Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Like daggers to the eyes

OCULUS had so much potential all the way until it revealed that it was nothing more than a bunch of parlor tricks to jerk the audience around. It started off a little gimmicky but the kid performances held up and there were some decent scares. It built this engrossing puzzle with all these rules but then it gradually became apparent that the film had no intent to solve anything or justify anything or even abide by its own rules - a complete cop-out and an unfortunate let-down that turned into a logistic mess. Apparently this was based on a short film and it really felt like an underdeveloped conception - though I'll give the director credit for maintaining momentum throughout the film. Not bad, but frustratingly unsatisfying.

#sse #gnetx

Oculus (2013)
Directed by Mike Flanagan. With Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane. A woman tries to exonerate her brother, who was convicted of murder, by proving that the crime was committed b