I’m
a big fan of Karen Gillen.
Well,
I suppose I’m a big fan of her Doctor
Who
character, Amy Pond. Because until recently I had never seen her in
anything else and I didn’t have much to base fandom upon. But she’s
a nice looking lady and a redhead.
I’m
such a fan that I was willing to go and see a movie that 1) didn’t
necessarily look great, and 2) was a WWE Film just because Gillen was
in it. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve liked WWE Films movies in the
past. I was one of the few fans of See
No Evil.
But it isn’t exactly a mark of strong quality.
Trailer
Notes:
Very
excited about The
Quiet Ones,
the new Hammer Horror flick.
Why
does The
Purge 2
look so much better than The
Purge?
Not that I want to see this one either, but it looks better.
***POSSIBLE
SPOILERS NOW***
I
really liked the story structure of Oculus.
We begin with what is clearly a flashback sequence that the audience
does not understand but that seems like it will probably be explained
later given that it’s clearly the focus of the movie. Two kids –
a boy and a girl - are trying to avoid a dude with a gun. It’s
clear that the kids are brother and sister and not so clear who
creepy gun guy is. In the course of avoiding gun guy, the brother
sees a fucking scary ghost woman with glowing eyes. Then gun guy is
on them, only he transforms into a kid that looks like the offspring
of Randy Orton and Sam from Supernatural.
And then that same kid wakes up in a bed.
It
was all a dream! Or was it!?!
It
turns out the kid is the brother all grown up. He’s in a mental
institution, but is being released because he has finally accepted
that the crazy ghost memories from his childhood are false constructs
and that he killed his father because he (his father) was insane and
not because his father was being controlled by an evil mirror ghost
with glowing eyes.
Then
we jump over to Karen Gillen. She’s at an auction bidding on a
mirror that, quite frankly, Queen Grimhilde would be hesitant to hang
up. This thing is scary looking. But Gillen clearly has a purpose
behind buying it.
For
me, seeing Gillen portray this character was one of the high points
of the movie. She handled her American accent quite well and got play
a character that was utterly unlike Amy Pond. She was driven and on
edge and just a bit crazy. I thought she did a great job. It was
fascinating watching her terse performance.
Another
high point was Katee Sackhoff’s performance. I didn’t even know
that she was in the movie. She played Gillen’s younger self’s
mother and had probably the best role in the film. She went from fun,
hot mom to mildly disturbed to terrifying animal over the course of
the movie and was fantastic at all of them. She also had red hair and
if you thought blonde Starbuck was hot you should see redhead
Starbuck.
So
if you take nothing else from this review, take this – the ladies’
performances are worth the time to watch.
The
meat of the plot is that while Orton Winchester was in the loony bin,
his poor sister – Gillen – was out in the real world getting by
and coping with what happened without professional help. Ten years
have passed and the whole time Gillen has been planning on getting
the mirror back, proving it houses an evil spirit, and destroying it;
all to clear her father’s name. She portrays such an intensity as
this plot unfolds that I stayed interested despite the predictability
of the plot. Don’t get me wrong – the events were not necessarily
predicable. But certain plot points were telegraphed so clearly that
a WWE referee could have seen them coming.
The
issue of whether or not Gillen’s character is just bonkers is
cleared up fairly early on and then the action kicks in. The main
issue is that Gillen and Orton Winchester are not quite strong enough
to carry a movie. Or maybe their characters aren’t likeable enough.
I’m not sure. They’re both very good at portraying their damaged,
tense siblings. But there’s just something missing here. I never
felt enough – not through the whole movie.
In
the end, exactly what you thought was going to happen happens. It’s
not unsatisfying, but it also isn’t very fulfilling. We recently
watched You’re
Next on
the recommendation of pretty much everybody. It had a similar plot
device – an element that you saw early on that you just knew was
going to fuck up somebody’s day – but the payoff in that movie
was exponentially more exciting than what happened at the conclusion
of Oculus.
In
a way this movie was quite good. Like many horror movies before it –
notably Hellraiser
– we see certain events surrounding an object at a certain point in
time. Oculus
gave us a bit more history than Barker’s classic – perhaps to it
detriment – but it does have shades of potential. I could see
future installments improving greatly on what was done here. And
apparently most people liked this flick more than we did, so future
installments seem likely.
I’m
going to blame the director for the faults in the movie. The story
was there. The mysterious, haunted object was interesting and
different; while being commonplace enough to potentially install
nightmares in the viewers’ minds. And the cast seemed good enough.
I just think some poor decisions were made as far as presentation and
pacing are concerned.
After
seeing The
Ring I
went home and rolled the television set out of my bedroom before I
went to sleep. No shit.
After
watching Oculus
it
didn’t even occur to me to be wary of mirrors.
3
out of 5
Hahahaha that last statement is so true, The ring scared me the bejesus out of tvs for a few days
ReplyDeleteI'm more curious to see Karen in Guardian of the Galaxy :)
I agree. I think she'll be able to have more fun as Nebula.
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