Review of Oculus (2014) by Caro H — 04 Aug 2014

The first quarter of 2014 had some pretty bad "horror" sequels like Paranormal Activity: The Mark Ones or Devil´s Due, to mention some, so "Oculus" looked like another found footage horror film trying to mimic the original "Paranormal Activity" but managed to divide audiences and to be compared by some with "The Conjuring" and "Insidious".

The Russell family just moved to a new home and the father bought an old mirror for decoration but this mirror produce hallucinations in the parents: The mother becomes paranoid and the father is seduce by a ghost of a women with mirrors in her eyes. The kids, Kaylie and Tim, witness how the mirror slowly destroys their parent's minds and finally causes their dead. Eleven years after, Kaylie manages to track down the mirror and recruits his brother Tim to, not only destroy this mirror, but to show the world what this mirror did to their parents.

Nowadays "horror" movies don't get jumps from the audiences like in the past so what's the point in reviewing another of this, supposedly, "horror films"? Actually "Oculus" stands out from the majority of these modern films of the genre and fortunately isn't another "found footage" film; it still has the elements that you expect from this type of films: Mediocre acting, bland characters without character development, a creepy atmosphere, a mediocre story and a supernatural element, in this case it's a mirror; but what really makes "Oculus" different is the directing. Director and writer Mike Flanagan tells both the parents and the present timelines in parallel which succeeds in keeping you intrigue in this forgettable plot but at the same time makes the film unnecessarily confusing, takes out any emotional weight and adds elements that really doesn't make any sense in the present timeline in order to make "parallels" with the much more interesting past timeline.

Overall "Oculus" is just another horror film with an intriguing editing to cover its forgettable story and bland characters. If you enjoy the "Paranormal Activity" franchise, Insidious and all those recent horror films; you will enjoy this film more than I did.