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Apr 09, 2014 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

The Russell siblings are haunted—literally, and figuratively—by a tragedy that tore their happy family apart a decade earlier. Police found the body of Tim and Kaylie’s mother—bruised, shot multiple times, and with her teeth forcefully removed—in the family’s new home; their father was located nearby, presumably shot dead by his preteen son. Ten years later, Tim—now in his early 20s and freshly released from an institution—is ready to put his past behind him, but his older sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan) is holding him to a promise they made to each other as kids: to destroy a haunted, antique mirror that drove their father murderously insane.

The premise may be hard to swallow, but we ask that you try. Writer-director Mike Flanagan milks a setup that sounds like typical, b-movie chaff—a killer mirror, really?—and through clever tricks and smart editing, turns it into one of the scarier American horror flicks we’ve seen in some time. Early into the film, the adult Tim and Kaylie return to the scene of the murders with the haunted looking-glass in tow. Kaylie—Gillan, in fast-talking, paranoiac mode—is not content to just destroy the mirror, but intends to capture its supernatural phenomena on film in order to clear her family’s name. Tim, however, has long bought another version of the story—that his mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and he shot his own father to protect himself—and doesn’t believe his sister’s rambling ghost stories. Is Kaylie crazy, or is he?

Flanagan’s smartest move is concealing some of the most vital information from us up front. Most of the action unfolds in the house and through an astute, disorienting editing style, reveals the film’s back story concurrently to the events playing out in the current timeline. We watch the night of the grisly murders through young Tim and Kaylie’s eyes just as things start to get weird for them as grown-ups in that big, creepy, empty house. Gillan commits to her frantic, intense role with a convincing performance which anchors the feature through its jumping time periods. Toss in a handful of disturbing images and a persistent feeling of dread at each turn, and you have a truly scary, well-crafted horror film, no matter how silly the idea of a malicious mirror might sound.

www.oculus2014.com

Author rating: 7.5/10