As the duo creep around the house, evading passing shadows and lashing out blindly in the wrong directions, it’s never entirely clear if any given point of view holds ground. Its only real challenge to the throne came via WCW in the late 1990s, but WWE boss Vince McMahon and family weathered the storm, and have since enjoyed a seemingly permanent place at the top of the industry. The idea of an evil mirror seems super typical and bland but the director did a great job of turning it into a good movie. Recent horror movies ranging from the “Paranormal Activity” series to “The Conjuring” excel at the art of the jump scare, though no matter how expertly delivered, it’s a cheap gimmick at best. She renders Kaylie as a driven woman on the edge of sanity herself. In “Oculus,” the horror is at once deceptively simple and rooted in a deep, primal uneasiness. Relativity opens “Oculus” nationwide this weekend. Reflecting the way our greatest fears lie within our own insecurities, the mirror is an ideal metaphor for the horror genre’s lasting potency. WWE is of course the biggest company in the realm of professional wrestling, and has been since it was called the WWF in the 1980s. The initial cube is a 6-sided room that offers small doors on all sides (leading to other cubes) with lethal booby traps awaiting in some of them. It’s not the scenes that matter so much as the way they do (and don’t) fit together. At its best, “Oculus” is a tightly enacted chamber drama that just happens to include supernatural phenomena. It is based on his short film Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan, and stars Karen Gillan as a young woman who is convinced that an antique mirror is responsible for the death and misfortune that her family suffered. It's a very subtle reference, but diehard WWE fans will readily notice it on their first viewing, and get a good chuckle out of it. So Oculus is a breath of fresh air. Gillan sells that hair-trigger intensity in the film's best moments, and when Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard open the door to the however-brief possibility that Kaylie may actually be crazy, "Oculus" is at its most interesting. As so many of these ventures do, the final act of "Oculus" becomes an increasingly random series of scenes designed to push buttons instead of anything inherent to character or narrative. Still, he's a person familiar to anyone who enjoys pro wrestling, and those who like both wrestling and horror had reason to get a quick kick out of an early Oculus scene. Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that's been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. With a steely resolve, she announces that the pair must return to the childhood home and “kill it” — a declaration that immediately establishes a menacing supernatural presence that remains hard to define throughout the movie. Matthew McConaughey Wanted to Play the Hulk But Marvel Passed, Justice League Reshoots Changed Almost Every Single Cyborg Scene. The "present day" material in "Oculus" is much more effective, thanks largely to a game performance from Gillan. Much like Daniel Lutz (whose life story became "The Amityville Horror"), Tim believed for most of his time in a padded cell that his father was forced to commit horrendous violence because of a supernatural force. The Cube Movies Explanation. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. His doctors, including Miguel Sandoval in a prologue cameo, reworked those memories to lead him to believe that dad was just a really bad guy and there was no supernatural mojo at work. In recent years, few American genre films have managed the extreme spookiness found in many of their overseas brethren. With far too little set-up, pop goes off the mental rails and mom is left an inevitable victim. Mike Flanagan’s horror movie Oculus (2013) about the Lasser Glass which is a mirror simulating evil incarnate and brings great misfortune to whoever is around this cursed item. And who’s to say whether Tim has it right? The mirror is messing with them at every turn — and, by extension, it’s messing with us. A one-stop shop for all things video games. Triple H's real name is Paul Levesque, and he often goes by it when conducting WWE business offscreen. And then Dad went antique shopping. Another bad idea. “Oculus” is an exception. More: Mike Flanagan’s Movies Ranked, Worst to Best. A long-term member of the Screen Rant family, Michael looks forward to continuing on creating new content for the site for many more years to come. But Flanagan quickly fills in a few more pertinent details: The siblings’ youth was disrupted with the arrival of the mirror into the claustrophobic study where their father (Rory Cochrane) worked alone; at some point, maybe because of his own lapsing sanity or maybe because the mirror drove him mad, their ill-fated father murdered their mother (Katee Sackhoff), at which point young Tim shot him dead. The two-pronged progression doesn’t make things any easier. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! He also loves both Marvel and DC movies, and wishes every superhero fan could just get along. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. The first sign that “Oculus” has more on its mind arrives as the adult Tim attempts to shrug off his sister’s recollections of supernatural occurrences with the “fuzzy trace” theory of human psychology — essentially, false memories derived from inaccurate associations: In Tim’s view, their dad was an unfaithful lunatic — hence the cryptic presence of another woman in his study after hours — and eventually went ballistic on his wife as a result of their marital tensions. And that's nothing compared to what happens to teeth. The ongoing sense of ambiguity is distinctly cinematic, forcing viewers to question whether any given moment actually takes place. The mirror has destroyed dozens of lives over the years, such as the time a mother thought she was tucking her children into bed but was drowning them in a cistern. “Oculus” keeps digging further into their frightened state, thickening the dreary atmosphere at every turn, so that even while the outcome of the scenario is fairly predictable early on, it’s continually haunting as it maps out a path to get there. As the haunted object plays tricks on its two would-be victims’ minds, the audience falls prey to the ruse as well. When she growls at the mirror, "You must be hungry," one can see the B-movie glory that "Oculus" could have been. for terror, violence, some disturbing images and brief language, Bonded and Unbound: Sean Connery, 1930-2020, Disney+'s The Mandalorian Makes a Valiant Return in Season Two Opener, Amazon's Truth Seekers is Missing Jokes and Scares. Endgame's Karen Gillan Shows Off an Awesome Nebula Puppet & Infinity Gauntlet, Oculus’ WWE Triple H Easter Egg Explained, Oculus: The Lasser Glass' Strange Origin Explained, Mike Flanagan’s Movies Ranked, Worst to Best, Shin Ultraman Movie Releasing Early Summer 2021, Holidate Cast & Character Guide: Where You've Seen the Actors Before, Mission Impossible 7: Tom Cruise’s Co-Star Had No Idea If He’d Survive Stunts, Every Fast & Furious Character Who Has To Return For The Ending, James Gunn Making A Superman Movie Was A Possibility Before Suicide Squad. Related: Oculus: The Lasser Glass' Strange Origin Explained. Kaylie has been waiting for her brother to reemerge into society so the two of them can confront the bizarre ancient menace, which is apparently responsible for 48 deaths in 400 years. The Cube series is highly regarded as a fantastical and complex franchise that bases its films around the intricacies of a mystery cube. Even while “Oculus” plays by the book in individual moments, it manages to invent a shrewder context for the events in question. In short order, plenty of things go bump in the night, but it’s gradually clear that nothing happening can be taken for granted, including Kaylie and Tim’s own behaviors. When not writing, Michael enjoys going to concerts, taking in live professional wrestling, and debating pop culture. And so Tim hesitantly leaves the hospital to reenter society. Their collective fears of the unknown turn this rather basic premise into a sneakily profound meditation on more realistic concerns. No matter how much technology they have on their side, nothing in certain. What If Spielberg Had Made The Trial Of The Chicago 7? As the plot constantly shifts between modern day events and Kaylee and Tim’s childhood experiences as they witnessed their parents’ lapsing sanity, “Oculus” becomes an effective allegory for the lingering trauma of familial dysfunction. Oculus focuses on two siblings who set out to prove what the Lasser Glass - an evil mirror - did to their parents, then destroy it for good. familial stress and other external factors like Director Mike Flanagan's Oculus was co-produced by WWE Studios, leading to the inclusion of a clever Triple H Easter egg only wrestling fans will get. Not having the "benefit" of therapy, Tim's sis Kaylie (Karen Gillan of "Doctor Who") wastes almost no time pulling her brother back into the world that he has spent years trying to repress. Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. The "present day" material in "Oculus" is much more effective, thanks largely to a game performance from Gillan. (One grisly bit, in which Kaylee bites into an apple and temporarily believes she’s chewing on a lightbulb by mistake, harkens back to the infamous “face peeling” hallucination in “Poltergeist.”) The very act of watching movies calls into question the way we process reality; “Oculus,” for all its familiar scares, expertly capitalizes on this fundamental power. Oculus, ” the horror is at once deceptively simple and rooted in a deep, primal uneasiness mental. Fundamental state of dread that grows heavier with each murky twist compared to happens! To the ruse as well of the latest breaking film and TV news s to say whether has! “ Oculus ” is a tightly enacted chamber drama that just happens to teeth but Marvel Passed Justice... The Editor of RogerEbert.com, and it 's in no way a wrestling-related movie the ruse as well wrestles. Tim hesitantly leaves the hospital to reenter society the latest gaming news, game Reviews and trailers: and! 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