My experience with Oddity was quite an oddity (bad um tss) because film I saw before was Cuckoo. The two films have very little in common, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about Cuckoo when I finished Oddity because my feelings about both were completely juxtaposed. Suppose Cuckoo is a film with an incredibly dull and meandering first and second act that audiences must suffer through before reaching a somewhat fun and campy third act. In that case, Oddity is a slow, eerie horror film that has a very creepy and unsettling two-act build-up before going a bit off the rails in the last 20 minutes. Watching both films back-to-back helped me realize that there was a wrong and right way of building suspense and fear before delivering a crazy climax, and while both films had their flaws, Oddity leaned towards being the right way.
One thing I truly appreciated about Oddity was how unsettling and frightening it manages to be without relying on cheap jump scares or violent gore. The film doesn’t have to remind you that it’s a horror movie because its tone and atmosphere create a dread that never disappears. Even during the more violent scenes, it never lingers for too long because it understands that no matter how gruesome or frightening a scene can be, it is much more effective when death is ambiguous enough to leave it up to the audience’s imagination to fill in the blanks. One of the best examples of this filmmaking can be seen at the halfway point, where a masked Ivan (Steve Wall) enters the tent where Dani is hiding with a hammer. However, right before he swings the weapon, the film cuts to the next scene, where Ivan sits beside the blood-spattered tent. It’s an incredibly terrifying scene that I still remember vividly, and the film is loaded with these kinds of moments.
Even scenes where people just sit and talk in a dining room can feel uncomfortable. There is very rarely a dull moment throughout Oddity. The fact that the movie was able to hold my interest from beginning to end is an achievement, as very few horror films released within the past few years have managed to hook me in this way. While imperfect, it is an incredibly patient and meticulous movie that slowly builds and unravels its mystery in an exciting and rewarding manner.
On top of Oddity being a good horror film, it is also just a good movie in general. This is a very well-shot, well-edited film that, despite being primarily shot in two or three locations, manages to make the best of its environment and create an experience that is both great to look at and disturbing to watch. Additionally, the film boasts excellent performances from its actors, specifically Carolyn Bracken, who convincingly plays both twin sisters, Dani and Darcy. However, while Oddity has no real technical issues, its most significant flaws stem from its story, specifically towards the third act.
As mentioned in the beginning, the film becomes less attractive when it transforms into a full-on ghost spookfest in which the creepy human-sized wooden doll Darcy brings to the house magically springs to life and attacks Ivan. While on paper, it would make sense for things to naturally get to this point in the story, whether intentionally or not (and I’m willing to argue not), the film becomes much goofier and sillier in execution. It’s a jarring change in tone, and I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. To see a patient and methodical horror film that initially delivered its horror through implied violence and clever editing only for the third act to become the R-rated ghost version of Woody saying “play nice” to Sid scene from Toy Story was frustrating to sit through. While it wasn’t enough to ruin the film (for me), it still did sour my experience by the end.
Despite its flaws, Oddity is still one of the better films I saw at Fantasia Fest. While not perfect throughout, it is a very well-made horror film with enough excellent aspects to be worth praising and discussing. While I didn’t quite loveOddity, I did like it enough that I’ll be first in line to see Damian McCarthy’s next project.
Rating: 7/10