Vague Visages’ Oddity review contains minor spoilers. Damian Mc Carthy’s 2024 Shudder movie features Carolyn Bracken, Johnny French and Steve Wall. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews.

Damian Mc Carthy’s stunning debut feature, Caveat (2020), established the Irish filmmaker as a master of tone and atmosphere. Although the director’s 2024 follow-up, Oddity, is slightly more accessible, he is still in full-on weirdo mode, as Mc Carthy has clearly honed his skills since releasing his criminally underseen 2020 movie. Even better, he features a creepy toy again in Oddity, only this time it’s a massive wooden man who sits ominously in a corner. Even if Mc Carthy’s truly terrifying creation never moved an inch, it would be a memorable addition to his oeuvre. But if the Oddity figure is indeed going to be the writer-director’s calling card, the next model might genuinely scare us all to death. 

In a classic and almost cliché setup, Oddity opens with a young woman alone in a creepy old house in the middle of nowhere. Stunning shots establish the isolated location, with winding country roads evoking The Shining (1980), even though the setting, instead of a dilapidated hotel, is a bizarrely designed modern house that’s rectangular in shape and shifts everything over to one side of the frame as a result. Here, Dani (Carolyn Bracken), prepares to move in while her husband, a psychiatrist named Ted (Gwilym Lee), works nights. Being alone in the place is creepy enough as it is, but Dani is understandably thrown when a strange man appears at the door and urges her to flee, claiming that he saw someone sneaking inside when she wasn’t looking.

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The stranger, Olin Boole, twitchily portrayed by Tadhg Murphy, is barely glimpsed through a crack in the door — the first of several instances of squares being used throughout the movie. Whereas Caveat predominantly utilizes circles, Oddity favors boxier shots to emphasize that the walls are slowly closing in on Mc Carthy’s characters. Dani is freaked out, she doesn’t trust this man and visibly frets about whether to let him in. The action then skips ahead to the one-year anniversary of Dani’s murder, with Tim appearing at the door of a charming local oddities shop — where the bunny from Caveat makes a delightfully deranged cameo –owned by Dani’s twin sister, Darcy (also Bracken). The woman is distraught to learn that not only is Tim still living in the house where her sister was butchered, but he’s moved in a new girlfriend. So, Darcy decides to send the happy couple a gift (the aforementioned wooden man) and then shows up unannounced to ensure that it’s delivered properly. 

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Much like Mc Carthy’s first film, Oddity subverts expectations right away by brutally killing off Dani, who is ostensibly the protagonist. Bracken is on double duty as the vastly different twins, who, aside from their opposing hair colors and styles, are also differentiated by the fact that Darcy is blind and a psychic of sorts. Her abilities are openly questioned by the snide, skeptical Tim and his new lady Yana (Caroline Menton, making a major impression in her feature debut), who proves to be an endlessly sarcastic foil for the no-nonsense Darcy. But she’s also far from an idiot, reacting in a refreshingly rational manner when things start to get spooky. Oddity is loaded with nightmare-inducing imagery and the tension is often unbearable, but it’s also darkly funny at times. Tons of jokes are made at Darcy’s expense, including by her, with the shopkeeper quipping that thieves should beware of swiping anything from her store since “curses are lifted at the time of purchase.” 

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Bracken delivers a fierce performance as the estranged sisters in Oddity, creating enough distance between the siblings that each woman feels like a fully fleshed-out, three-dimensional character. Lee’s casting, on the other hand, will have Irish viewers questioning his motivations from the outset, despite how the actor delicately balances Tim’s oily personality with his willingness to accommodate Darcy even when she’s pushing her luck. It’s tough to get a read on him, which only adds to the discomfort of being stuck in a strange house with people who would rather be anywhere else. Oddity sticks to two main locations, the home itself and the dilapidated mental hospital where Tim works, both of which are terrific finds that feel strangely out of time (fortunately, not in the style of The Banshees of Inisherin [2022]). Tim’s job is populated by horrific characters, from a man who chews his own face to a clingy orderly who revels in torturing people who are already struggling. As with Caveat, darkness permeates everything in Oddity, but, in this hospital, hope is completely out of reach, which begs the question: why is Ted so drawn to this awful place? 

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Mc Carthy’s tight focus and utter confidence in the material ensures that not a second of screen time is wasted. Oddity’s exquisitely muted visuals make great use of blue and grey tones, creating yet another fascinating contrast with the filmmaker’s debut. There’s a lovely, lambent quality to Colm Hogan’s richly textured cinematography, which forces the eye into every dark corner. One especially disconcerting sequence utilizes the beam of a flashlight to skin-crawling effect, while a camera’s methodical flash also conceals untold frights. The resonant sound design, meanwhile, ensures that every tiny noise barely audible in the shadows fully registers. From its opening moments, Oddity holds viewers tightly in its grip and refuses to let go, the tension constricting as the bizarre situation escalates. Even when one knows what’s coming during repeat viewings, Mc Carthy manages to consistently startle and shock. Thus, with the greatest respect to the deviously chilling Longlegs, Oddity is the scariest movie of the year. 

Oddity releases September 27, 2024 on Shudder.

Joey Keogh (@JoeyLDG) is a writer from Dublin, Ireland with an unhealthy appetite for horror movies and Judge Judy. In stark contrast with every other Irish person ever, she’s straight edge. Hello to Jason Isaacs.

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