Back in 2020 while perusing Shudder, as I’ve been known to do, I happened across a film named Caveat by Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy. Although I was unfamiliar with his work, I was drawn in by the odd-looking bunny toy adorning the splash screen. It was akin to how the cover art for old horror paperbacks used to draw me in. Back in the day, I devoted many an hour to trashy (good and bad) work based solely on the cover art. This was no exception. Before I knew it, I found myself immersed in a slow burn story that had me hanging on every scene. Caveat was Mc Carthy’s first feature-length film and he had set the bar pretty high for himself. His ability to create a tension-filled narrative brimming with atmosphere was something I was craving at a time when I was feeling a little burnt out on what the genre had to offer. This year he brings us his follow-up Oddity. It’s a little different than his previous film but it still plays in the same dark recesses.
This is definitely a story that you need to let play out, so without giving too much away…
Ted (Gwilym Lee) and Darcy (Carolyn Bracken) have bought a fixer-upper out in a remote area. One night while Ted is working late at the asylum Darcy is murdered. A year passes and Ted stops by to see Darcy’s twin sister Dani at her curiosities shop in town to deliver an item she has requested. Dani, a blind psychic, has the ability to see events surrounding personal objects simply by touching them. With the help of her collection of strange possessed items, including one extremely creepy wooden mannequin, she is determined to figure out what happened to her sister on that fateful night.
Carolyn Bracken pulls double duty in Oddity playing both of the twins and she does a fantastic job at that. As Dani she offers up her lines with a deadpan delivery of a grieving psychic sister that knows the truth but is just waiting to compile all her evidence. With the help of her strange menagerie of totems and that creepy mannequin, that’s exactly what she plans to do. I absolutely loved her in this role! Gwilym Lee does pretty well himself as the skeptic widower. He has the ability to almost make you hate his smugness. The surrounding cast of characters from the inmates at the asylum to Ted’s new pharmaceutical rep girlfriend add that little bit of creepiness or much needed brief touches of comedy to horrors playing out on the screen.
Feels kind of weird to say about a horror film but the cinematography was beautiful. Filled with amazing drone shots of the palatial estate buried in the Irish countryside, this film juxtaposed the serenity of isolation and the darkness it hides.
I’ve been waiting four years to see what Mc Carthy would do next and he did not disappoint. This film had me hanging on almost damn near every scene and although the story was a little predictable at times, it played out in a way that kept you fixed on it. Perfectly placed scares and an overall looming sense of dread created by what might just be lurking in the dark had me transfixed. I just couldn’t look away. Mc Carthy has definitely grown from his film debut only to expand on his creepy little universe and I can’t wait to see what he does next. I absolutely will be watching this one again and better believe I’m adding it to my spooky season rotation. If you’re looking for some unique horror, with just the right amount of scares this might just be one you need to see.
Oddity is in theaters now and will eventually be hitting Shudder.
