Oculus

One of the oldest horror tropes is that of the cursed artifact. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the “monkey’s paw,” a severed chimp hand that grants wishes to its owner. 3, to be exact. But each of these wishes comes with a terrible price. In the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw” by WW Jacobs, published in 1902, the paw’s newest owner wishes for 200 pounds to pay off his house debt. As a result, his son dies in a freak accident, and the parents are paid exactly 200 pounds in recompense. Yeah. Harsh.

Artifacts, especially those with mystique such as being fashioned by Jinn or evil spirits, usually hold some enormous power that is impossible to control and impossible to ignore. I know that whenever I see museum pieces from the Fertile Crescent, ancient jewelry fashioned by Sumerians thousands and thousands of years ago, I wonder about the items’ provenance and if there’s a tale to them. We will never know, of course, since most of the records of that time have been lost. But it’s fascinating to imagine just the kinds of mischief the piece of art may have been intended to create. Or cursed, to create.

For my generation, the Lament Configuration, also known as “the box” or “the cube” from the Hellraiser movie franchise (if you haven’t read “The Hellbound Heart” by Clive Barker, which the series is based on, please do so), is the quintessentially cursed object. A gateway to another dimension, one of chaos and violent depravity. All who come in contact with the object are affected by its power, and none escape. Even when they do.

I bring all this up because the cursed artifact trope appears to be making a comeback. There are new movies about to hit the screens that use this trope, such as Annabelle: Creation and Wish Upon. While they might be good, I’m wondering if they will be Oculus-good.

Oculus is a movie that takes place almost entirely in a house and concerns a single item: a mirror. The mirror has been through many hands and has quite a history, at least that’s known.

Those who are familiar with my work in the Fiends collection know I’m a sucker for diseased minds and broken human beings. And maybe that’s why Oculus speaks to me the way it does. Two protagonists, one who questions his sanity, and his sister who is convinced the mirror is possessed by some supernatural force, trap themselves in their old family home to do battle with the mirror, their shared memories, and their sanity.

Kaylie Russel, played by Karen Gillian, has spent years devising a plan to prove the mirror’s supernatural properties and destroy it. Her brother, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, is brought along for the ride. While her carefully laid plans start to fall apart, the two siblings fight to survive delusions that may just be the mirror, or their actual sanity crumbling to dust.

It’s a great idea. The movie was made for next to nothing and based on a 15-minute short. The music is creepy where it needs to be, and the sense of dread is palpable. It is a film where you want to side with one of the characters, but you’re not sure which one.

I loved the film. Its low-budget nature only highlights the realism. Rather than being stuffed with CGI, practical effects, lighting, and just good acting are what make the film what it is. And it’s good.

There are a few monologues in the movie that try to convince you one way or the other that the Mirror is truly evil or that both of these poor people are simply insane. I believe the former, but I know folks can make the case for the latter.

Oculus, released in 2013, set the bar for the films we are soon to be deluged with. If you haven’t seen it, give it a try. I’d love to know your thoughts.

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