realizes he doesn’t remember some of the events of the night 11 years ago and tells Tim to try to break it. Tim grabs a chair and goes to smash the Lasser Glass but stops himself rationalizing it would cost Kaylie her job and it’s up to Kaylie to move past the delusion herself.
Kaylie tells him the reason he actually stopped was that the mirror made him and has the power to create illusions making any attackers miss the mirror entirely.
Now, granted that’s a somewhat good reason for the “why not break the mirror now manually?” question but, if they just put the mirror in front of the anchor and release it, then it would break without risking any illusions. Also, she just monologued her entire plan in front of the thing she’s trying to kill after earlier talking to it, meaning she knows it can understand.
It’s a small hole in the logic of the movie but not a plot hole since Kaylie also states she wants to capture some kind of supernatural occurrence to prove her father’s innocence.
On camera, she runs down the history of the mirror going back centuries ending with her parents (really just being exposition for the audience but done really well!). We learn police reports described complete psychological breakdowns for the parents just two weeks after getting the mirror. We also learn Alan killed Marie and then was killed by Tim, that being the incident that landed him in the psychiatric hospital.
Another flashback shows Alan in his home office working while picking at the band-aid on his finger. After it disrupts his typing, he removes the band-aid completely but a moment later it’s back on his finger. Slightly confused and unable to get it off, he pulls out a stapler remover and jams it into the band-aid pulling it out.
A quick flash reveals the Lasser Glass tricked him and he has actually removed his fingernail. Whispers from the mirror tell Alan “it doesn’t hurt” and the pain immediately goes away, showing just how much influence the mirror has.
The mirror continues driving a wedge in the family making Alan believe the children have been playing in his office. He reprimands them and accuses them of entering the office at night after being told not to.
Continuing flashbacks reveal the mirror feeds on the life force of smaller living things starting with plants and then animals as shown by the family dog 11 years ago, losing its will to do anything and constantly whimpering. This gives it more power allowing it to create stronger illusions for those within its growing sphere of influence.
In the following scene Alan and Marie debate Alan’s purchase of a gun which he defends since Marie was the one who told him, she thought she saw an intruder in the home. As Marie leaves the office she hears Alan’s voice clearly call her a “grotesque cow” but in reality, the mirror is getting stronger and now has targeted Marie.
The next day Alan heads off to golf with a client telling the children to stay out of the office. Hours later the dog’s continuous barking outside of the office pisses off Marie and she lets the dog into Alan’s office. The children wait outside the office until Alan comes back home and upon unlocking the door the dog is nowhere to be found.
Back in the present Kaylie believes, and has other instances in history, that the mirror takes pets as victims. She then reveals she adopted a dog to place in front of the Lasser Glass as bait, which makes her an antagonist in my book. Tim flips out saying he remembers the incident differently, a flashback shows Tim’s version of events where their family dog was sick, taken to the vet, and never returned.
Tim, in the present, releases the dog used as bait and helps it escape the house. Kaylie follows him to the living room and the two argue leading Tim to give some pretty convincing theories on what actually happened 11 years ago. He points to the Parvo virus killing plants and their dog, and the fuzzy trace theory affecting their memories as proof that the Lasser Glass isn’t haunted.*
At that moment Kaylie appears to believe him beginning to cry but when they return to the room they see all cameras have moved. Reviewing the footage shows the entire time they were arguing even though they appeared to be in the living room they were actually inside the room, moving the cameras around and controlled by the mirror.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
The scene shifts to 11 years ago when Kaylie and Tim hear some sounds coming from her father’s office and find their mother standing there holding a vacuum, entranced by the mirror.
Later at dinner with just the three of them, Marie asks Kaylie about the woman she saw in the office. Kaylie realizing something is off, says she hasn’t seen her but Tim the rat says he has and believes the woman lives in the office.
Marie goes into the office and finds multiple pieces of paper with the ghost’s name, Marisol, written all over them. In anger, she tosses a pack of sticky notes at the Lasser Glass and notices her reflection is moving independently from her. Her reflection gives a sinister smile and possesses Marie.
Now possessed Marie tries to attack the children, chasing them upstairs as they barricade themselves. While she’s banging on the door, Alan comes home and tries to protect the children. After a brief struggle, he manages to choke Marie unconscious. He calls 911 but the Lasser Glass possesses him and instead of getting Marie’s help, he chains her up in their room and tells the children no one is allowed in.
Several days later the home is running out of food and Alan spends all day in the office staring at the mirror. Kaylie enters telling him he needs to go food shopping and to get Mom help. Alan reiterates not to go into the room and says he’ll go get food soon. Kaylie ignores his orders and enters the parent’s room finding a feral Marie chained and bloody, missing teeth.
She confronts her father demanding he gets her help but instead Alan grounds them and tells them to stay out. Kaylie along with Tim calls various doctors but each tells them to have their father call back, Kaylie points out every doctor has said the same thing in the same voice and tone. She leaves the home and goes to a neighbor named Bob for help. Despite coming to the house, Alan is able to convince Bob nothing is wrong and Kaylie is just acting out.
