New Horror ‘Oddity’ Crawls but Creeps, Too

Do you remember Are You Afraid of the Dark? It was a kid-centered horror show where a group of friends would sit around a campfire and give an intro to their scary story of the night. The episode would then open with the words, “This is the story of…” and they’d finish it with the name of the story which would also serve as the title of the episode. In this supernatural horror, Oddity unfolds much like a spooky story told around a campfire about a woman seeking the truth about her sister’s murder. This is the tale of Oddity. 

When the movie begins, we’re given a spatial tour of the setting. Beautiful landscape amidst an isolated house. Long drafty hallways in what appears to be a large home. When we finally have dialogue, Dani (Carolyn Bracken; The Quiet Girl) speaks to her husband on the phone and tells him she was able to call because she found the one spot in the house with service. This tells us that she’s not only isolated in location but in communication, too. It’s quiet, again. 

After an encounter with a stranger (Tadhg Murphy; The Northman), we fast forward a year to discover Dani has been murdered. Her blind twin sister Darcy, a seer and collector of cursed items, pays an unexpected visit to her sister’s husband Ted (Gwilym Lee; Bohemian Rhapsody) and his new girlfriend, Yana (Caroline Menton), who are both living together in the remote house. Ted is a doctor at a mental health hospital. The story is that a patient escaped the hospital and murdered Dani. However, Darcy is convinced that there is more to her sister’s murder so she brings one of the cursed items from her collection to unearth the truth and exact revenge. 

Carolyn Bracken played both Dani and Darcy and did an excellent job giving them their own personality, even in the short amount of time we were able to see Dani. Bracken’s portrayal of Darcy is perfect. Her secretly hostile demeanor works well in this veiled interrogation. 

What’s unique about this horror film is that there isn’t a mystery, or at least the mystery is solved rather quickly. The remainder of the film is spent wondering not what will happen but how the inevitable will play out. This frees the audience from trying to guess the next plot point and sink into the creep for the big scares, of which there are many. 

With certain stories you can see the end coming, but the journey doesn’t have to be predictable. While one can surmise how Oddity might end, there are solid scenes that are guaranteed to startle viewers. In the end, that’s what we want from horror movies. Still, with the cursed object at Darcy’s aid, a lot of questions are unanswered and it feels as if the film isn’t quite sure of what it wants to be. 

It’s clear that Damian McCarthy knows how to use a space to craft a suspenseful atmosphere. In fact, it’s that feeling that will hang on longer than the actual story itself which is lacking enough detail to be truly compelling. Not everything needs explanation in a film but there did need to be more context surrounding these cursed objects and how they tick. It would’ve been nice to see Darcy use a few others in her profession. Even so, viewers will find themselves holding their breath in anticipation due to the film’s hair-raising ambiguity. 

It feels like there were opportunities missed to go deeper, to give more, to build. We should all wait with anticipation for what McCarthy does next, especially with a larger budget. Oddity will keep you interested and reward your intrigue with at least a few jump scares. This year has been in a horror drought, you’ll find Oddity will quench some of that thirst. 

Oddity is now playing in theaters.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars