Review: ‘Oddity,’ an oddball mix of fear and sadness

It’s easy to see the allure of Damian McCarthy. His fascination with genre play oozes from his work. He crafts worlds with great attention to his characters – giving them full lives, intentions, and drives. The man behind 2020’s Caveat returns for one of this year’s strangest and creepiest films, delivering a wallop of a story. His second feature film, Oddity explores the notions of loss, retribution, and how pain fuels an instinctual hunger to kill.

After the murder of his wife Dani (Carolyn Bracken), Dr. Ted Timmis (Gwilym Lee) seeks to move on from the tragedy. A year later, he’s found dating Yana (Caroline Menton), a stonier personality, and by all accounts, has completely processed Dani’s death. The couple remains in the home Ted and Dani renovated, and all seems at peace. That is until Dani’s blind sister Darcy (also played by Bracken) gifts them a wooden man that carries great sentimental value for her – and very well might be haunted.

Despite Ted’s sunnier disposition, Dani hangs like a dark cloud over the home, moving in ghost-like figures that go bump in the night. After receiving the wooden man, Yana begins experiencing strange occurrences in the home. Something (or someone) is trying to warn her about a dangerous entity that creeps in the halls.

McCarthy unravels a deliciously sinister yarn. With Dani’s killer supposedly dead, the film sinks deep into the bones as things aren’t as they seem. There’s another force at work, and Ted and Yana are standing inside its deceptively calm center. Like a hurricane, the impending whirlwind seeks to rip their lives apart. As the unknown presence inches closer, the pair must uncover the truth about Dani’s death before it’s too late.

The film brims with nightmare fuel, from the wooden man to certain ghoulish images that flutter into the eyeballs. But it’s not about jump scares. No. McCarthy wants you to shiver in unadulterated terror. He invites you into his world and allows fear to climb your backbone, vertebrae by vertebrae. When immersed, the viewer struggles to escape to no avail. You won’t be able to look away. It’s a full-body experience that doesn’t skimp on the visual storytelling either.

Oddity swallows you whole, drenching you in moody textures and effective uses of shadows. Cinematographer Colm Hogan, alongside McCarthy, stages a delightful hellscape for the camera. Hogan’s choices accentuate the chilling campfire tale and give the characters visual cues. From the stylistic feast to the rich thematic elements, McCarthy’s latest demonstrates a visionary filmmaker cementing his place as among today’s finest creatives.

Oddity hits theaters on Friday (July 19). A streaming date has yet to be announced.

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