Movie Review: ODDITY

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: July 19th, 2024 / 03:29 AM

ODDITY movie poster | ©2024 IFC Films/Shudder

Rating: R
Stars: Gwilym Lee, Carolyn Bracken, Tadhg Murphy, Caroline Menton, Jonathan French, Steve Wall
Writer: Damian McCarthy
Director: Damian McCarthy
Distributor: IFC Films/Shudder
Release Date: July 19, 2024 (theatrical)

ODDITY is a contemporary Irish horror film that uses multiple mythic ingredients for maximum effect.

Dani Timmis (Carolyn Bracken) is alone in a huge, isolated manor. She seems unafraid as she chats on the phone to her husband, Dr. Ted Timmis (Gwilym Lee), who works at a mental hospital in the city. Dani has a tent and an automatic camera set up, hoping to capture images of ghosts.

Dani also leaves a voice message for her sister, inviting her to come over for supper, and reminding her that they’re connected.

Then a man, Olin Boole (Tadhg Murphy), appears at the front door. Olin is one of Ted’s former patients, and begs Dani to let him into the house, insisting that someone is in there with her.

A year later, Dani is dead. Ted goes to visit Dani’s twin Darcy (also played by Bracken) at her antiques shop, Odelio’s Oddities. Darcy is blind, asserts that she is psychic, and that all of the objects in her shop are cursed.

Ted is of course wholly skeptical, but says they should get together – with his new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) – in a week or two to commemorate the anniversary of Dani’s death.

As requested, Ted has brought something specific with him that Darcy has requested.

The next week, a large wooden chest from Dani shows up at the manor. Before Ted and Yana have much time to react, Darcy herself is being dropped off at the front of the house, saying that Ted told her to come to observe Dani’s death date.

This isn’t how Ted remembers their conversation. He’s surprised to see Dani, and Yana doesn’t want to be left alone with her while Ted goes to work the night shift at the hospital. However, Yana can’t find her car keys.

Even if we can guess in broad strokes what exactly has happened and where all of this may be going, director/writer Damian McCarthy packs in lots of little twists, and maintains a consistently spooky air throughout.

We start in normal reality, but McCarthy makes it easy for us to accept both that Darcy has reason to believe in her own abilities. There are moments where we are made to wonder if the supernatural or human malice is to blame. We get answers, but the ambiguity works in the moment.

McCarthy also has nods to other filmmakers. While ODDITY is set firmly in the present – cell phones and digital cameras factor strongly in the plot – Darcy’s shop looks positively Hitchcockian, circa the 1950s. A large magical item that we have no doubt will work by the time we see it seems like it might have come from several other respectable folk horror films. Lauren Kelly’s production design is exemplary, both in the under-renovations manor and in the oddities department.

Bracken deserves major kudos for making Darcy and Dani so entirely different from one another. She is hugely aided in this by hair and makeup, but her reserved, sharp Darcy is miles away from the earthy, upbeat Dani.

Lee does right by his role, Murphy is both frightening and poignant, and Menton gets us to empathize with Yana’s exasperation at being put in a series of unsettling situations.

Even when we may be able to determine the answers about certain story elements ahead of time, ODDITY keeps us speculating as to what may come next. It’s also got a great, unconventional juxtaposition of elements that make it feel fresh.

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