Irish filmmaker Damian Mc Carthy’s atmospheric chiller Oddity is a hearty stew of classic genre tropes mixed into a ghoulishly delightful and refreshingly original package. Full of creepy looking objects, ominously lit rooms, and an amalgam of plot points that horror movie buffs know well by this point, Oddity takes the familiar and leans into making it all as surreal as possible. It seems messy and a little hard to follow coming out of the gate, but once Mc Carthy’s material comes together, Oddity is a memorable journey that feels like a throwback to less contemporary European ghost stories. Anyone looking for a well crafted antidote to the recent spate of “elevated” horror movies that have been coming out lately will have a great time with this one and not have their intelligence insulted in the process.
Darcy (Carolyn Bracken) is a blind medium and owner of a dark curiosities shop where every object comes with a curse (which can be lifted upon purchase, in a nifty way to deter shoplifters). One year ago, Darcy’s identical twin sister, a ghost hunter named Dani, was brutally murdered in the new home she was about to move into with her doctor husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee). The person accused of the murder (Tadhg Murphy), a former mental patient at the asylum Ted worked at, has also been brutally and bizarrely killed. Darcy gets the idea to take the dead killer’s glass eye back to the scene of the crime to get some closure and see what he saw during the murder. Only when Darcy gets to the home where Ted now lives with his new partner (Caroline Menton), a different truth comes to light.
Mc Carthy (Caveat) plays his material to the stylistic hilt here, but stops well short of making Oddity into an assembly of easily telegraphed haunted house jump scares. There are plenty of elements to Mc Carthy’s work that aren’t fresh or innovative, but like most genre efforts, the journey and execution are what matters most in the end. There are creepy side characters who are obviously up to no good, haunting visions, ominous bits of foreshadowing, recently discovered videos made by the dead sister that fill in necessary bits of information, a giant Golem, haunted objects, ghosts peeking out of the shadows in photographs, dark secrets that are easily telegraphed but handled in satisfying ways, nods to some of the director’s previous works, etc. Oddity is a kitchen sink kind of film, but the Gothic overtones and sense of playfulness provide a much needed sense of balance. It might be the kitchen sink, but it’s one that’s made of top quality materials.
Oddity is a heightened film, but a restrained one. The sets are well decorated and photographed to play up their unusual, castle-like, cavernous nature, but never to a point where things seem overly cartoonish. Mc Carthy and his team of craftspeople do an exceptional job of making even the more “normal” settings appear off-kilter and unusual. Oddity works well because it achieves the delicate balance of making everything seem patently unreal while weaving a well told story that’s easy to buy into on an emotional and narrative level. It also boasts a wicked sense of self-aware, dark humour that’s delivered wonderfully by the likes of Lee, Menton, and especially the gleefully deadpan Bracken, who provides a brilliantly macabre turn as the frequently unlikeable, but justified heroine.
If there’s one major thing wrong with Oddity it’s that once the pieces have been put into place by Mc Carthy, the big reveal becomes patently obvious and not much of a surprise once it finally arrives. But not to worry. Mc Carthy has already thought of a way to pivot with the obviousness, and spins things off into a pleasingly well thought out new direction. Oddity is all about execution, both in terms of the story and the craft that goes into telling it. A lot of Mc Carthy’s work lovingly invokes other films, stories, and myths that have come before it, but the handling of the material and care that has gone into making it work is resoundingly satisfying.
Oddity is now playing in select theatres, including TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, and it will be available to stream via Shudder in the near future.
