Oculus ended up in my queue for two reasons: Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff, and I heard good things about it. Oculus is about siblings dealing with either a supernatural antique 400-year-old mirror and/or a family crisis depending on whether or not you interpret the events of the movie in a supernatural or mental disability light. Oculus uses a parallel timeline narrative structure to explain events as they unfold in 2002 and 2013 and primarily occur in the same house. Other than the mirror and the house, the siblings exist in both timelines.
I wasn’t disappointed, but I can see how other people may be let down or confused towards the end. I think that it helps if you believe that the mirror is supernatural and capable of existing in different timelines simultaneously and manipulation of sentient beings. I loved it. First, it felt like Guillermo del Toro finally and effectively influenced an American director. Oculus was visually lush from beginning to end.
Second, Oculus mainly consists of two to four actors acting their butts off in each scene and working well together. Viewers should not take that kind of chemistry and artistry for granted because it is really hard to do and demands a level of excellence from the actor that is hard to pull off. I knew that Katee Sackhoff had the chops, but not Rory Cochrane, Brenon Thwaites, Karen Gillan (who you would not recognize as Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy because she has an awesome mane of red hair in Oculus) and those two child actors whoever they are.
Third, I loved Oculus’ story.
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I love the tragic nature of the story. Regardless of whether you are crazy and/or sane, you cannot win. Either you are dealing with a freaky mirror that can manipulate you into feeding and protecting it or an abusive family on the brink of destruction.
If they are sane, then they are victims of abuse of parents were very different mental disabilities that the entire neighborhood and authorities ignored. Oculus is still a scary movie in its portrait of ignoring spousal and child abuse. It is not unusual for mothers to snap and kill their children in some misguided act of revenge against a neglectful and/or cheating spouse. I think that may have already happened two times this week. It is also not odd for a father to kill his entire family and lose his interest in actually working. There is even a term for it: familicide. It isn’t unusual for families not to seek medical help when a family member has a psychological break and may tolerate unhealthy conditions to seem normal to the outside world.
I don’t think all of that really explains the 2011 storyline. I suppose the sister’s obsession could have exasperated her brother’s fragile mental state, but then you would have to believe that sister manipulated her brother into murdering her since she clearly got all the equipment to make it possible and willingly stood in the way of the kill switch
I prefer the supernatural explanation, especially the idea, which the director may not have intended, that the mirror manipulated the sister through time to reensnare the brother. The brother literally had no interest in going back if it wasn’t for her. Now he is hooked, and if he ever escapes or is released for good behavior, he will go back to the mirror thus ensuring that the mirror gets fed even if she ends up in storage and not in a new home.
The minute that the siblings realized that they were being manipulated by the mirror and forced to stand in front of it, they should have known that they lost. The only possible way to destroy the mirror is to get a remote controlled Mars Exploration Rover with a hammer in there and control it miles away, and unfortunately you would have to wait long enough for the mirror to be hungry and weak and make sure no sentient beings are in the vicinity so no one could stop the MER.
I had literally only ONE quibble with the events of Oculus. No one would arrest and institutionalize a ten-year old boy for killing his father after the father killed his wife and terrorized the kids. The kid isn’t Michael Myers in a clown outfit fresh from stabbing his older sister.
I highly recommend Oculus. I love the idea of a vampire mirror. Oculus is like a Lovecraftian retelling of Narcissus. The best horror movies deal with real world concepts, and Oculus still works as a great metaphor for how people can’t escape the pull of childhood trauma and move on in life.