How scary does this scenario sound to you?

The film Oddity opens with a choice. A woman is home alone, and a frightening-looking man missing an eye shows up on her doorstep. That normally would be enough to send your blood pressure through the roof. However, he comes in peace. He also comes with a message that someone else is already in the house there to harm her. Would you open the door for this person? Or would you ignore the warning? That sort of scenario is what opens Oddity and also what carries the film through to the end. The unsettling ride takes hold of your anxieties and questions what is real in this life we live.

From there, the timeline of events is muddled by writer-director Damian McCarthy. The haunted house of horrors that is Oddity brings us the story of two twins, Dani and Darcy (both played by Carolyn Bracken). Dani was the woman in the scenario at the beginning of the film and she was murdered by whatever mysterious force/person that the one-eyed man was warning of. Her husband Ted (Gwilym Lee) visits Darcy’s oddities shop. Darcy is blind, but has the gift of foresight by touching an object that belonged to someone who has passed. Ted happens to have a new girlfriend, a short time after his wife has passed. That leads Darcy to show up unannounced at Ted’s house.

Here’s where the lead of the marketing for Oddity comes in. Darcy brings along a wooden mannequin, something that looks similar to a mummy, that previously belonged to her and Dani’s parents. From there, Oddity really hits its stride when night falls in the house.

Oddity flips into terrifying on a dime in the latter stages of the film. Calling back to previous scenes, especially one with a camera shutter sound, the film impressively uses the traditional jump scare. That terror continues all the way to the final shot of the film, that’ll surely stick with you far after you’re done watching.

Bracken is easily the highlight performance here with her double duty as Dani and Darcy. If you underestimate her, you’ll regret it. She adds an intriguing energy as Darcy, that’s part spooky investigator and revenge-filled calculation for the death of her twin sister.

Through it all, this is a classic ghost story that’ll keep you up at night with the lights on. The jumpscares here aren’t particularly cheap feeling. Like a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights, you can sometimes see them coming, but they still get you nonetheless. The cinematography by Colm Hogan is 100% in tune with effectively scaring the hell out of audiences. There are plenty of scary movies these days, but they don’t commit to the bit of actually scaring audiences from top to bottom. Oddity sticks the landing and fully commits to that premise.

Oddity releases in theaters on July 19th and hits Shudder later in the year.

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