Oculus, the newest horror movie released on April 11, 2014, was a disappointment to viewers hoping to receive a good scare.
The movie is a story of a haunted, antique mirror, called the laser glass, and its story with the Russell family. After a tragedy happened in the family home the little boy, Tim, is blamed with and charged for the death of his parents. After being held in protective custody, he is released in his 20s and is reunited with his sister Kaylie.
Kaylie has spent the time that Tim was in custody researching the laser glass and has realized their are multiple deaths tied to it. She believes it was the glass that killed her parents. After this realization, she is determined with the help of her brother to put whatever it is that inhabits the mirror to death. After convincing her brother to help her, the two return to the family home with the laser glass to end the deaths once and for all. The whole night is being recorded in an attempt to clear her brother’s name by proving that there is something in the mirror that is at fault for their parents’ deaths.
The movie is full of flashbacks of the tragedy of their parents death as they try to kill the mirror. At some points it gets hard to tell what is the past and what is the present. Junior Michelle Schuman was confused by the flashbacks.
“The flashbacks got really hard to follow when they were trying to kill the spirit in the mirror,” said Schuman. “One second they were in the present, and then the next they were in the past before their parent’s death.
During the night the mirror causes all of those in the house to commit strange acts. The glass confuses the siblings and gets into their heads, so they aren’t sure what is real and what is a figment of their imagination. At one point Kaylie stabs her fiance, who she thought was part of her imagination, only to realize that it was really him coming to check up on her.
Junior Adam Stacharowski was highly disappointed with the movie.
“I wouldn’t pay to see this movie again,” said Stacharowski. “The parts that were meant to be scary with all of the ghosts from the mirror were more funny than anything. The entire theater was laughing.”
The movie was directed by Mike Flanagan. Oculus was rated R for terror, violence, some disturbing images, and brief language. Senior Kathryn Jackson thinks it was improperly rated.
“There was no way the movie needed to be rated R,” said Jackson. “It wasn’t scary and the language wasn’t that bad. I think that it could have been a PG 13 movie.”
The movie comes full circle at the end and things are right back to where they were at the beginning of the movie. The ending of the movie was the best part and was a great way to wrap up the plot.
