Oddity

After the brutal murder of a woman in a creepy old estate, the woman’s sister and widower are left to deal with the strange aftereffects of the event. This isn’t a simple whodunnit though, because the sister is a powerful medium who brings a strange artifact into the house; a mysterious crate containing an unusual wooden figure.

Coming out on streaming services only recently, I watched it on Shudder but it’s also available on other VoD sites, Oddity had a massive amount of buzz behind it and I was pretty excited to get a chance to watch it. This movie has received almost universal acclaim, and for good reason, its setting, atmosphere, and visuals are all top-notch, making an essentially two-room movie feel much grander than it actually is. The wooden figure in the shape of a man steals the show, it’s so damn creepy and I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes a cult horror icon in the coming years. I was also pretty into the performances, they’re mostly natural and clear in their dramatic purposes.

The big problem for me here is twofold, I didn’t find the characters or storyline interesting at all. The widower is the stock hyper-logical doctor who admonishes anyone for ever suggesting anything supernatural or even inexplicable, while the sister is a literal psychic who seems to have 100% accurate psychic powers and is wise and right all the time. Additionally, the story is an extremely basic murder mystery where the mystery isn’t a mystery at all. None of this is my thing. I don’t usually like murder mysteries, I don’t like movies about all-seeing mediums, and I was preparing myself to not enjoy Oddity. But there was a lot I liked about Oddity and I did enjoy the movie, so maybe that’s an even bigger recommendation than I thought, that if someone who doesn’t even like this kind of movie enjoyed it, then it must really be someone’s jam.