Mike Flanagan's Oculus (2013) tells a modern day fairy-tale about sibling commitment, magical mirrors, and the possessive quality of memory and imagination through the vehicle of my favorite horror film of the year. I enjoyed this movie, first of all, because I prefer movies that tell really good stories, and Oculus, at its core, is a really good story. Secondly, I like stories about the endurance of family commitments, about families conjuring the courage and determination to fight their demons together. Far too many movies and television shows today feature dysfunctional families, usually for comedic value. And while I do often laugh along, I personally no longer belong to a dysfunctional family. My wife and I are committed and determined to wage life's obstacles together, and I appreciate the opportunity to see stories of families doing the same thing. Lastly, I have so far been unfamiliar with the acting talents of Kaytee Sackhoff (who plays the mother, Marie Russell), as well as Karen Gillan (who plays heroine Kaylie Russell). I've since learned that Sackhoff and Gillan have each had extensive runs on various TV shows. Their performances here blew me away. I'll be looking for more work from both actresses.
I do want to disagree with NY Times film critic Ben Kenigsberg on three points. First, he said that Oculus was "a derivative but efficient chiller". I disagree with the idea that Oculus was merely "efficient", which carries a negative connotation and ranks this film among the average releases of the year. No, I found Oculus to be one of the more triumphant films of the year for reasons I've already listed above. Kenigsberg also uses negative language such as "modest", "fundamental", and "stiff acting" to describe the production and performance values of Oculus. Again, I found the storytelling here rich and the performances beyond noteworthy. Kenigsberg appears to be critiquing films out of either his comfort zone or his preferred genre. Either way, get him back in front of the buddy-comedies and action-flicks he probably enjoys more. I'm already looking forward to including Oculus in my DVD library.
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