Oddity Delivers Gripping Horror from the Creator of Hokum

Hokum has just hit the big screen and is already exceeding box office expectations. If this Kubrick-inspired haunted hotel thriller featuring Adam Scott is your first encounter with director Damian McCarthy, you owe it to yourself to check out his earlier work, Oddity.

For those who prefer to dive in without any prior knowledge — the best way to experience a film — Oddity is available for streaming on various platforms.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Like Hokum, Oddity is set against the backdrop of the expansive Irish countryside. Both films explore similar themes of fear — cursed artifacts, the occult, isolation, shadowy figures living on the fringes of society. They delve into magic and the supernatural, portraying the true menace as seemingly respectable men who prey on the women around them.

Both films were produced on remarkably tight budgets. Hokum came in at just $5 million, while Oddity’s budget is less clear, with estimates as low as $750,000. The result is a gritty, dark film that cleverly utilizes its limited resources.

A significant portion of the budget clearly went into creating the wooden golem that serves as the film’s focal point. It’s genuinely unsettling. Unlike many horror movie artifacts, monsters, or ghosts that lose their impact upon closer inspection, the golem in Oddity remains haunting and terrifying, no matter how long it’s on screen.

Its intricately carved features, mouth locked in a perpetual scream, and hollow eyes are truly nightmarish. The fact that it remains motionless for most of the film only heightens the unease. You find yourself staring at it for a large part of the 98-minute runtime, anticipating it to spring to life, but it mostly just stares back, challenging you to let your guard down for even a moment.

McCarthy excels at crafting tension and atmosphere. While Oddity includes several jump scares, they never come off as cheap or excessive. The film skillfully lulls you into a false sense of security, teasing potential scares but delivering them when you least expect it. Even on rewatch, knowing exactly what’s coming, I still find myself flinching at several moments.

At its heart, this is a revenge story, but it’s filled with unexpected twists. It follows Darcy Odello, a blind psychic on a quest for vengeance against those who killed her twin sister, Dani. Darcy discovers that the man accused of the murder is innocent, and that Dani’s widower, Ted, may not be as moved on as he appears with his new girlfriend, Yana.

While the wooden horror that Darcy brings to Ted’s home and places at his dining room table is the primary source of fear, it’s not the only one. Throughout the film, Dani’s ghost makes several appearances, a cannibal indulges in a foot, and, to top it off, cell reception is non-existent.

It’s a remarkably tight film that hardly gives you a moment to catch your breath.