Odds are there’s been some point in your life when you’ve honestly believed that your mirror had it in for you. Director Mike Flanagan takes a looking glass’ capacity for cruelty and conflates it to supernatural levels, rendering an inanimate object unexpectedly menacing and crafting an extremely clever horror film in the process.
Fresh off a 10-year stint in a mental institution, Tim (Brenton Thwaites) is convinced by his sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan) to help destroy the cursed mirror responsible for his sectioning and their parents’ grim fates. She’s established precautions and fail-safes, all of which prove hopelessly overmatched by the dark forces that inhabit the antique wall hanging and display a funhouse’s flair for distorting reality; persistently tricking Tim and Kaylie into harming themselves and one another.
Interweaving the siblings’ tragic past with their perilous present while incorporating phantasmagoric elements, Oculus keeps a viewer more off-balance than most of its contemporary horror brethren.
It’s also granted sufficient emotional weight by its lead characters’ solemn childhood vow of retribution. Seeking out sinister adversaries rather than fleeing them, Gillan is a notably proactive heroine. Furthermore, she joins the film in scoffing at rational explanations (regarding exactly how a mirror embarked on a centuries-long killing spree) and simply gets on with the grisly business at hand.
And while it boasts sporadic instances of gore, Flanagan’s film largely subsists on the suspense derived from an inability to separate reality from illusion.
There’s no denying that many horror fans have seen this all before. However, he finds intriguing new angles from which to approach these familiar tropes, making the hoary appear horrific once again.
