Film Review: Oddity

Love is blind. This sentiment rings truer than ever in Oddity, when a blind, psychically-inclined curio shop owner seeks to find out the truth about her sister's death.

Part paranormal, psychological horror film, part mystery, Oddity combines a lot of classic horror ideas like a spooky house, creepy doll and psychiatric hospital. On paper, it's a cliche enough combo to make you roll your eyes, on screen it makes you cover them and scream. Oddly enough, it works.

The movie sets its tone right from the start when it opens with Dani (Carolyn Bracken) alone, or so she thinks, in an old house when she's interrupted by a knock on the door. Through a peephole she has an unnerving conversation with an unsettling looking man who tells her she's in terrible danger and demands to be let in. Damian McCarthy keeps us here long enough to get lost in the panic before immediately transitioning to a whimsical title screen that gives us the chance to laugh off the stress of the scene–a pattern that continues throughout the film.

After such a suspenseful opening, the film fast forwards a year leaving us in the most horrific place for someone to be–void of closure, wishing for answers. Darcy, Dani's sister, has been living in this place for a while when she arrives at Dani's widowed husband's home with a strange wooden man and an ambition for answers. As the pieces fall together, we're reminded that the real monsters walk among us.

With eerie visuals and perfect pacing, Oddity succeeds in scares, even eliciting screams from viewers where the scare itself isn't actually happening. The dialogue felt a bit off at time, but given the tension you're placed in for the entirety of the film, the potentially accidental comic relief is welcome. 

Film Review: Longlegs

Longlegs is the latest film to be added to the list of movies I've spoiled for my therapist. I wish she was more of a movie lover so that she would see things at a similar time as me, but if there's one thing I've learned from her it's that you can't change people, so as they say in Rugrats in Paris, c'est la vie! 

This is the story of psychic FBI agent Lee Harker, who is pulled onto a case that revolves around a series of murders that seem to be happening without the murderer ever being in the house. Fathers are killing families. Coded notes are found at the scene of the crimes. However, any source of unusual DNA is not found, leading Harker to begin brainstorming how this could be by reflecting on past popular cases leading to the line, "Manson had accomplices, he had family."

Family is a dark source of anxiety for Harker, a daughter of a single mom who relentlessly begs her to come home more adn asks if she says her prayers. As Harker begins to put together the pieces of the case, she's also forced to investigate her past.

When watched through a therapeutic lens, you start to see Oz Perkins weave a story of how it feels to come to terms with childhood trauma and how it's affected you. Disassociation and the acknowledgment of memories your brain pushed away to keep you safe parallels well for me with the doll who "told Harker where to look" so that she wouldn't be able to understand the evil happening around her. Her psychic abilities deriving from the devil dolls doubling as a hindrance in some ways and a superpower in others, much like hyper vigilance can be for those who needed it to survive when they were young. Despite what was or wasn't held in her present memory, it was there in her body, it kept the score. Her own family trying to ignore the bad and convince her it didn't happen because they can't handle it or their part in it themselves. We could wonder if Harker even became an FBI agent in the first place because she spent her whole childhood potentially wondering what was going on around her, trying to connect the dots on an absent father, a mother who is difficult to connect with and a God she's afraid to pray to who clearly doesn't save. This is the case of her life.

When watched through a horror movie lens, it's simply scary.

In the end, Harker's gun is unable to fire at the little girl's doll in the living room meaning she'll have to carry the effects of this with her, but she also won't be able to remember what surely would've been the worst day of her life. Maybe this is good, maybe Harker is protecting her. Or, maybe she's repeating the cycle of selfish saving? Or maybe, it's just the devil.

Film Review: The Fall Guy

There’s just something about a movie about making movies and whatever that something is, The Fall Guy has it all. Goofy, glamorous, gorgeous, it’s directed by David Leitch and written by Drew Pearce, but feels like it was given notes by the ghost of Billy Wilder. It’s able to reach its wildly fun heights due to the fact it’s taken so seriously, especially by Ryan Gosling. One near-death scene from him deserves a standing ovation on its own purely for the genuine fear that flashes across his face. It’s actually kind of life-affirming to watch someone else take give so much to something so silly.

In The Fall Guy, the jokes are fresh, the plot twists are tight and while we know what this movie is and how it has to end, we’re not totally sure what the road taking us there looks like. It’s familiar, but not predictable making it impossible not to stay locked in.

As you might expect, the stunt work is stand out. In a world filled with CGI, AI and deep fakes it’s refreshing to be reminded of just how insanely good, and honestly, better, art is when made entirely by human effort. There’s danger in doing stunts, but there’s also danger in “doing it in post” all of the time. Creating is hard work, and The Fall Guy puts that work from stunt people front and center. There can be no short cuts, they’re driven, as most artists are, by pure passion (clearly definitely not money or fame), and it’s exciting to get good look at everything that goes into pulling it off. Seeing a car fly from one hunk of land to another while we slouch in theatre seats and pause from picking popcorn kernels out of our molars to whisper “damn” is the stuff going to the movies is made of. It’s all part of the movie magic, and in this movie, it’s gloriously real. 

It’s the perfect combination of comedy, chemistry, action and mystery. To quote Taylor Swift (whose song is used perfectly in the film) quoting Gladiator, are you not entertained?