Oddity Review: A Suspenseful Good Time!

As someone who grew up on spooky short stories read in the dead of night, the beauty of horror sometimes lies in the short and terrifyingly sweet time spent with characters, spirits, and bumps in the night. The power of a story to play out in full without the promise of sequels makes it even more frightening to experience.

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There are legends and stories behind simple objects, about the people who possessed them and where they came from. For Dani (Carolyn Bracken) having the power to unlock this information just by touching an object is the kind of psychic ability she was born with. When Dani’s sister Darcy (also Carolyn Bracken) is murdered one night, thought to be by a mental patient of her husband Ted (Gwilym Lee), Dani wedges her way into Ted’s house to stay the night while he works the late shift.

Little does he and his new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) know that Dani has brought with her a wooden man from her cabinet of curiosities, ready to uncover the truth behind her sister’s gruesome death. Oddity is a suspenseful good time fitting all of its terror in a short span just like your favorite story or novella.

Although it is short, Oddity takes its time playing out as a family drama with added horror that coincides with Dani’s many oddities she possesses and the awkwardness of your brother in law moving on from your twin sister less than a year after her death. McCarthy structures the film to balance its chills, slasher characteristics, and drama among Dani and Yana, who occupy the house together on one fateful night.

There are prolonged scenes that slowly unravels information that Dani picks up from being inside the house and coming in contact with various objects. The full story comes to fruition by the end but McCarthy does an excellent job of feeding the audience information that connects between relationships, timelines, and evidence displayed. The nightmare of never knowing when the film will use its sound design to scare us or refrain from it to display terrifying visuals makes it unpredictable at times and that much more effective.

That being said, Oddity builds up its scenes by utilizing its atmosphere and stillness to cause unease. Not knowing which characters to trust and how Dani’s abilities will unlock their secrets gives the film the ability to take its time and work well. It feels like it could take place at any period in time by using the curiosities and novelties Dani has in her possession to represent past centuries while taking place in a present day time period. As a result, the production and set design taking place in Ireland gives off a remote feel to it, distancing the characters from the reality of the real world while inside Ted’s house.

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Oddity takes on how a strong belief in how the world around us works can sometimes blind us from other forces at play. Ted deeply bases his life and thoughts in science and logic while Dani, a blind medium, uses her senses and psychic abilities to harness the power of the supernatural. Most of us would relate to the character of Yana, feeling as if being in the house where Darcy was murdered holds remnants of her soul, even if logically Ted tries to talk her out of these feelings. The way the film plays out McCarthy seems to display the dangers of fully depending on a single side of the spectrum of belief. Oddity knows how to utilize its time and suspense up until its last shot that had this critic shaking in anticipation.

‘Oddity’ Rating – 4/5

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