Oculus

How frustrating is it when a film has all the stuff it needs -- promising premise, good production values, decent cast, director who can twist filmic reality in imaginative ways -- and just... doesn't ... grab... you? Pretty damn frustrating, it turns out. OCULUS tells the tale of an orphaned brother and sister who reunite as adults to destroy the mirror that turned their father into a homicidal maniac, yet despite casting DOCTOR WHO's Karen Gillan in the lead, finding unique ways of styling flashback sequences so that past impinges on present and vice versa, and stuffing its scenario full of such spooky stuff as hostile, spectral presences, mind-bending hallucinations, and a guest walk-on by the Weeping Angels, the whole winds up decidedly less than the sum of its parts. The Cinefantastique Online team of Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons get together to express that fascination about a film that has so much and falls so short, and to try to figure out what prevents this latest Blumhouse (or as it's now being called, BH Productions) release from rising to its potential. Click on the player to hear the show.