Fantasia 2024: ‘Oddity’ Review
Stars: Gwilym Lee, Carolyn Bracken, Tadhg Murphy, Caroline Menton, Steve Wall, Johnny French | Written and Directed by Damian McCarthy
From director Damian McCarthy (Caveat), Oddity tells the story of a female psychic attempting to get to the bottom of her twin sister’s murder by returning to the scene of the crime.
Oddity is all about its atmosphere. Thankfully the filmmakers have clearly put a lot of effort into creating this part of the movie, whether it be through camera work, sound design, the score, or the placement of jump scares. It all feels incredibly well thought out.
I’m sure many people viewing it will see it as one of the scariest films they have ever seen and that claim would be justified. It does an excellent job of building up two or three really good jump scares. And even knowing that doesn’t hinder the moments because you’ll be waiting and waiting and then it will hit you at the perfect moment. These scenes are accompanied by similar scenes that don’t necessarily have a big pay-off but that works as a good thing. You’ll be constantly looking in the background for figures and you’ll nervously be edging towards the edge of your seat as the music gets louder and creepier.
I think it helps that the movie, or at least the scenes that are the creepiest, are very dark. This isn’t a bad thing – I understand this has been a bit of a complaint in some modern horror and I get it – because in Oddity it just adds to that atmosphere. You actually don’t want to see what is behind the corner or in the box, until, the right moment. The converted barn that a good chunk of the movie is set in shouldn’t be as scary as it becomes.
As far as performances go, it’s hard to look past Carolyn Bracken (recently seen in the slasher show Wreck) who plays each of the twin sisters. It is very much two completely different roles in both how she looks and how the characters act. She is great in both roles but as the psychic twin, she excels. Somehow garnering sympathy but also coming across a little bit frightening too. The villains of the movie (I’m not going to spoil things by announcing who they are) maybe don’t get enough backstory but they do well to come across as nasty as they are in the slightly limited on screen time they have.
Perhaps the scariest part of Oddity is a wooden statue that you may see photos of as part of the promotional material. It’s an awesome-looking thing. Human size, with an absolutely terrifying face which manages to scare both the on screen characters and the viewer. You’ll never not be a little freaked every time you see it.
If there are any real complaints about Oddity, some people won’t love the slower pace and it is a little bit generic. Luckily, it does everything extremely well, so even if you might occasionally get the feeling you’ve seen much of this before, you won’t really care.
Coming to Shudder in the near future, Oddity will sure pick up a following. This is one of the scariest horror movies of 2024.
**** 4/5
Oddity screened as part of this year’s Fantasia Film Festival.
