Welcome to the Cutting Room

2024 was such a  great year for horror. My absolute favorite movie I watched last year was director Damian Mc Carthy’s (“Caveat,” which I also strongly recommend) “Oddity.” All of my boxes are thoroughly ticked by “Oddity;” a mysterious murder, things not being as they seem, girls’ girls, cursed artifacts, and comeuppance. What more could I want? Anyway, there’s spoilers ahead so proceed at your own risk. Going in blind to this one would be my biggest tip. Go watch it now and then read this, I’ll wait.

Dani (Carolyn Bracken) and her husband Ted (Gwilym Lee) have moved to a secluded (super cool) property near the hospital where Ted works as a psychiatrist. Dani is hard at work renovating their new home and looking for signs of the paranormal per her sister’s request. Dani’s twin sister, Darcy (also Carolyn Bracken) owns an oddity shop and makes her living “reading” items for others; she’s able to see the history of the object, provided it was kept close to the owner. Both women’s interest in the metaphysical elicits skeptical scoffs from logical, scientific Ted. When Dani is alone at the property (due to Ted’s clinical hours) she hears a knock on her door. Not doing the horror trope of opening the door to a stranger, you love to see it. Dani opens the peep slot in the door and comes face to face with Olin Boole (Tadhg Murphy). Boole, one of Ted’s former patients, who rocks a suitably creepy glass eye, warns Dani and informs her that someone entered her home when she ducked out. Unsure what to do, instead of letting a strange man into her house Dani asks him to run for help and she’ll keep hunkered down until the police arrive. Solid plan. JUST KIDDING! Dani is brutally beaten to death by a mysterious figure. There are some jump scares in “Oddity” but I think they were well paced and few enough to not get annoying (I’m looking at you, every “Insidious” after the first).

Soon after Dani’s death, Olin Boole is found similarly dead after a vicious attack in the hospital. Traumatizing the poor patient who discovered Boole’s body and what was once his head (and now is chunky pudding). Yet another mysterious murder, what are the odds?

Ted pays a visit to Darcy’s oddity shop to bring her Olin Boole’s glass eye. If you look closely as the oddity shop is panned through, you can catch the creepy rabbit toy from “Caveat” in one of the glass cases, along with other vaguely familiar but definitely haunted artifacts. Darcy, who is blind, offhandedly warns Ted that everything in the shop is cursed and only she can remove the curses if he thinks about stealing. Once she realizes it’s her former brother in law, she softens. It’s been a year since Dani’s passing and Darcy is still deep in mourning (duh). Ted scoffs at her when she implies that being able to “read” Boole’s eye will give her the closure she needs for her twin’s murder. Ted does a lot of scoffing. Ted kinda sucks. Darcy and Ted talk about a possible meal together to commemorate Dani, and Ted reveals that not only is he dating again, he’s moving in his girlfriend. To the house he and Dani were supposed to share. Ugh, Ted.

Darcy, feeling a type of way, looks into Boole’s glass eye to gain closure but doesn’t find what she’s looking for. Instead, she rolls up to Chateau Ted unannounced with a gift for the anniversary of Dani’s passing. The gift? A wooden golem gifted to her mother by a witch, of course! Ted’s girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) is forced to entertain Darcy because tEd HaS tO wOrK and he’s so important. Yana is understandably freaked out by the wooden golem and just wants to go back to her apartment and not be in her boyfriend’s creepy old house with his creepy sister in law. Eventually, Yana is convinced to leave and she happily takes the opportunity.

Darcy patiently waits in the empty house for Ted to return. When he does, she accuses him of murdering Dani. After revealing that she was responsible for Olin Boole’s murder (via golem, how sick is that?), she explains how reading his glass eye led her to believe that Ted had convinced an orderly desperate for his attention to kill Dani (so he and Yana would be able to keep the house – because of course they were having an affair before Dani’s death and of course you think you’re the universe’s gift to women, punchable -faced Ted) instead of dumping her because she’d “never get over it.” Ted what the FUCK dude. Bitch-ass Ted and his little orderly buddy framed Boole for the murder, and they totally would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for Dani’s meddling clairvoyant sister!

Darcy threatens to expose Ted when she should have just… Dealt with him, and sadly loses her life in a super shitty way; Ted takes advantage of her blindness because he SUCKS. Ted’s orderly buddy goes to the house to confirm Darcy’s death, but instead gets injured by the golem. He wakes up in the hospital to find Ted at his bedside, because he’s COMMITTING HIM. Fucking TED!!! Anyway some of the patients get revenge on the sadistic orderly who made their lives hell and I love that for them. Also Yana dumped Ted, so there’s hope for her yet.

Returning from a hard day of being a total bastard, Ted has received something in the mail! From… Darcy. Who’s totally dead. He opens the package to find a haunted call bell Darcy had introduced him to when he visited her shop. Totally Logical Man of Science Ted briefly debates on ringing the bell, said to summon the spirit of a fiendish killer bellhop, but since he doesn’t believe in curses and such, this idiot rings the bell. And nothing happens! Ted smugly looks forward to living the rest of his life as a total piece of shit who will never face consequences. Until the bellhop arrives.

“Oddity” is such a great cozy horror. The atmosphere is spot on, and it’s overall a gorgeously made movie. Also THAT ENDING. FUUUCK. Delightful. I’m looking forward to whatever Damian Mc Carthy’s next film will be! “Oddity” is an easy 5/5 for me.

As always, I recommend checking https://www.doesthedogdie.com/ for any triggers or things you don’t want to see before starting *any* horror movie.

All views expressed are my own, you don’t have to agree with them! I’m open to respectful discourse.

Feel free to leave any movie recommendations or anything you’d like to read a review of!