Some movies feel haunted. The Irish thriller Oddity is a movie like that. A murdered woman, her widowed doctor husband, his new girlfriend, the dead woman’s blind psychic identical twin sister and a creepy life-sized wooden doll add up to a strange unease. This isn’t a story about twists and turns; this is about a mood. Even when I saw a reveal coming, I was entertained by the how. There is a mastery of tone here that makes up for any predictability in plot. It is surprising not for what happens, but for how the events are treated. The dread is there, yet it isn’t ominous. The mystery is more in how it is going to manifest itself. Though the straight horror elements don’t work as well, there is a quiet streak of dark humor leading to an excellent payoff in the final shot. This is an interesting, enjoyable viewing experience that, while it doesn’t quite fire on all cylinders, fires on enough of them to make for a good time.
Exactly one year after Dani’s death, Darcy shows up at the home her sister was killed in, catching her brother-in-law, Ted, and his girlfriend, Yana, off-guard. She has brought with her a disturbing, almost life-like, wooden man and tells the couple she wants to stay the night. What follows could be supernatural or it could be the ghosts of the past bringing the truth into the light.
Writer/Director Damian Mc Carthy does a fantastic job establishing the tone, then does an intriguing thing with character. Oddity (95 minutes, without the end credits) doesn’t focus in on one person more than the rest. This isn’t solely about Darcy trying to figure out what really happened to Dani. Or Ted feeling guilty for wanting to dismiss her, but uncomfortable with her presence. Or Yana just wanting to be left alone without the specter of her boyfriend’s dead wife hanging over her. All of that is mixed in with murder, psychic visions and a haunting that might be literal or might be spiritual. There is a lot going on and it mostly fits, even if it probably winds up being a little too much by the end.
Mc Carthy doesn’t rely on jump-scares (there are a couple). It’s all in shot length and what he hides from (or sometimes in) the frame. Close-ups intentionally make some things clearer and others temporarily invisible. This is a very well-made, well-thought-out production from a technical and directorial perspective. The screenplay isn’t the strongest, yet everything else holds it together effectively.
Another impressive aspect is the performance of Carolyn Bracken as the sisters. We don’t see much of Dani and we see a lot more of Darcy, still Bracken is able to create two distinct characters. Dani is kind, caring and worried about her sister. Darcy is less open, living in a world of antiques with morbid histories. We only see Dani on the night of her death, where her intelligence and practicality are at war with each other. Darcy is confident in who she is, confrontational and unafraid. Her blindness is treated respectfully, as an advantage when people underestimate her. Bracken is so compelling that, if them being identical twins wasn’t a big plot point, it would be easy to think this was two different actresses playing these roles.
Oddity is also really good from a design standpoint. That house feels threatening, we don’t know to who. The wooden man is bizarre and unnerving, especially in the way it just exists at the kitchen table when two of the characters are talking. Mc Carthy does a great job blending supernatural terror and human terror, making for a unique and clever hour and a half thrill ride.
3¾ out of 5
Cast:
Carolyn Bracken as Darcy/Dani
Gwilym Lee as Ted Timmis
Caroline Menton as Yana
Tadhg Murphy as Olin Boole
Steve Wall as Ivan
Written/Directed by Damian Mc Carthy
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