Oculus (2013) #387

I've never liked split narratives that follow separate story lines that occur in the past and the present because I feel that any tension that is built is lost in one timeline when it switches back to the other. In the 2013 horror movie "Oculus", this technique is used to various degrees of success; the first 30 minutes was difficult to follow but the film finds a pleasant rhythm switching back and forth in the second act. It follows two siblings, both as pre-teens and as young adults, as they deal with an evil, possessive mirror that has a long history of being owned by people who have all suffered bizarre and gruesome deaths. The movie was written, edited, and directed by Mike Flanagan, expanding a short film that he had created in 2005. Overall, I enjoyed the film and noticed several similar themes that are found in the film "1408" and "The Amityville Horror".

A young family moves into a new house, where the father purchases a gorgeous antique mirror to decorate his office. The mirror is evil and soon possesses the parents who turn viciously on their two children. The son is blamed for his parents death and is sent to a psychiatric facility for 11 years while his older sister becomes obsessed with learning the history of the mirror and eventually obtaining it for a scientific experiment to prove that it is supernatural. The two siblings meet at their childhood home, where the sister has set the mirror up with a series of video cameras and computers to record and track the occurrences within the room. It's not long before the mirror begins to effect the two and the objects within the house, including making the plants wilt and influencing the siblings without them realizing it. Will the siblings resist the mirror's evil force or will they end up victims like all of the mirror's previous owners?

Favorite moment - When Kaylie (the sister), bites down on a light bulb after the mirror tricks her into thinking that she picked up an apple.