Oddity (2024)

Rated R for lots of murder (but most of it off screen!), gore (but most of it caused off screen!) language, implications of rape, some ableism, and a wealth of wonderful jump scares.  There's also some spooky, spooky imagery, which the movie does incredibly well.  Still if you are easily haunted by visuals, this movie has enough of that to mess you up a bit.  R.

DIRECTOR: Damien Mc Carthy

I didn't think that I was going to be writing at least part of this today.  I just had the most productive writing session this morning and I'm trying to take advantage of the sheer stress of getting a lot of this done in the next fifteen minutes.  I know I can't finish this in an unreasonable amount of time, but I can lie to myself, can't I?

I had never heard of this one before the recommendation I got.  I have to say, 2024 might be an excellent year for horror, despite my very low threshold for horror in my old age.  But Oddity hits this sweet spot that made me completely reevaluate what I like in horror.  I may have talked about this in my Salem's Lot blog, but I have to stress that I've understood what kind of scares that I really like.  I always hear from people who swear that they don't like jump scares and it took a movie like Oddity to make me realize that I might only like jump scares.  Here's the logic, to catch you up.  I don't want to see people brutalized.  I want to know that there are real threats to characters so the suspense is high.  But a  good jump scare should have the following emotional response.  One:  You should be scared.  After all, it's a horror movie.  That's why you are watching it.  Two: You should laugh and say "That got me."  I know some people don't agree with either of those ideas.  Some people get mad when they get scared and then get really emotional at step two.  Nah, I'm all about the laugh afterwards.

Besides being incredibly Irish (It's Irish, right?  I'll be mortified if it wasn't.), the movie has a lot of plates up in the air.  (Back to the Irish bit, I can probably get people to watch this on the sheer idea that it's an Irish ghost story in a lovely abandoned cabin / castle.) Every time that I try solving what kind of movie this is, it keeps kind of shifting around the rules.  It never breaks its own rules, but it does play with the notion that there is a lot that might not be explained the easy way.  For a minute, I almost got frustrated with the movie.  That might come with my old age because, in minute ten,  I said, "Who's that?  Who are these people?"  That's what old people do.  They don't give the movie a chance to explain anything.  Still, I figured it out pretty quick and when I did, the movie just became a joy to watch.  Traditionally, I like a movie being a ghost movie or a slasher movie.  This movie really ties the two together really well.  Honestly, the ghost element of the movie, while appropriately haunting, is more of a super power than it is a traditional, "were gonna get you" situation.   Darcy is the protagonist of the piece.  She is trying to unspool this mystery and she's using the supernatural to do it.  Sure, Darcy is an incredibly unlikable character.  Well, maybe "incredibly" is a bit harsh.  She is caustic and honest with people and that can come across as a bit much.  But as a protagonist, she really reads as someone who isn't even pretending to play the game.  Instead, she's a sledgehammer when it comes to achieving her goal.

I do love the flashback stuff.  I love the Olin stuff a lot.  The movie really did sell me on the entire opening of the movie.  The man speaking through the door was the ultimate campfire ghost story.  There's something fascinating with that situation.  The killer is either inside the house or outside the house.  Because this is the beginning of the movie and we need to have an inciting incident, we knew that no matter what choice Darci made, it was going to be the wrong one.  She stayed in the house, ignoring the freakish (it's intentionally freakish and I feel bad for saying that) man warning her about the killer in the house.  Okay, cool.  We, by that knowledge, that she was going to die by killer.  Had she trusted Olin --poor, poor Olin --then Olin would have been the killer and that would have been a cautionary tale about trusting a stranger.  

But that payoff?  Chef's kiss!  The way that Mc Carthy splits up that narrative is perfect.  And the thing is, I'm not sure why he does so outside of the desired suspense that accompanies such an event.  Narratively, nothing is really added to the story by splitting it up.  Once again, spoilers.  By this point in the film, you can suspect Ted all you want of having arranged a killer to take care of his wife.  If you pulled that off, good for you.  I don't think I was even in the headspace to take the story apart like that for the first time.  Instead, I was too busy trying to stay on the treadmill after a sick jump scare.  But narratively, we gain nothing except for finding out that Olin isn't a bad guy and that she should have trusted him.  This is right before the other shoe drops about Ted and Ivan's schemes to get rid of Ted's wife.  I started out this whole thing basically saying that there are a million plates in the air.  Apparently, to pull that off properly, you might need to do things a little nontraditionally.  Everything in this movie matters.  I might need to rewatch it before I can say that confidently.  But it feels like this is meticulously crafted.  But to make it a proper horror movie, you also need to be a real stickler for pacing.  I don't know how this scene works so well, but I don't think I've ever enjoyed a flashback more.

One thing that might be a hat on top of a hat?  The golem.  The golem is creepy.  I don't deny that.  A lot of the imagery from this film comes back to the golem.  Part of it has t do with Darcy being more than a one-trick pony.  (Also, before I forget.  Why does Ted give Darcy something that could potentially incriminate him?  I get that he doesn't believe it.  But if he doesn't believe it, why not give her something that had nothing to do with him?)  The golem is a way to set up the final act.  There needs to be some kind of confrontation.  Darcy can't be that confrontation.   Darcy is spooky through her weakness, not through her physical abilities.  We're supposed to be on Darcy's side, but we're all not looking forward for a fight with her and anybody.  Instead, the Golem acts like a mech suit.  (Why did I capitalize it there?)  But we don't really have a lot of information or investment in the golem outside of the fact that Darcy specializes in oddities.  Hence, the title of the movie.  But I'll stand by that.  The golem is a bit of a hat on top of a hat.  There are so many spooky things in this movie that we almost don't need the golem.  It's weird that I'll defend Ivan's spooky mask, but won't give the golem a chance.  Also --and I'm pretty proud of this --the golem didn't really scare me in the way that it was supposed to.  Did I find the objects in the head a bit cool?  Absolutely.  Was the golem, when it was used, somewhat creepy?  Yeah.  It's just that, narratively, it doesn't do much for me.

But Oddity completely slaps.  I know that those in the know aren't hearing anything new.  But I wasn't in the know.  Is it worth getting a Shudder account?  Probably not.  But if you were going to spend a month with a free trial, Oddity is a must watch on the streaming service.  Golly, if I could hand this DVD to people, that would be my recommended form of selling this movie.  But it is one of those greats.  Best recommendation this year.