OCULUS

US, 2013, 108 minutes, Colour.
Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan, James Lafferty, Miguel Sandoval.
Directed by Mike Flanagan.

Oculus is an interesting thriller, a horror story. It was quite well received by critics and the public.
Karen Gillan (from Scotland) and Brenton Thwaites (from Australia) play adult children who have a long history of the difficult relationship with their father, his killing their mother, and the boy killing the father. Throughout the film, there are flashbacks to the children and their lives.

When the boy is released from an institution, he meets his sister, but she intends to test out her belief that there was something malevolent in the mirror in the home. The screenplay offers the history of the mirror and details of the various killings for which it seems responsible. She sets up the experiment in the house, setting up clocks, a timetable, alarms, for their being attentive, for eating, for her fiance to telephone her.

She has many hallucinations, which makes the audience wonder whether all this is in the mind. And it reaches a head when in fear, she kills her fiance. The young man seems to be more ordinary and more self-composed, despite the flashbacks to his memories. But, whatever the malevolent influence, the young man sets off the switch which results in the death of his sister and his being arrested.

1. An effective horror film?

2. The title, eyes, mirrors and reflections, eyes in the mirror?

3. The town, homes, institutions? The musical score?

4. The two time eras? Intercut? The story of the children, their parents? Adult children? The effect of the intercutting, each time phase influencing the other?

5. The opening dream, Tim, the shooter, the children and shielding? Himself as the shooter?

6. The discussions with the psychiatrist, his taking responsibility for his actions, his being certified to leave, going out, his sister meeting him, the setup for his apartment, the sense of freedom, buying the phone, ordinary life? Yet his memories, and the responsibility of killing his father?

7. Kaylie, her age, experience, and memories, her work, the options, Michael’s fiancee?

8. Her plan to exorcise the memories? Her belief in the eyes in the mirror? Destructive? Memories of her mother’s death? Not wanting to blame her father? Transporting the mirror, the mirror in the house, her test?

9. The scenes with the parents, love for their children, the father, harsh, his work, accusations about his relationship with a woman, the mother, her illness, madness, confined and tethered, suspicions? Violence? Her being injured, the attack on her husband, he shooting her? Her reappearance to the children?

10. The theme of the mirror, reflections, the effect, Kaylie and her variety of hallucinations, the seeming so real, even to the audience? Michael and his messages, his arrival, Kaylie killing him and the effect? Tim, more calm, normal? Kaylie setting up the clocks, the alarms, timing, eating…?

11. The presence in the mirror, sinister, or in the minds of the children? The background of Kaylie’s research, the ownership of the mirror, over many decades, the number of deaths associated with the mirror, visualised?

12. The tensions, the memories, setting up the axe in the roof, building up to the climax, Kaylie standing in the way, Tim releasing the axe, her death?

13. Tim, the police, the arrest – and his future, considering his past in the institution?