Oculus (2014)
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Critics Consensus: With an emphasis on dread over gore and an ending that leaves the door wide open for sequels, Oculus could be just the first spine-tingling chapter in a new franchise for discerning horror fans.
Critics Consensus: With an emphasis on dread over gore and an ending that leaves the door wide open for sequels, Oculus could be just the first spine-tingling chapter in a new franchise for discerning horror fans.
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Movie Info
Ten years ago, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents. Now in his 20s, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that fateful night, is convinced her parents' deaths were caused by something else altogether: a malevolent supernatural force unleashed through the Lasser Glass, an antique mirror in … More- Rating:
- R (for terror, violence, some disturbing images and brief language)
- Genre:
- Drama , Horror
- Directed By:
- Mike Flanagan
- Written By:
- Mike Flanagan , Jeff Howard
- In Theaters:
- Apr 11, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Aug 5, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $27.7M
Cast
-
Karen Gillan
as Kaylie Russell -
Brenton Thwaites
as Tim Russell -
Rory Cochrane
as Alan Russell -
Katee Sackhoff
as Marie Russell -
James Lafferty
as Michael Dumont -
Annalise Basso
as Young Kaylie
Related News & Features
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Now Streaming: Oculus, Palo Alto, and More
– Rotten Tomatoes
-
Mike Flanagan Plays Gerald's Game
– Deadline Hollywood Daily
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Critic Reviews for Oculus
All Critics (121) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (90) | Rotten (31)
"Reaches right through you and chills you to the bone."
As far as competence goes, Oculus doesn't have so little as to be accidentally entertaining or enough to come close to working.
A deeply silly and mildly effective horror movie about two young-adult siblings coping with the mysterious deaths of their parents.
For a horror movie, Oculus is surprisingly lean on the scares. It's more interested in playing tricks with perception and bending reality.
It's just a little vague, a little familiar, a little fake.
"Oculus" is haunting because it messes with your head. That's where the ghosts are.
Mike Flanagan milks a setup that sounds like typical, b-movie chaff [and] turns it into one of the scarier American horror flicks we've seen in some time.
Uma obra que trabalha por seus sustos em vez de tentar conquistá-los artificialmente através de acordes súbitos na trilha sonora ou de gatos que saltam sobre a mocinha vindos sabe-se-lá-de-onde.
This unpretentiously efficient affair handles its dual-narrative past/present intercuts with aplomb and keeps a couple of nicely nasty tricks up its sleeve.
The acting isn't always as elegant as the camerawork and the story feels a tad over-extended, but with his mix of sharp shocks and intricate choreography Flanagan has come up with an impressive and effective chiller.
There's a sustained mood of eerie anticipation, and the committed leads sell it.
Flanagan instead gradually ramps up the dread and in the process delivers one of the finest horrors of recent years.
The eerie atmosphere of psychological upset is intriguing and unusual, but it's not actually all that scary.
There's a palpable sense of dread instead of just the usual cheap boo! moments.
An intense, devastating experience that relies as heavily on its character-building as its scary imagery.
While using every horror movie cliche in the book, this film cleverly tells a bracingly original story that will have genre fans squirming in their seats.
The haunted-mirror scenario gets an impressive workout in writer/director Mike Flanagan's expansion of his award-winning 2005 short.
The idea that brother and sister experienced the same events through different eyes is a clever one, but Flanagan doesn't get behind it with any conviction and the constant flashbacks only keep flipping the lid off the pressure cooker.
This modest shocker messes with your head to the point of surrender. I can't have been the only one who left the cinema still confused as to exactly what had just happened.
Smart, scary stuff.
Irrationality and mysticism take guide the action in a manner reminiscent of Italian splatter maestro Lucio Fulci in his Artaud-riffing pomp.
Flanagan has constructed an ingeniously compelling thriller, cleverly using his protagonists' shaky grip on what is really happening to submit them to some really nasty moments.
The film's pushed on by a whip-smart performance from Gillan, who can rattle her way through reams of dead-serious exposition without making heavy weather of it.
Director Mike Flanagan has decided that bending our minds is far more effective than drenching us in buckets of gore or jolting us out of our seats with loud noises.
Psychosis? The supernatural? Either way, Mike Flanagan's hallucinatory hall of mirrors is intelligent, subtle horror for those who want more than mere bumps in the night (although it has those too).
A shrewd, well-structured narrative that has been deftly executed.
Audience Reviews for Oculus
Oculus is freaky. That's all you need to know. Now go see it.
If you want me to go in more detail, I won't. The narrative progression explains everything you need to know and there's nary a plot hole in sight. The performances are solid and the story is unique. Jumping through different time periods, Oculus chronicles the story of a mirror that siblings Kaylie and Tim think is haunted and is responsible for the murder of their parents. Tim spent eleven years in prison undergoing psychiatric evaluation for being convicted of this murder. But Kaylie knows the truth, or at least she thinks she does. This mirror has a crazy defense mechanism in that it can possess you, make you do things or transport you to places without you being aware. The jumping through different time periods goes a little into excessive hyperdrive in the third act but it's still intense. There is some predictability, but overall, this is a well made horror film. Mike Flanagan shows great control over the visual style and the story, and the actors completely sell the story.
This film is just as scary and as enjoyably effective as The Conjuring.
Super Reviewer
An intelligent horror film that invests in a constant tension instead of resorting to scares and deserves credit for the amazing way that it fuses (and confuses) the present with the past through wonderful transitions, remaining always fluid as it jumps back and forth in time.
MoreSuper Reviewer
August 31, 2014
Too predictable. Hardly scary or interesting. As malevolent as the supernatural mirror!! 0.5/5.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Oculus Quotes
- Kaylie Russell:
- My name is Kaylie Ann Russell. The purpose of today's experiment is to prove the object behind me is responsible for at least 45 deaths in the 4 centuries of it's recorded existence.
- Kaylie Russell:
- Hello again. You must be hungry.
- Alan Russell:
- I've met my demons, I have many. I've seen the devil, he is me.
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