View Poll Results: Oculus (Mike Flanagan)

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Thread: Oculus (Mike Flanagan)

  1. #1
    White Tiger Field Stay Puft's Avatar
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    Oculus (Mike Flanagan)

    OCULUS
    Dir. Mike Flanagan

    IMDb page

    Giving up in 2020. Who cares.

    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
    Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
    The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
    Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
    Night Hunter (David Raymond) *

  2. #2
    White Tiger Field Stay Puft's Avatar
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    My brief reaction from TIFF last year:

    A horror movie about a mirror that kills people. It sounds ridiculous but actually kinda worked for me, for two reasons: 1) the mirror is a character with a specific set of character traits, so that its behavior in the story is predictable and internally consistent, something supernatural movies like this tend to ignore; and 2) the film boasts a dynamic plot that intertwines two time periods, which serves multiple purposes of course (exposition, backstory, etc.) but is also cleverly the mirror's main defense mechanism (confusing the characters themselves, as they witness the flashbacks as children, so that they can't maintain a grip on reality or their location in the house and therefore fight the mirror). It's all pretty hokey and stupid but I credit the filmmakers for actually having ambition and putting in the work to make it succeed (the film was thoroughly planned and storyboarded to maintain continuity between multiple time periods, and the plotting flows surprisingly smoothly). Not great but has a couple good scares.
    Giving up in 2020. Who cares.

    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
    Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
    The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
    Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
    Night Hunter (David Raymond) *

  3. #3
    Effective horror-film-cum-psychology-case-study. A Sinister-like urban legend/true crime/campfire tale retrofit and hodgepodging of thematic inlets, better than Sinister in that it intermittently hits nerves of seriousness regarding topics of trauma, childhood fears, parental abuse, and psychological repression/recursion. Should have maintained to the end its somewhat intelligent, ideological look at psychological rehabilitation and letting go as both healthy and a betrayal of some sort of "truth" of the bloodline (excellently embodied in Karen Gillian's stout, legacy-crazed sister). Instead it decides to explore the simpler tale of childhood actions informing ourselves even in adulthood.
    The Act of Killing (Oppenheimer 13) - A
    Stranger by the Lake (Giraudie 12) - B
    American Hustle (Russell 13) - C+
    The Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese 13) - C+
    Passion (De Palma 12) - B

  4. #4
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    VERY effective. This is the surprise horror film of the year. There's only 1 tiny flaw:

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    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  5. #5
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    "Ok, so we figured out the mirror's powers have an effective range of thirty feet. Outside that range, it's powerless. Let's set up all our alarms and equipment five feet away from it."
    "Great idea, Sis!"

    I nay'd this but I wish I could yay it. The actors are good and the setup is good and the execution is, for the most part, good. The central premise contains a depth you don't usually see in spook stories. I love the conflict between two siblings, traumatized by their past.

    But: The movie plays fast and loose with the mirror's powers, which are too conveniently defined ("Plot holes? What plot holes? The mirror could always do that!"). Worse, the ending is horror-movie-stupid. It requires the characters (and the audience) to forget everything they've seen in order for it to work at all.

    Goddamit, because that second act-- that middle part where they get to crux of the conflict-- is really great.

  6. #6
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Yeh those are all valid points. I really like these new horror movies that actually inflict damage and harm to people and don't just end up with 90 minutes of jump scares (The Woman in Black). There's nothing more frustrating than a ghost/spirit that can't harm you.
    Twitch / Youtube / Film Diary

    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  7. #7
    pushing too many pencils Rowland's Avatar
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    This is a very good horror movie that, for all its comparatively minor flaws, should serve as a model for lazy low-budget horror hacks.
    Letterboxd rating scale:
    The Long Riders (Hill) ***
    Furious 7 (Wan) **½
    Hard Times (Hill) ****½
    Another 48 Hrs. (Hill) ***
    /48 Hrs./ (Hill) ***½
    The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Besson) ***
    /Unknown/ (Collet-Serra) ***½
    Animal (Simmons) **

  8. #8
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    So this was legit the freakiest horror movie I've seen in a good long while.

  9. #9
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    Hey this was pretty good!

    Like all the other Blumhouse films I've seen, it's actually about something - a really great change of pace in the horror world.

    This time its tale of differing memories of an abusive childhood hit a little closer to home, as my mom and uncle have relatively recently broken their silence in the abuse they endured as children. Similar to the movie, some things they remember identically while others are radically different.

    Really enjoyed the two leads, and there were some very effective creep out moments.

    The lightbulb!!! Eeeek!!!

  10. #10
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    This was effective, yeah. The climactic action was kind of a foregone conclusion, given everything we learn about the mirror, but the time hopping works supremely well. And fine performances. And while the film is sometimes basic stylistically, other times it exhibits some serious grace. Plays in some ways like a corrective to The Conjuring, which worked in a similar classic Gothic mode but didn't have any real psychological edge.

  11. #11
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    Didn't like how this film is essentially about repetition. It felt like it had earned a different pay-off than the simple "back to the loony bin for you" angle that it chooses to align itself with. And since Gillan is a far better internal performer than the male lead, it's a bit underwhelming that the film abandons her to go with him for the third act climax. Yes, as Irish, several moments are borderline idiotic, but some of the surprises are interesting.

    I wanted the film to make everything after Gillan stabs her fiancee a fantasy. That moment made it switch tones for me, as it became more bloody and less character-driven, a crazy complaint for a film so clearly structured around repetition (and thus logical that the film ends where it does). Rather than be unnerving, though, it became a letdown that it chose that out.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

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