Oddity, Strange Darling and Blink Twice

ODDITY – Writer/director Damian McCarthy’s film is a more straightforward entertainment than his previous movie, Caveat, but they both share his own distinctive, off-kilter style.

One night, while alone in the country house she and her husband Ted are renovating, Dani is murdered. One of Ted’s psychiatric patients is blamed for it and is later brutally killed himself. A year later, Dani’s twin sister, blind Darcy, shows up at Ted’s house for an unexpected visit with an odd gift – a creepy life-size wooden doll. Neither Ted nor his new girlfriend, Yana, are happy to see Darcy, and yet they allow her to stay for the night, a decision they’ll come to regret.

Oddity displays a director in full command of his gifts. Its look is elegantly spooky (credit Colm Hogan’s crisp cinematography), and the cast is uniformly terrific (with an especially impressive turn by Carolyn Bracken as the twin sisters). McCarthy’s skill at generating suspense is demonstrated throughout, particularly in a scene in which one character may be walking into a trap. The film also features the most effective jump scare I’ve seen all year.

The opening set piece is excellent (almost a short film by itself) and brilliantly sets the mood and sense of menace for the rest of the story. McCarthy’s script is smart and hearkens back to an older era of horror, evoking M. R. James with the “oddities” in Darcy’s antique shop and the wooden mannequin with the frightening face. This movie is a great example of how to do a presumably low-budget story right, using a small cast and a couple of locations to create a perfectly claustrophobic little world.

There’s surprisingly little on-screen violence here, which will be a relief for some and a loss for other viewers. My only cavil with the film is that the very last shot didn’t quite work for me. Other reviewers found it appropriate, but I felt it lacked a certain urgency and felt more humorous than satisfying. That aside, Oddity is very much worth seeing and announces a new talent in the horror world that is very welcome.

Oddity is streaming and available for VOD.

STRANGE DARLING – JT Mollner’s psychological thriller is an expertly crafted film, bolstered by two terrific lead performances and a cleverly structured script.

Strange Darling, not unlike Longlegs, tells its story in chapters. However, it presents these chapters in nonlinear order so as to deliver plot points in a very deliberate way. Because of that, the synopsis I’ll give here has to be vague so as not to spoil anything, but if you want to see this film completely spoiler-free, you might want to skip the next paragraph.

As the story begins, The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) is driving down a rural road, clearly fleeing from someone. That someone is The Demon (Kyle Gallner), who fires upon her car, causing her to crash. She runs into the surrounding woods to escape and discovers a house. The old couple living there reluctantly offers to help her, not knowing her circumstances. Later, in a flashback, the Lady and the Demon are sitting in a car in a motel parking lot, discussing a possible one-night stand. She says she likes BDSM roleplay and the two settle on a safe word – “Snuffleupagus.”

Fitzgerald, recently so good in Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, continues to impress. As written, The Lady is a strong role to begin with, but Fitzgerald runs with it in a bravura display of her acting talents. She owns the screen and this movie with her portrayal, and it will no doubt get her plenty of notice and work, which is a very good thing. Gallner is also quite strong as The Demon, bringing the obvious threatening possibilities of the character to vivid life, but he also excels at the various emotional shadings of the role. He’s not a stock villain – he’s smart and surprisingly sympathetic.

As a director, Mollner gets terrific performances from his cast and succeeds at giving his film a particular arthouse indie look, abetted by Giovanni Ribisi’s expert cinematography. It’s Mollner’s script that really stands out, however, especially its vital use of structure. The script deliberately teases the audience with bits of information, dishing out red herrings and leading them down blind alleys as they try to piece together the story. The conceit works very well in this instance.

I enjoyed this movie very much and would recommend it, but I will say that veteran horror fans may not find the plot reveals of the story quite as shocking as they’re presumably meant to be.

Strange Darling is currently playing only in theaters.

BLINK TWICE – Zöe Kravitz knocks it out of the park in her directorial debut with this assured black comedy/thriller.

Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her friend Jess are working as catering servers at a high-profile event for tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), but, wanting to meet King, they change their clothing and pretend to be guests. This strategy works, and Frida meets King, who invites the two of them to his private island for a holiday. Frida and the other guests on the island have to give up their phones when they get there, but thereafter they’re given the luxury treatment (food, alcohol, designer drugs). Everything seems great to Frida, but Jess begins to notice certain things don’t seem quite right. Then Jess goes missing, and none of the other guest remember that she had been there at all. Frida realizes that the entire situation is too good to be true but isn’t sure how she can escape it.

Ackie is very good as the not entirely innocent Frida – she snuck into the private event under false pretenses and scolds Jess to “not ruin this for me” when presented with Jess’s valid concerns about the island – and Alia Shawkat is endearing as her partner-in-crime Jess. Adria Arjona scores as Sarah, one of the other guests on the island, in a powerful performance that demonstrates her star quality. Tatum is excellent playing against type here, especially in a speech King gives about the worthlessness of public apologies from famous people.

Kravitz’s direction is so confident that one would never know that Blink Twice is the first movie she’s helmed. The first half of the film seems like a standard Hollywood romantic comedy/drama, which then segues into a disturbing thriller without missing a beat. The large ensemble cast (featuring such pros as Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan and Christian Slater) is utilized well to bolster the story and not just to add more celebs to the project. Kravitz adds clever stylish touches throughout, since as the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it title, which shows up for a couple of seconds.

Blink Twice is the first theatrical film I’ve seen that includes a trigger warning before it starts. I’m not sure if this is a welcome development (haven’t films included “triggering” themes since the beginning of cinema?), but I imagine this inclusion is because of the story’s sudden shift in tone and subject matter in its second half. And it does get serious. Without spoiling the plot (which the trigger warning specifically does), it is conceivable that someone who saw the trailer might not realize quite how heavy things are going to get and might feel that they’d been misled. I don’t feel that way, but I can accept that others might feel differently.

Blink Twice is an impressive achievement from Kravitz, a comedy/thriller that’s not afraid to tackle difficult subject matter. I look forward to her next film.

Blink Twice is currently playing only in theaters.