Oculus

Movie Title--  Oculus

Release Year--  2013

Running Time--  1 Hour and 44 Minutes

Director--  Mike Flanagan

Cast--  Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, James Lafferty, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan

A woman tries to clear her family's name and tries to prove her brother did not commit the crime he was convicted of, trying to prove it was all committed by a supernatural phenomenon. 

21 year old Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is released from a mental institution after being incarcerated for ten years for the double murder of his parents.  His sister, Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan), picks him up and over lunch tells him that she has located the Lasser Glass, a mirror that hung in their home as children, that she believes has supernatural powers that contributed to the death of her parents.  She tells him that the next evening she intends to fullfill the promise they made to each other when they were children.  The next day, they meet at the house and Kaylie has video equiptment set up.  After turning everything on, she begins to explain on camera all the precautions she has set in place to keep the two of them safe, then begins to review all of the research she has done on the mirror, saying that it has had a hand in killing 45 people.  As the night goes on, Kaylie and Tim find that their hold on reality is starting to shatter and that the events of their childhood is coming true again.

For some reason, I wanted to see this film, I just did not have much hope for it.  I will say that it was better than I thought it was going to be.  One of the production studios on this film is WWE Studios and the last "horror" film I watch by them was a complete flop (the title is "Barricade" if anyone wants to view it and tell me what they think of it).  This film is told mainly in flashbacks while the older versions of the children in the flashbacks are dealing with the unimaginable circumstances they have gotten themselves into.  Close to the end the transitions between the present and the past get very choppy and at times can be slightly difficult to follow.  I found myself saying "What the hell just happened there" a few times before realizing what was actually going on.

It was better than expected but I feel it had the potential to be so much better than that.  The ending leaves room for sequels if they feel the need to make this into a franchise.  From what I have seen, the background story is over with and whether they go origin story or continuance of what they have, there should be no choppy flashback scenes, but that is only if they feel like they can make something out of it.

I am a fan of Karen Gillan from when she was Amy Pond on "Doctor Who" (yes, I am a Whovian) and I thought she did pretty good on this film but there were a few occasions where she slipped into her native Scottish accent and depending on the scene it happened to take place in, it did seem to take away from what was going on on screen a few times.

I think that if you are looking for a horror film, you could probably find one better, although I do like the lack of gore in this film and the focus instead on suspense and story.  Watch this one for Karen Gillan and Don't Forget the Popcorn!