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Oculus
USA 2013
produced by Marc D. Evans, Trevor Macy, Jason Blum (executive), Michael Ilitch jr (executive), Dale Armin Johnson (executive), Anil Kurian (executive), Michael J. Luisi (executive), D. Scott Lumpkin (executive), Julie B. May (executive), Glenn Murray (executive), Peter Schlessel (executive) for Lasser Productions, Intrepid Pictures, Blumhouse/Relativity Media
directed by Mike Flanagan
starring Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan, James Lafferty, Miguel Sandoval, Kate Siegel, Scott Graham, Michael J. Fourticq, Katie Parker, Justin Gordon, Bob Gebert, Brett Luciana Murray, Zak Jeffries, Courtney Bell, Elisa Victoria, Dave Levine, Stephanie Minter, Lesa Johnson, Allison Boyd, James Flanagan, Alexandra Beer, Marc Evans, Toni White
story by Mike Flanagan, Jeff Seidman, screenplay by Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard, music by The Newton Brothers
review by Mike Haberfelner
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When he was ten, Tim (Garrett Ryan) shot his father (Rory Cochrane) to
protect his sister Kaylie (Annalise Basso) - something that landed him in
a psychiatric institution. It's only when he's 21 (and played by Brenton
Thwaites) that he's considered healed and released into the world. The
first one to greet him is Kaylie (now played by Karen Gillan), who has
always known that he has done nothing wrong but saved her life ... but
while he has overcome the trauma of shooting his own parent under
psychiatric care, she has remained obsessed with what happened back then -
and she blames it all on dad's possessed mirror. ... and it's true,
their homelife fell apart when dad bought the mirror. At first he was only
getting more and more cranky, and soon he started to get into loud
arguments with mum (Katee Sackhoff) ... and then mum was gone, and the
kids found her only days later chained up in the bedroom. The dog and
plants all over the place died, too, dad lost all interest to take care of
his kids (even feed them or fix the failing electricity), it was just the
mirror he cared about. And eventually he killed mum and went after the
kids with a loaded gun ... only eventually, Tim got hold of the gun and
... While Tim was locked away in the institution, Kaylie has done her
best to get hold of the mirror and now has put it up at their old home for
an experiment - and experiment to prove the mirror is indeed evil, and
thus she has put up cameras everywhere, has put up a contraption to
automatically destroy the mirror should anything happen to her or Tim, and
has equipped the place with all sorts of gadgets that would make a
paranormal investigator proud. Tim thinks she's out of her mind, but
figures he'd play along to help her get over her trauma ... but there's
something dead wrong here. Things happen that shouldn't happen, Tim sees
things he's not supposed to see (like flashbacks to the past), the cameras
show him doing things he can't remember having done, and what he sees
isn't always real. And suddenly, he and Kaylie realize that what they have
thought to be an exercise in exorcising the (real or imaginary) demons of
the past has turned out to be a death trap ... Oculus is
an enjoyably creepy movie that doesn't make the mistake to explain away
everything (or anything even) but sucks the audience in its bizarre world,
in which past and presence co-exist and nothing is supposed to make too
much sense - and it works, thanks to a very competent, atmospheric
directorial effort, a stringent screenplay and a great ensemble cast (with
Annalise Basso as young Kaylie giving a stand-out performance). Totally
recommended!
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Thanks for watching !!!
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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