That night the power goes out and Tim heads downstairs to ask Alan to fix the power, hearing whispers coming from the office. He enters, finding Marisol hovering above his father.
Back in the present Kaylie is changing out the lightbulbs in the living room when she places her apple on the counter next to the lightbulb. After she’s done she picks up her apple and takes a bite of it but stops, horrified when she feels glass. She reaches into her mouth and pulls out a large piece of glass.
But, once Tim enters the room she realizes the Lasser Glass only made her believe she bit into glass and actually bit into the apple. An example of the movie expertly building suspense, going through with a scare, but then being able to reverse it while sticking to its own rules.
A little while later Kaylie is now using her phone’s camera to detect what are illusions and what is real. Pointing her camera to a bunch of broken flower pots she’s able to tell the pieces are illusions despite being able to pick up a large clay shard in her hand. Walking through the house a ghost of the possessed Marie shocks her causing her to jam the shard of clay into her neck.
But when Kaylie looks again what was once Marie’s ghost is actually Michael bleeding from his neck. He collapses dying in front of her. Kaylie tries to tell herself it’s not real and as Michael lies in front of her she receives a call from him for his hourly check-in. Still unsure which is the illusion, she uses her camera and confirms the Michael laying dead in front of her is the real Michael.
Tim runs in as Kaylie begins to break down over killing her fiancé and brings her outside to call the police. Tim tells Kaylie all they have to do is wait for the police and let the anchor timer run out destroying the mirror.
The lights for the house turn on and the two watch doppelgangers of themselves stand in front of the mirror. Kaylie questions which is the illusion. If they really are outside, then the Lasser Glass wants them back inside to kill but if they really are inside, then the Lasser Glass wants them to believe they are outside so the anchor kills them at the half hour.
The two decide to go back inside to set off one of the alarms to wake up the real versions of themselves but Marisol appears and chases them upstairs. This confirms they are really standing in front of the mirror and need to wake themselves up from the illusion before the anchor falls.
The Lasser Glass replays the events of the final night 11 years ago to them through illusions. On that night the kids see their father load a gun before chasing them and attempting to kill them. They hide in the upstairs bathroom as Alan releases Marie from her chains who is still possessed and begins hunting the kids.
Kaylie tells Tim to run downstairs as soon as she opens the door and to not look back. Upon opening the door Marie lunges at them but Kaylie hits her with a golf club and leads her down the hall. Tim runs downstairs but comes face to face with his gun-toting father.
Kaylee is able to escape the house through the bedroom window but when Tim doesn’t come out she heads back in to save him. Spotting him hiding behind the kitchen counter she’s unable to avoid her mother who pushes her to the ground and begins to strangle her.
Seeing herself choke Kaylie, Marie snaps out of it but is shot from behind and killed by the possessed Alan.
The kids run to the office armed with golf clubs and attack the mirror but it’s revealed the mirror made them hit the wall instead. Alan hears them and comes rushing in, knocking the golf club from Kaylie’s hand and pointing the gun at her. Tim hits him in the arm with the golf club making him drop the gun but Alan simply starts choking Kaylie instead.
Tim picks up the gun and aims at his dad telling him to stop. In a moment of lucidity, Alan lets Kaylie go, drops to his knees, and guides his son’s hand to point the gun directly at his chest. Alan nods to Tim, and tells him to run, as he makes his son pull the trigger. Alan’s body falls back cracking the glass.
The ghosts of the past victims surround the children but their screams turn to alarm sounds and the adult Tim wakes up in front of the mirror, alone. Realizing he only has a limited time, he rushes to the switch and releases the weighted anchor.
In what appears to be the past, Kaylie sees her mother in the mirror beckoning her to hug her. Kaylie approaches the mirror and embraces the reflection of her mother.
Back in the present, the anchor falls but as it hits, the Lasser Glass reveals Kaylie was standing in front of it and Tim has just released it, killing her just as the police arrive.
The movie ends with the past and present scenes of Tim being arrested interlaced with each other. In the past being arrested for killing his father and in the present arrested for killing his sister. As the police car drives off, Tim sees his sister’s spirit having joined the many victims of the Lasser Glass.
Review
Oculus does a great job at creating tension, setting up a scare, paying it off, then pulling the rug out from under you making you wonder if what just happened actually happened. This happens only a handful of times, but when it does happen, it works really well.
The movie is also well written attempting to cover all logical plot holes and provides a tight compact story. Like most Mike Flanagan projects, Oculus sacrifices the opportunity for more scares during the last half for character development but does it in such a way where suspense and tension is not sacrificed.
Highly recommend it as a spooky time movie but as a warm-up instead of the main event.
NOTES
*Fuzzy trace theory and Parvo virus are real things. Except I couldn’t find any good research in parvo virus killing plants but it’s not out of the realm of reality.
Cast IMBD