Oddity
This award-winning spine-chiller from Caveat director Damian McCarthy unleashes horror from every corner of a haunted house.
Dani is startled by a desperate knocking on the door of the country home she shares with her husband Ted, a doctor at a psychiatric hospital. It’s his ex-patient Olin, who frantically warns Dani that she’s in mortal danger. A year later, Dani’s blind and psychic twin sister Darcy intrudes on Ted and new partner Yana’s domestic bliss, seeking answers for the horrific tragedy that occurred that night. Strangely, she gifts them with a life-size wooden mannequin with a perpetually open mouth, as if screaming from a curse. What are the true intentions of this unwelcome guest, and what will become of the new lovebirds?
In an enthralling central performance, Carolyn Bracken (You Are Not My Mother) demonstrates her range by pulling double duty as both the terrorised Dani and the enigmatic Darcy. In turn, Gwilym Lee (The Great) plays the inscrutable Ted with sharply calibrated ambiguity, while McCarthy masterfully builds suspense and toys with convention to turn the ‘blind seer’ trope on its head. It all comes together in a taut, thrilling and at times menacingly humorous work of supernatural horror – one that nabbed Audience Awards at both SXSW and New Orleans’ Overlook Film Festival.
“Masterfully tense … McCarthy is a filmmaker who understands horror on a molecular level, and his ghost stories exemplify the brilliant storytelling and hair-raising terror that you find in the best of the genre.” – Daily Grindhouse
Tickets
For information about the accessible services being offered at MIFF, please visit miff.com.au/access. If you require any access service, such as wheelchair/step-free access, for any MIFF session, please call 03 8660 4888 or email boxoffice@miff.com.au to book your ticket.
You might also like ...
In cult UK comedy treasure Alice Lowe’s film, a woman’s misguided fatal attraction to the same pretty bad-boy has lasted six centuries … so far.
In this striking genre-bender from Cannes Critics’ Week, a young woman wants to rise the ranks of bull-running – but a rogue animal is on the loose.
A self-loathing, alcoholic artist realises that social justice is one thing – and widespread town carnage is quite another.