OCULUS- “Mirror,Mirror on the Wall Who is the SCARIEST of them
All!”
Cast:- Karen Gillan as Kaylie,
Brenton Thwaites as Tim Russel, Annalise as Young Kaylie, Garrett Ryan as Young
Tim, Katee Sackhoff as Marie Russell & Rory Cochrane as Alan Russell and
not too many.
& Crew:- Director – Mike Flanagan,
Screenplay- Jeff Howard, Music-The Newton Brothers, D.O.P – Michael Fimoonan,
Producer- Marc D.Evans, Edit- Mike Flanagan, Art – Elizabeth Boller among
others
Production Companies:- Intrepid
Pictures - Crush, The Hitcher, The Raven/Blumhouse Productions – Insidious Chapter
2/3, Paranormal Activity/ WWE Studios – See No Evil, Knucklehead, And The Call
Similar Productions: - Mama/Paranormal
Activity/ Evil Dead/House at the end of the Street/ The Collection etc
The Premise:- A woman tries to exonerate her brother, who was
convicted of murder, by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural
phenomenon.
The story,
backdrop and setting (Screen play) the whole premise of this film is based on the
fact that the spirit(s) inside the mirror makes you see things which turn out
to be mere illusions. Ultimately totally confused one becomes crazy in not
being able to distinguish between the real and unreal and therefore that he or
she unwittingly performs such in despicable acts of violence, self torture and
even murder. This film in my opinion is a B-Grade ghost story. Hollywood
these days is churning out such dime a dozen stereotypes one after the other
like a factory assembly line that one finds it almost impossible to any longer sit
through such insipid crap for 2 hours. The film is devoid of any sort of
credible content and totally relies on the editing (the director is also the
editor) and graphics & related gimmicks. There are 6 characters Oh! Sorry!
How could I overlook the main lead in this film the “bloody” MIRROR! It all
starts within the mirror and ends there. A bizarre and non horrific premise a
concoction of sorts from films like the 6th sense, paranormal
activity Conjuring & even exorcist. Quite simply this horror movie completely
failed in all its attempts to scare the living daylights out of me!
& the Climax is the culmination of 2 stories
interwoven story of the flashback and the present of two young kids Kaylie
& Tim. The climax of the first story
is revealed in the beginning and the climax of the 2nd story is revealed
at the very end!
Acting: - Karen Gillian as Kayille has essayed a decent performance
alternating between putting up a steely façade of a no nonsense girl and still
disturbed by her tryst with the past and the killing of her parents. She has
the looks, the talent and a pronounced American accent which is an added asset in
Hollywood.
Brendon Thwaites as Tim is adequate for the role he was
chosen for though very melodramatic in the climax.
Garrett Ryan as Young Tim is more convincing than the
older Tim. He has displayed the emotions of a scared and confused kid quite
well.
Annalise as Young
Kaylie has not only matched Karen’s performance
but at times even excelled.
Rory Cochrane as Alan
Russell is adequate in fact he has
very little to do except for his “Nail biting” (pardon the pun) scenes. It
appears that he played a role in the film ARGO. Hope someone can identify the character he
played quite honestly I don’t remember!
Katee Sackhoff as
Marie Russell –an epitaph-silently drunk in the beginning chained like a
dog in the middle and killed like an animal in the end!
The rest: - Mirror!
Mirror! On the wall was anybody else really there?
Camera:- It is the standard fare normally
associated with horror films these days. The dim lighting, the slow panning of
the camera combined with accelerated shots, crane & top angle shots etc.
One or two shots like the ones before the mirror stood out.
Music: - Nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly
In future such films should probably start using stock music it would probably
save the producer some money!
Art : - Nothing note worthy except probably the exterior and ambience
inside the house.
Edit: - This is the best part of the film.
Very cleverly edited indeed if not this film would have shattered the ‘mirror’
completely. The director who has doubled as the editor has used his bag of
tricks well. For example the shots of the kids running down or up the stairs
interwoven with the adult version of the siblings coming out of the corner etc.
The connection between the two stories is very nicely showcased by this editor which
is praiseworthy.
The one’s that reflected:
- 1) The Editing 2) A few half scary scenes though sadly most of them a repeat.
3) Camera Work in parts 4) Acting of Karen, Annalise & Garrett.
The one’s that cracked:
- 1) The whole “Mirror Mirror on the Wall premise”. 2) Copycat scenes from
umpteen horror films of the past.
Finally to sum it all
up, a quote: “Yes unlike the usual horror films there
is hardly any blood, no nudity, no profanity, no sex and no gore but there is
no HORROR too!”
Bottom Line: - BOO! With the two O’s missing!
My Rating:- 2/5
Until next time,
Director Haricharan
Chennai
14 /04/2014
No comments:
Post a Comment