Rated R HOW WILL IT PLAY? After OCULUS came out, King had seen the movie and really liked it, so things finally fell into place for GERALD’S GAME. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. It’s not the scenes that matter so much as the way they do (and don’t) fit together. Aside from the WWE Studios logo at the beginning, the Levesque reference is the only indication viewers are given that WWE was involved with Oculus, as the company came onto the project partway in. With a steely resolve, she announces that the pair must return to the childhood home and “kill it” — a declaration that immediately establishes a menacing supernatural presence that remains hard to define throughout the movie. With little competition, it should find respectable returns among the sizable audience for horror films, although its primary audience lies on VOD, where it should be successful for a long time. As the duo creep around the house, evading passing shadows and lashing out blindly in the wrong directions, it’s never entirely clear if any given point of view holds ground. "The Shining" and "The Amityville Horror" also trafficked in the But Flanagan quickly fills in a few more pertinent details: The siblings’ youth was disrupted with the arrival of the mirror into the claustrophobic study where their father (Rory Cochrane) worked alone; at some point, maybe because of his own lapsing sanity or maybe because the mirror drove him mad, their ill-fated father murdered their mother (Katee Sackhoff), at which point young Tim shot him dead. More: Mike Flanagan’s Movies Ranked, Worst to Best. No wrestlers make cameos in the film, and it's in no way a wrestling-related movie. Summer Of 84 Sequel Updates: Release, Story, Will It Happen? Her younger brother got the treatment he needed but Kaylie was left to fight for the day she could get vengeance on the mirror that wrecked her life. Director Mike Flanagan turns the fragile nature of consciousness into a better fear tactic than any visceral shocks could possibly achieve. Gillan sells that hair-trigger intensity in the film's best moments, and when Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard open the door to the however-brief possibility that Kaylie may actually be crazy, "Oculus" is at its most interesting. Maybe having lunch with his sister wasn't the best idea. The very act of watching movies calls into question the way we process reality; “Oculus,” for all its familiar scares, expertly capitalizes on this fundamental power. The ongoing sense of ambiguity is distinctly cinematic, forcing viewers to question whether any given moment actually takes place. The flashbacks in "Oculus" have a depressing fatalism because we're told who will live and who will die early on, turning these scenes into an exercise in inevitable gore. By contrast, last year’s generally well-liked haunted house effort “The Conjuring” capably grappled with issues of faith, but failed to unite its bigger ideas with the rudimentary process for freaking us out. A long-term member of the Screen Rant family, Michael looks forward to continuing on creating new content for the site for many more years to come. Kaylie has been waiting for her brother to reemerge into society so the two of them can confront the bizarre ancient menace, which is apparently responsible for 48 deaths in 400 years. Add Mike Flanagan's "Oculus" to the horror subgenre of supernatural item movies. Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that's been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. Watch movies and TV in VR! And who’s to say whether Tim has it right? Sadly, they can't maintain that intrigue past the second act. Young Tim (Garret Ryan) and young Kaylie (Annalise Basso) moved into a lovely home with their father Alan (Rory Cochrane), a software designer, and their supportive mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff). Both overly foreshadowed climactic acts of "Oculus"—they tell us over and over again that dad is going to go homicidal and that they're going to try to destroy the mirror—feel like genre faits accomplis and so their inevitability becomes little more than a shallow reflection of superior works. Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. 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(One grisly bit, in which Kaylee bites into an apple and temporarily believes she’s chewing on a lightbulb by mistake, harkens back to the infamous “face peeling” hallucination in “Poltergeist.”) The very act of watching movies calls into question the way we process reality; “Oculus,” for all its familiar scares, expertly capitalizes on this fundamental power. His doctors, including Miguel Sandoval in a prologue cameo, reworked those memories to lead him to believe that dad was just a really bad guy and there was no supernatural mojo at work. not that it didnt make sense, but I felt like it stopped going anywhere. When "Oculus" opens, Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is being released from years of intensive therapy. for terror, violence, some disturbing images and brief language, Bonded and Unbound: Sean Connery, 1930-2020, Disney+'s The Mandalorian Makes a Valiant Return in Season Two Opener, Amazon's Truth Seekers is Missing Jokes and Scares. Flanagan’s script, co-written by Jeff Howard and based on an earlier short film, nimbly moves between events that transpired 11 years ago and their ramifications in the present: In the opening scenes, 21-year-old Tim (Brenton Thwaites) is released from a psychotherapy ward after years on lockdown and reunited with his sister, Kaylie (Karen Gillan). In short order, plenty of things go bump in the night, but it’s gradually clear that nothing happening can be taken for granted, including Kaylie and Tim’s own behaviors. "You see what it wants you to see", as the tagline goes. When it comes to WWE performers, few are in the league of Triple H, a multi-time world champion and consistent main event-level talent for over 20 years. This time it's not a haunted doll or magical box but a deadly mirror with the power to compel people to commit violent acts. In “Oculus,” the horror is at once deceptively simple and rooted in a deep, primal uneasiness. Matthew McConaughey Wanted to Play the Hulk But Marvel Passed, Justice League Reshoots Changed Almost Every Single Cyborg Scene. If there are no rules or relatable subtext within the world of a horror film, the images have no power. Brian Tallerico is the Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. It’s easy enough to jolt an audience into submission, but that’s not the same thing as getting under its skin. Endgame's Karen Gillan Shows Off an Awesome Nebula Puppet & Infinity Gauntlet, Oculus’ WWE Triple H Easter Egg Explained, Oculus: The Lasser Glass' Strange Origin Explained, Mike Flanagan’s Movies Ranked, Worst to Best, Shin Ultraman Movie Releasing Early Summer 2021, Holidate Cast & Character Guide: Where You've Seen the Actors Before, Mission Impossible 7: Tom Cruise’s Co-Star Had No Idea If He’d Survive Stunts, Every Fast & Furious Character Who Has To Return For The Ending, James Gunn Making A Superman Movie Was A Possibility Before Suicide Squad. Director Mike Flanagan's Oculus was co-produced by WWE Studios, leading to the inclusion of a clever Triple H Easter egg only wrestling fans will get. Still, he's a person familiar to anyone who enjoys pro wrestling, and those who like both wrestling and horror had reason to get a quick kick out of an early Oculus scene. All rights reserved. At its best, “Oculus” is a tightly enacted chamber drama that just happens to include supernatural phenomena. OCULUS QUEST 2. No matter how much technology they have on their side, nothing in certain. Not having the "benefit" of therapy, Tim's sis Kaylie (Karen Gillan of "Doctor Who") wastes almost no time pulling her brother back into the world that he has spent years trying to repress. Oculus is actually one of the most acclaimed things WWE Studios has ever been attached to, which suggests they do better with a hands-off approach, letting talented directors like Flanagan realize their vision unimpeded.

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