Carmen Bryce shivers at Damian McCarthy’s second feature Oddity.
As the cliché goes, “It’s not what you say but how you say it.” This is certainly true for Irish director Damien McCarthy’s latest horror, Oddity. It isn’t the plot that makes this film unique, rather, it’s the bizarre and stylish telling of the tale that makes this a standout film—all while sending a shiver down the spine.
The film begins as Dani (Carolyn Bracken) is brutally murdered at the secluded country house that she and her psychiatrist husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee), are renovating. Authorities blame Olin (Tadhg Murphy), a patient from the local mental health hospital where Ted works. However, not long after he is found dead himself.
On the first anniversary of Dani’s death, her blind twin and self-proclaimed psychic, Darcy (with Bracken captivating in both roles), arrives at the house unexpectedly where Ted now lives with his new girlfriend, Yana (Caroline Menton). Convinced that not all is what it seems, Darcy sets out to discover the truth behind her sister’s murder with a terrifying aide: a screaming life-sized wooden mannequin with a shadowy history.
Like McCarthy’s feature debut Caveat (2020), Oddity gets an edge from how it so closely knits together its human themes of deception, loss, cruelty and madness with the supernatural. McCarthy skilfully manipulates his audience with how he blurs the lines between bleak reality and dark fantasy, creating an atmosphere at times that feels as claustrophobic and disorientating as the secluded country cottage where the action unfurls.
An evil Pinocchio may move around the house at will, or the darkly prophetic sister of a slain victim can appear unannounced, but the characters designed to elicit fear are not the true monsters in this story. McCarthy intentionally jumbles the timeline of events, toying with the gradual reveal of information. The film opens with Olin arriving at the cottage on the night of Dani’s death to warn her that someone (or something) is in the building. We then cut to the film title and flash forward a year. It isn’t until halfway through the film that the violence of that night plays out on screen. With this sleight of hand, the narrative unravels.
While Caveat was frustratingly meandering at times, Oddity shows just how well McCarthy has honed his mastery and brings the audience on a journey. The pace of the film shifts continuously, and a slow, conversational tempo is interrupted with sudden flashes of violence, jump scares and ghastly visitors when least expected—or wanted.
Oddity finds a home in the murky space between different disciplines of horror. It weaves together Irish folklore through the use of storytelling, nods to the gothic with its possessed objects and building dread; to Japanese horror with ghosts hijacking technology to warn the living; Film Noir with the investigation of betrayal and murder; and, of course, a good old, haunted house.
The ending delivers an almost laugh-out-loud, head-shaking satisfaction when these genres blend together with one final, brilliantly odd moment.
Oddity is in cinemas 30th August 2024.
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