Director: Damian McCarthy Starring: Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, Tadhg Murphy, Steve Wall, Caroline Menton Running Time: 98 minutes
Growing up as a devout horror fan in the West of Ireland, I spent my time watching tales of monsters, murder & mystery take place anywhere else but on the Emerald Isle. Classics whisked me away to sleepy towns like Haddonfield Illinois, research facilities in Antarctica, or dark castles in Romania but never to the land of banshees or faeries that I called home. There have been some exceptions over the years – most notably when a 9ft phallic monstrosity with teeth plagued the Irish countryside in 1986 – but for the most part Irish-set horror has failed to grab the attention of international audiences and leverage the wealth of talent, fantastical folklore or haunting locales to great effect.
However, the last few years have signalled a sea change in this area. Recently, international festivals are rightly heralding horror films set in Ireland, such as Lee Cronin’s The Hole in the Ground, Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother and Paul Duane’s All You Need is Death (to name a few). As we stand on what we all hope is the precipice of the next ‘golden age’ of Irish horror storytelling, it is so exciting to see yet another festival favourite emerge from this side of the pond in Damian McCarthy’s Oddity. Better still is that it might be the scariest film of 2024.
It is usually here that I pause my review to give a brief synopsis of the movie’s plot. And while any attempt I make would be as revealing as the trailer is, I want to watch what I say here. The truth is that Oddity will be an altogether better viewing experience for those who go into it completely blind – and that includes not watching the trailer. A vague (and not-spoiler-y) synopsis would simply note that Oddity takes place in a secluded forest in rural Ireland, where Dani (Carolyn Bracken) works away on her dream home while her psychiatrist husband Ted (Gwilym Lee) goes to work. Dani’s blind and seemingly clairvoyant twin sister Darcy (also played by Carolyn Bracken..) visits the home some time later with a haunting house-welcoming gift.
Oddity is a movie that jolts between different strands of the same story – cleverly wrongfooting its audience to keep them guessing on where this tale will eventually end. Characters we believe to be protagonists can become background figures at the drop of a hat as McCarthy twists and turns the audience’s perspective to add to the film’s expertly crafted tension. And so, as the scares begin to ramp up you are never truly sure of where they are going to come from at any point. ‘Jump scares’ have been cheapened over the years through generic studio horrors that want to zap you awake as you fight for consciousness through a turgid plot. But Oddity provides further proof that when it comes to jump scares it is a question of doing them right as opposed to not doing them at all.
While undoubtedly delivering on the modern need for ‘jump scares’, what makes Oddity so special is just how wonderfully old-fashioned it feels at times. Our story unfolds in a world of haunted houses, creepy asylums and spooky woodland, where curio shops exist, and cabinets of curiosities lavish our characters with cursed paraphernalia to drive the plot forward. All this – coupled with our story acting as a ‘cautionary tale’ of sorts – makes Oddity feel like a long-lost entry from Creepshow (or other EC Comics), even if McCarthy refrains from leaning too far into the campiness that comes with that association.
As old-fashioned as the scares may seem, Oddity’s direction is anything but ‘old-fashioned’. McCarthy’s command of the space in which this story is told is what makes the horror so effective: most of the story unfolds within the large, well-lit foyer of a renovated country house flanked on either side by vacuous spaces cloaked in shadow. The foyer acts as a stage where the audience’s attention is drawn through character interaction and, perhaps most importantly, a fucking terrifying wooden doll who sits there for most of the film. However, there is length and depth to every shot in which these scenes are captured, meaning that your attention flicks quickly between the fore- and backgrounds out of sheer panic that something might be lurking ready to pop out. It is smart, innovative direction informed by what it is that truly scares people about the unknown & the dark.
It’s been a long time since I watched significant portions of a film through my fingers, but that’s what I spent most of time doing with Oddity. Damian McCarthy has a lot of cool ideas for the horror genre, and I’m incredible excited at the prospect of him realizing these on the largest of cinematic stages. I’m also super excited for the movie’s continued success internationally and what it can demonstrate about Irish horror filmmaking. In truth, it doesn’t really matter whether these stories are set in Ireland necessarily. Instead, it matters more that we are shooting them in Ireland creating employment and demand for the immensely talented Irish production crews and nursing even more filmmaking talent within the country.
Oddity is well worth your time.
(4 / 5)