Oddity
|The long winding road through the forest leading to the quadrant of the old stone farmhouse, it was in the process of extensive and expensive restoration paid for by psychiatrist Doctor Ted Timmis and his wife Dani, he on call at the hospital and she home the night of the frantic knock on the door, the unkempt man with the glass eye warning her that she was in danger, that somewhere in the dark of the house a stranger was hiding…
A year has passed since the murder of Dani Odello-Timmis; Olin Boole, the man accused of the murder a former patient of Ted’s released shortly before the killing then arrested and sent back to the hospital, he is now also dead, murdered by another inmate, and Ted and his new girlfriend Yana receive an unexpected visit by Dani’s twin sister Darcy who presents herself as their guest, awkwardly inserting herself in their lives without invitation.
Sisters who have witnessed things they would have preferred not to, Oddity stars Carolyn Bracken in the dual roles of deceased Dani and blind psychic Darcy, one alone and terrified and uncertain where to place her trust, in the man at the door or the supposed safety or her locked house, the other now having held in her ungloved hands the glass eye of the accused man and seen in her mind that he told the truth, he was not the killer and there was another presence in the house that night whom the police failed to identify.
Darcy refusing to compromise to the limitations of her disability, running her antiques and collectibles shop without assistance and pointedly ignoring the social niceties as she arrives at the house of her brother-in-law without invitation on the anniversary of her sister’s death, she is stubborn and perhaps irrational in some of her strongly held beliefs but she is absolutely convinced that she is right, about what happened that night and what is about to happen again.
Written and directed by Damian McCarthy, Oddity is built around the strange shadowy world of Darcy and the objects she sells and interacts with, among them the glass eye of the late Olin Boole (Tadhg Murphy), the sinister life-size carved wooden mannequin which appears to move of its own volition, its head filled with totems, photographs wrapped in twine, a lock of hair, a vial of blood, an unnatural monstrosity brought into a home tainted with death.
Caroline Menton and Gwilym Lee confined by the largely reactive roles of Yana and Ted, Oddity works on primal fears, of the threat which is unseen but lingers on the cusp of perception, of being alone and in danger, the characters spending much of the time creeping about in the dark, the film effective but somewhat limited with any attempt at intrigue hampered by the presence of an ostentatiously intimidating supporting character who serves no purpose other than to play the prime suspect.
Oddity will be available on Shudder from Friday 27th September