A good movie is 10% premise and 90% delivery. 2024's Oddity has a very simple premise; a blind psychic tries to investigate her sister's murder. The delivery, though, is for the most part exceptional. This movie has some of the best suspense sequences and jump scares I've seen in years.
The two sisters, twins called Dani and Darcy, are both played by Carolyn Bracken. The film begins with one of its strongest scenes; on a dark night, Dani is alone in the new country house she lives in with her husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee). She goes to get something from her car and when she gets back inside the house, she hears someone outside the door. It's a nervous man with a glass eye (Tadhg Murphy) who tells her someone is in the house with her. Now Dani has to decide; does she let the scary man in to help her, or is he the one who wants to kill her? Director Damian McCarthy milks the scene for all the tension he can and then builds on it throughout the movie.
A year later, Darcy investigates her sister's death. She shows up abruptly at the house where Ted now lives with his new wife, Yana (Caroline Menton). The movie could almost be a stage play, it's set almost entirely at that house. There is one nice scene in Darcy's curiosity shop. Her ability allows her to hold objects and see things about their former owners. There are a lot of nice conversation scenes that reminded me of old British suspense and horror films like The Uninvited (the one with Ray Milland) and Hitchcock's Suspicion, but with the addition of great jump scares that might give some of the most calloused viewers a heart attack. The ending of the movie is a little weak but not abrasive. The first two acts are tough to follow so I forgive it.
Oddity was filmed entirely in County Cork, Ireland, the home of its director and many of its stars. It's a Shudder original movie so I assume it's on Shudder.
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