Review of Oculus (2014) by Anthony K — 25 Jan 2016

Edit after rewatching several times: Oculus is straight up excellent. I see it as a movie about two kids who experienced (and imagined much of, as all they were witness to was vague fighting noises from the parents) a traumatic upbringing, broken entirely by a father's sadistic assault on their extremely mentally ill mother. Nothing in this film explicitly suggests that the mirror is anything other than a conduit for the projection of the childrens' trauma - to say 'it was the evil mirror' is much easier to digest for them than 'it was the evil dad of ours'.

Color me impressed. Takes a lot of disparate genre cliches (possessed family members, haunted mirror, demonic apparitions, etc.) and manages to craft something fresh. It's scary in what it implies vs what it shows, though there are some truly freaky visuals as well. The script is snappy and smart, and delivered well by the lead actress...her bother character, not so much. Frankly I'm surprised she hasn't been seen in more since this film.