I thought that I hadn't seen any of his movies, but, cruising through his IMDB page, it appears that I checked out Hush (2016) two years back and I remember really liking its spin on the home invasion sub-genre. Perhaps, I thought, I should go and familiarize myself with some of his other works.
So, for my October Playlist, I decided to start with his first studio hit: Oculus.
Summary:
Kaylie and Tim Russel return to their childhood home on a mission. Eleven years ago, they promised each other that they would destroy an artifact of unimaginable evil: The haunted mirror that caused their father to torture and kill their mother, and nearly do the same to them. Kaylie has a plan, meticulously laid out down to the last detail, but the mirror is far from defenseless.Pros:
Orange and Green: Most horror films (the easy and forgettable ones, anyway) sit firmly in a cool, blue-saturated color scheme. In post production it is an easy fix to add some artistic verve to the piece and to try and hide budgetary constraints by literally obscuring them from the viewer. Flanagan, and cinematographer, Michael Fimognari, decide to dial up the warm oranges and reds and the cooler greens. This makes everything in the film pop in unique, glorious detail. Pro tip, kids: complimentary colors are your friend, and green and orange are complimentary as fuck. It also allows the film to play with visual emotional cues like warming up a location by dialing up the oranges, reds and yellows to lend a safe feeling, and then cooling others by bringing in those green hues (and, yes, sometimes blue) in order to make some places feel dangerous or perilous. Oculus has a distinct visual style, and it is due in large part to the color correction. Praise be.Great Cast: You gotta have a good crew of performers to sell supernatural drama. Flanagan has collected a solid cast to sell his tale. Karen Gillan roots the film in a fevered determination to make good on her childhood promise; she is so single-minded and committed that you naturally root for her. Katee Sackhoff has a wonderful descent into madness (special props go to the production team for making an objectively beautiful woman like Katee Sackhoff look progressively more and more worn out and hellish as her arc progresses); Sackhoff makes the most out of a relatively small role, and manages to anchor part of the story in her tragedy. Rory Cochrane is likely a name you don't recognize, but he is a valuable player every time he shows up in a feature, and his turn as patriarch, Alan, is no exception. By the time Alan goes full Jack Torrance, Cochrane is all cool malevolence, selling more with a blank stare and haunted expression than most actors can summon in histrionic shouting matches. The movie also stars Brenton Thwaites. But we don't talk about Brenton Thwaites in my household.
Ingenuity: The film features jump scares, but, unlike many of its ilk, it earns them and it doesn't overly rely on them. It concerns itself with devising interesting ways of scaring its viewer without rowdy music cues. One of my favorite touches is the fact that the revenants that the mirror summons (it stores its victims and summons them to do its bidding) have mirrors for eyes. I originally thought that they were just creepy, glow-y eyes. But mirror eyes is so much worse. Here's why: the mirror's favored way of dispatching victims is to strangle them. Initially that choice is highly specific and a bit confusing. Until you think about it: when being strangled to death, you can look into your assailant's eyes, and, as you are dying, you see yourself, dying, reflected in the mirror eyes of your attacker. What a fucking thing. Oh, also, if the mirror has possessed you, it can allow YOU a moment of clarity, right as you choke the life out of a loved one. It does this: the mother, Marie, is choking her daughter, all vicious, bloodied fury. Then, she relents. The mirror sheen is gone from her eyes. She has a moment of real, awful realization: she's killing her only daughter. Right before her also-possessed husband shoots her dead. Again: holy shit. Then there's the way that the film blends the past and the present at once. At first, this is a fun way of telling both stories for the viewer: we get to see the original haunting and the siblings in modern day. But then, the mirror starts forcing the siblings to relive their past memories (allowing for some really interesting visuals), and they are reliving that awful trauma, because the mirror knows they want to destroy it. By keeping them rooted in the past, they cannot focus on killing it in the present. Flanagan masterfully fuses a storytelling technique (flashbacks) with the mechanic of the evil mirror (it messes with your perception and often forces you to see illusory things). That's clever, and I liked it.
Earns its R-Rating in Other Ways: There is some blood, but the movie doesn't revel in it. There is some strong language, but the movie doesn't try to become a Tarantino rip-off of un-earned F-bombs. The film relies on genuinely creepy imagery and an impending sense of doom. It isn't JUST a haunted mirror: it's a meditation on how that demonic entity causes and exacerbates grief and trauma. In that way, the horror feels more real, and more gut-wrenching than any CG ghost or overly-produced creature.
Feels Like a Stephen King Novella: Oculus feels like a lost Stephen King novella. The horror is both supernatural and psychological. It brings to mind The Shining, and I don't mean that in a reductive way. I think Flanagan evokes King without cribbing his style. It's no wonder that he got the go-ahead from the master to adapt Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep, two of King's properties.
I Love it When a Plan... Falls All to Hell: Kaylie's plan is very nearly bullet-proof. She has thought of every angle, and every wrinkle. It is a great deal of fun listening to her lay out the way she is going to beat the mirror. It is also a lot of fun watching her plan get shattered into a million pieces.
Cons:
Masochism: I hate masochistic horror endings. Or, rather, endings that render otherwise great horror films masochistic in the offing. That is to say: I hate movies where the last five minutes make the previous 80 seem like a pointless exercise in pain and suffering. I won't spoil it, but Oculus has such an ending. It is an easy ending: one the viewer can likely predict, given the film's own established rules and foreshadowing. It still doesn't mean that I like it. I was rooting for the movie the entire run time. I loved its beauty and its ingenuity in regards to scares and its juxtaposition of supernatural horror and genuine psychological terror. Right up until the end, when it withered on the vine, like one of the film's doomed flora.Were I still the kind of reviewer who gave arbitrary grade scores, this ending is the kind of thing that knocks a down a full letter score. Also: this ending is obvious sequel-bait, and it reeks of attempted franchisement.Brenton Thwaites: I don't like Brenton Thwaites. Is that fair, professional or mature? No. But it is what it is.
In Conclusion:
All things considered, this movie was pretty darn good. I had little-to-no expectations walking in, and I think that helped me enjoy the experience and be pleasantly surprised by it. It was a fun psychological haunted house feature that is beautifully composed, and competently acted (for the most part: looking at you, Thwaites). Even bearing in mind that ending, I still feel really strongly about the film, and am curious to see more of Mike Flanagan's work because of it.Should You Watch It?
It depends: I liked the film's aesthetic and was genuinely scared a few times, but the ending ruined a lot of good will for me. I consider this one a hidden gem, not necessarily must-view.Miscellany:
- The film dropped in 2013, and was a genuine hit: it has a budget of $5 million and grossed $44 million. Despite an enthused studio offer, Flanagan has yet to write a sequel. It's been five years. But he's also been a busy bee.
- The movie was filmed in 24 days in October of 2012. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, but would not see a wide release until 2014.
- The film is based on a short film, also written and directed by Flanagan: Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man With the Plan (2005).
- Bollywood remade this film. Bollywood.
- The movie was filmed in 24 days in October of 2012. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, but would not see a wide release until 2014.
- The film is based on a short film, also written and directed by Flanagan: Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man With the Plan (2005).
- Bollywood remade this film. Bollywood.
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