There have been a good amount of horror movies that have come out this year. From Late Night With the Devil to In a Violent Nature and most recently Longlegs, horror fans have had it good. The latest horror movie that will scare the crap out of you is Oddity. Oddity is a murder mystery/supernatural thriller/horror movie. It doesn’t fit neatly in one genre but it is also uniquely its own thing. I watched this as a double feature with In a Violent Nature during the Chicago Film Critics Festival and I was not able to sleep well that night. During the screening for Oddity, the person a few seats away from me jumped and screamed a few times. Yes, Oddity will make you feel uneasy while watching it.
Oddity tells the story of twin sisters Darcy Odello and Danni Timmis who are played by Carolyn Bracken. Darcy is trying to uncover how her sister Danni was killed. Darcy is blind and runs a curiosity shop that houses possessed items. Darcy and her mother have a psychic link with the items where they can see the evil the items possess. Before we meet Darcy, we are introduced to Danni, who is remodeling a house that she and her husband, Ted Timmis, played by Gwilym Lee have bought. Darcy is all alone in this house set in the middle of nowhere and cell phone connection is very weak in that part of the country. One night a patient from the nearby insane asylum comes to the house to warn Danni that someone is inside the house with her. Danni does not trust the patient and that leads us to the beginning of the mystery.
A while has passed and Darcy goes to the home where Tim is now living with his new girlfriend, Yana, played by Caroline Menton. She sends them a gift and makes herself at home with Tim and Yana. The gift is a wooden man that sits at the end of the dinner table for most of the movie and you just can’t help but stare at it to see what it might do. Once in the home, things start missing and noises are heard by Yana. She feels unsafe in the home but Tim has left for work and tells her everything will be ok. This is where the movie slowly starts to get under your skin. The pacing of the movie starts to build dread as we await for something to happen with this wooden man.
Each scene is filmed in a way that you can’t help but look in the dark corners of the room to see what is hiding there. This anticipation messes with you because once you feel it is safe to relax something pops out at you. Director Damian McCarthy does a phenomenal job of using the blank spaces behind the characters to draw your attention away from what is happening in front of you. Whether it is a camera on a timer taking pictures or someone looking down a dark walkway, the viewers’ anxiety builds during these moments. The images of the wooden man are scary but once the characters start interacting with it you tend to close your eyes waiting for it to attack.
Oddity is a must-watch and it will be interesting to see this within a full theater. McCarthy has given us a classic that will be haunting theatergoers for years to come. Quick note: during the ending of the original Candyman I was fidgeting in my seat because I knew something was going to happen. Oddity gave me those same feelings in the final moments. As a viewer you know something is going to happen but you just don’t know when. Once you see this movie you will know what I am talking about.
Final Thoughts: Oddity will bring shivers down your spine as the mystery becomes revealed. The tension that is built in this movie is thick and Carolyn Bracken is fantastic in her dual roles. What sets the movie apart from other horror movies is the tension between Darcy and Ted. The wooden man introduced in the movie is reminiscent of Old Chief Wood’nhead from Creepshow 2 and you know once it starts moving it is over for the bad people. Oddity has great scares, a chilling story, and a hair-raising final few minutes that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Kid-Friendly: Oddity is a murder mystery wrapped in a supernatural movie. The pace is somewhat slow and might not hold the attention of younger kids. Older kids will be able to follow the story and enjoy the payoff in the end.
Violence: Oddity is a horror movie that has some graphic scenes of violence it, including a head getting smashed, bloody bodies, and more.
When Dani is brutally murdered at the remote country house that she and her husband Ted are renovating, everyone suspects a patient from the local mental health institution, where Ted is a doctor. However, soon after the tragic killing, the suspect is found dead. A year later, Dani’s blind twin sister Darcy, a self-proclaimed psychic and collector of cursed items, pays an unexpected visit to Ted and his new girlfriend, Yana. Convinced that there was more to her sister’s murder than people know, Darcy has brought with her the most dangerous items from her cursed collection to help her exact revenge.