MIFF 2024 | ‘Oddity’ review: A monstrously good, multi-hyphenate horror feature
Writer-director Damian Mc Carthy’s second feature film is an intricately-crafted, genre-hopping cabinet of horrific curiosities.
Carolyn Bracken in “Oddity.” Photo courtesy of IFC Midnight.
It’s not every day that you get a horror film willing to go above and beyond with not only its style, but its substance too. These days, the horror landscape can loosely be categorised as a bipartisan warzone. Thanks to directors like Ari Aster and Rose Glass, plenty of fans clamouring for more “elevated horror” thick with dread but devoid of jumpscares — the go-to shock tactic now much-maligned for their abuse and overuse by horror studio giants like Blumhouse. On the other hand, plenty more have already grown tired of “elevated horror,” after a few too many slow folk-horror “Midsommar” copies proved that the once-exciting sub-genre was completely fallible in the hands of the wrong directors. That leaves today’s independently-budgeted horror films with a very precarious balancing act to pull off, if it is to appeal to genre fans en masse.
“Oddity,” the second feature-length effort from Irish writer-director Damian Mc Carthy, is one such film, joining scarce few compatriots (like David Bruckner’s “The Ritual” and the Philippou brothers’ “Talk To Me”) in the canon of New Horror Films That Really Can Do Both. Except “Oddity” also embodies so much more than just a perfect balance between atmospheric dread and sublime shocks. It is also a genre-bending twister of a film — a haunted-house caper, a creature-feature, a relationship melodrama, and a murder mystery, all without ever quite stretching itself too thin. Clearly taking his leitmotif of jam-packed curiosity shops to heart, Mc Carthy has done what so few other writers manage to do in the genre — create a meticulously layered cabinet of horrific curiosities that manages not to lose itself in its own intricacies.
Set in Mc Carthy’s native Ireland, “Oddity” is led by not one but two masterful performances from Carolyn Bracken, who plays twin sisters Darcy and Dani. Darcy is, unfortunately, dead — purportedly murdered by escaped asylum inmate Olin Boole (Tadhg Murphy). Dani, a blind medium preternaturally in tune with the occult, is convinced that this convenient narrative is hiding a much more sinister truth behind her sister’s death. Darcy’s sceptical widower Ted (Gwilym Lee) and his new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) are far less convinced, and eager to dismiss Dani’s conjectures as spiritual mumbo-jumbo. But when Dani turns up at their remote countryside mansion one evening with a strange wooden chest in tow, the truth is not so far behind… and the night’s revelations will rock them to the core.
From its opening moments, “Oddity” masterfully establishes an atmosphere thick with unease, drawing viewers into its world of shadowy brick corridors and lurking dread. The film’s excellent sound design also helps build real, palpable terror, and makes the shock of its scares feel earned, rather than relying on cheap audio jump-scares that plague so many contemporary horror films. Here, every creak of the floorboards, every whisper in the dark, is a calculated stroke in Mc Carthy’s larger canvas of terror.
As the story unfolds, what initially appears to be a standard horror setup gradually reveals layers of psychological complexity. Mc Carthy’s skill lies in his ability to subvert expectations, leading viewers down one path only to jarringly divert them onto another. The tired horror movie tropes — the “blind seer,” the ink-splatter drawings of tortured, screaming faces, and the strange one-eyed man with the haunted stare — may elicit an eyeroll or two when they first appear, but thankfully, the film’s primary conceit doesn’t hinge on these clichés. In what might be a feat of miracle-working never before seen in the horror landscape, "Oddity" transmogrifies these tired visual touchpoints into something new altogether. Canny viewers may be able to predict the film’s final “twist,” but to Mc Carthy’s credit, they will not have been led there by any of the customary horror hallmarks that he so teasingly incorporates as red herrings.
Yet, it’s not just the film’s technical prowess that deserves praise. The way Mc Carthy navigates the emotional undercurrents between his characters elevates "Oddity" from a simple horror flick to something far more intriguing. Seasoned horror audiences will be more than used to the typical supernatural sceptic-versus-believer debate that Ted and Dani often engage in, but Mc Carthy cleverly saves this overused trope from becoming tiresome with the introduction of Yana — a newcomer to Ted’s world, who has no idea of the simmering familial tensions between Ted and Dani… and who is also under no illusions that she has to play nice when faced with Dani’s increasingly bizarre and outlandish impositions on her hospitality. Played with verve and plenty of sass by newcomer Caroline Menton, the addition of Yana’s character is a breath of fresh air, and yet another welcome subversion by Mc Carthy of genre tropes that have saturated the horror-sphere for years now.
In the end, "Oddity" is a film that refuses to be easily categorised. It plays with genre conventions, teases the viewer with familiar horror iconography, and then pulls the rug out from under them with a narrative that is both deeply unsettling and surprisingly poignant. The suspension of disbelief that its final act requires may put some viewers off, but those willing to go along for the ride will find themselves rewarded with a conclusion that is as shocking as it is thought-provoking. The film may not be for everyone — after all, no balancing act, no matter how masterful, will ever truly bring such a partisanal genre together — but for those who appreciate horror that dares to be different, "Oddity" is a haunting experience that lingers long after the credits roll.
