Review of Oculus (2014) by Ethan S — 06 Sep 2014

A very haunting ghost story that ALMOST manages to work. The last 10 minutes completely ruin the movie and kept me from truly feeling satisfied. The rest of the movie is so well done it makes me confused at how such a lazy and incompetent ending was even shot.

Things are moving right along and then all of a sudden its over and nothing is resolved and there is no climax. Something happens and then its over because the movie says so. This movie had so much potential to have an amazing ending and it failed.

Also, why was the little boy tried for murder anyway? He pretty obviously killed his father out of self defense. This isn't a spoiler because its explained in the first few minutes. I just don't understand.

the logic behind this is pretty flawed and took me out of the story. Anyway, the film had my spine tingling pretty much throughout and there were some points where the mind bending time manipulation actually really had me confused (in a good way since that was the intention).

Now, the ending aside, this movie truly does succeed for having a good story. It is, in fact, a ghost story. You could actually tell this at campfires its so bone chillingly awesome. The characters are well developed and the lore surrounding the mirror is perfect.

It really is too bad because I truly did think the movie was scary, just prepare to be really disappointed by the NON ending, which is something a lot of horror films suffer from lately. Its like the writer had such a high concept that he backed himself into a corner and the only way he could get out was the eject button.

What he should have pressed was delete.