ODDITY (2024)

After the brutal murder of her twin sister, a psychic medium goes after those responsible by using haunted items as her tools for revenge.

by Cian McGrath 7th September 20247th September 2024 Leave a reply

While Ireland has a strong association with the written word, having produced some of the best writers of the last few decades (and centuries), the same sentiment doesn’t apply so keenly to film. As a small country with a population of just a few million, there’s not a sizable enough industry for many well-crafted films to be made. This requires quite a bit of creativity on the part of Irish filmmakers to ensure that budgeting limitations don’t compromise the stories they want to tell.

From its opening scene, it’s clear that Oddity can gamely work within these constraints, even using them to heighten the tension behind its scares. Largely limited to one residence, the movie is not just able to maintain what must have been a relatively small budget, it also crafts a tension-filled experience with a feeling of dread that creeps forward. Starting with a woman alone in a large, old house in a remote area, and a panicked man at her front door insisting he watched someone enter her home moments ago (unbeknownst to her), the story is not exactly original, but it is very well delivered.

Unfortunately, this strong opening sequence is followed up with quite a conventional, cliché-ridden experience, though some of its jump-scares are thrilling. Following Darcy (Carolyn Bracken), the blind identical twin sister of Dani (also Bracken), the woman from the opening scene who we soon learn was murdered, she decides to avenge her sister’s death by taking up residence for the night in Dani’s remote home. There she has to contend with Yana (Caroline Menton), the girlfriend of Dani’s widower Ted (Gwilym Lee). Blending supernatural scares with the possibility of a deranged killer at large, it is unclear who exactly was behind the grim event that kickstarted the events of Oddity.

Anyone who has watched any horror movie ever will know that it can’t possibly be the mysterious man who showed up at Dani’s door to warn her, Olin Boole (Tadhg Murphy), for the simple reason that he’s just too convenient a suspect. For starters, he was a former patient at the mental health facility run by Ted, was convicted of the murder, and was recently killed. Horror movie logic would dictate that these factors give Olin a roughly 0% chance of being the killer. Since Dani’s murder isn’t actually shown in the film’s opening scene, it’s left up to the viewer’s imagination as to whether it was a person who committed this act, or a supernatural entity.

Looking back on the experience, there aren’t nearly as many scares as it might seem at first, and that’s in large part due to the mystery that’s at the heart of this story. By being left in the dark about a key aspect regarding the film’s inciting incident, it’s never clear exactly what kind of horror movie viewers are in for, heightening the tension since it makes Oddity‘s possibilities seem limitless. Each of the characters is all vague enough that a major twist wouldn’t feel amiss for many of them (though that’s not always a positive quality).

This next element might not sound all that frightening, but one of the best aspects of Oddity is the life-sized wooden mannequin that Darcy has delivered to Dani’s former home. This creepy figure, etched in a terrifying facial expression that even when still is more than a little ominous, is a constant source of intrigue throughout the movie, as well as being beautifully crafted. It is present in the background of many of the film’s shots, lingering uncomfortably like an unspoken threat. When Oddity decides to use the mannequin for scares, it does so brilliantly, but even in its quieter moments it effectively captures a spirit of foreboding.

Unfortunately, that’s not quite able to make the entirety of this story entertaining, with the abundance of clichés at play here growing tiresome after a while. A blind clairvoyant with psychic powers intentionally written as strange and off-putting to those around her makes for an unlikeable and unoriginal main character, with some of Darcy’s one-liners and behaviours feeling as if they wouldn’t go amiss in a sketch comedy parody of a horror film. The posh and proper Ted (who potentially holds dark secrets at his place of work), his rude and vacuous new girlfriend Yana, and the backdrop of a mental health facility housing several violent offenders round out the movie’s many horror conventions.

The story is quite bland at times with such underwritten characters, though Yana is effectively used for both comic relief and as a conduit for the viewer. It’s impossible to parse much about Darcy as her seemingly supernatural abilities ensure that the full extent of her powers is kept secret from audiences. That doesn’t excuse the character’s cringe-worthy dialogue and attitude, although it is impressive that actress Carolyn Bracken was able to make both sisters seem so different from one another.

While there are jump-scare moments in Oddity that are legitimately terrifying and will leave viewers on the edge of their seats for minutes afterwards, the narrative was quite dull at points, to the extent that these tense moments are necessary to keep viewers invested in everything else the movie has to offer. Such scary moments are underutilised, especially given how effective they are.

For these rare thrilling moments, the film deserves to be watched in cinemas. While Oddity features quite a few annoying clichés from horror movies, there’s talent to be found in its filmmaking, signalling a bright career ahead for director Damian Mc Carthy (Caveat). It’s just a shame that its story can’t quite come together, with goofy and awkward moments that undercut the brutal tension formed in the movie’s grand and isolated house, and cheesy twists in the narrative that don’t make much sense.