Now and then a horror film is much more than scares, for it can reflect national mores, marriage status, and myriad other daily concerns beyond just scaring the bejesus out of us all. Oddity is indeed the odd one out of normal horror these days I will henceforth attempt to show.
On the anniversary of her sister’s death, psychic medium Darcy (Carolyn Bracken) visits the Irish house where her twin sister, Dani (also Bracken), was murdered. She immediately finds clues that are disturbing and confusing. We are treated to a wooden doll man sporting a permanently-carved scream with holes in the back of his head, in a trunk that Darcy had sent there to Dani’s doctor husband Ted (Gwilym Lee). Ted manages a nearby mental asylum that allows writer/director Damien Mc Carthy to put an inmate, for instance, in a harness mask to evoke a horror icon, Hannibal Lecter.
The motifs become apparent: twins promise that will flourish if an equal can take its place. The wooden man promises the devil himself can take varying shapes that can be resurrected even if you burn it. And so on.
Darcy runs the Oddity Shop, a collection of antiques that are cursed if you don’t buy them. The fact that Darcy is blind reinforces the terrible notion that evil doesn’t need to see or hear to wreak its terror, taking its shapeshifting to new levels.
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The pace is slow burn as Mc Carthy builds tension in an unhurried, unglamorous but edgy style; the cinematography is exquisite with it tracking through an almost vacant house. Ted and girlfriend, Yana (Caroline Menta) are renovating the gothic-type home that, like the mysterious death, needs special inspection to find its reality. But let’s stop right here—no need to deconstruct this summer treasure; just enjoy without feeling required to interpret.
The jump scares, for instance, are few but effective with accompanying tropes to satisfy the seasoned horror or thriller fan. Oddity is smart, underplayed, and waiting for anyone to discover a murderer or just a thrill that only a finely-crafted summer horror can.
Oddity
Director: Damian Mc Carthy (Caveat)
Screenplay: Mc Carthy
Cast: Gwilym Lee (The Great), Carolyn Bracken (The Quiet Girl)
Run Time: 1h 38m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com