"Love Hurts"

Caution! Possible spoiler for Oculus (2013)

Blood oozes from her mouth,
its thickness multiplied by
  the reflection in original glass,
              antique and hazy,
somehow gentler in its reality
than the imagined shard from
                 apple-shaped bulb,

and the red stream flows through
   the cloud of condensation,
                 sister's last breath.

The final puff of life rests on the
surface, light as a lover's hand.





Generally, new horror movies are not inspiring, and Oculus (2013) was no exception. After watching the movie, my mood was somewhere between a yawn and an eyeroll. Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites were adequate but forgettable. The mother kept seeming like a Toni Colette role to me, though mindless gore is not really her modus operandi. Rory Cochrane was entertaining as the menacing father, though I have to admit that I have been a fan of his since Dazed and Confused (1993).

The film's plot was pretty derivative. I've seen the "cursed mirror" more than once -- Amityville: A New Generation (1993) anyone? The tripping balls and danger of not knowing what is real and what is not has been done countless times and to much better effect. The interweaving flashbacks got tiresome at times, and as a storytelling technique, it did not feel fresh. The mix of found-footage techniques and normal filming has also been done better (and again, I was reminded of a certain Amittyville... watching yourself eat popcorn and wait to die?). There was nothing unique about the story, characters, setting, or props, and most of the gore was ho-hum dull by now-- Pulling out your own teeth? Come on!

So why did I write a poem about a movie that is, at best, a watered down 'who cares' film? The visuals stayed with me. Oculus contained a whopping two moments that made me happy. The first was the apple-lightbulb. It was amusing and cheesy and fun. The second was the other image described in the poem (real or imagined, the shot is in there). I took creative liberties with it, of course, but the idea of the scene inspired me to some degree. The sister stalked the mirror... was obsessed with it... somehow, the "love hurts" idea amused me far more than anything in the movie itself I guess.