For most of its runtime, "Oculus" is more intriguing than scary. The first third, spent setting up the story was especially interesting and kept my attention, though there are practically no genuine scares to be found and even moments of simple unease are in short supply. Unfortunately, when this dynamic changes near the end of the film, it does not change by becoming more scary, but by becoming less interesting, ultimately leading to an ending that is (at least in its broad strokes) predictable and boring.
The film follows the efforts of a brother and sister to destroy an evil mirror that they believe is responsible for several murders, including those of their parents. The brother has just been released from a mental institution after spending years there following their childhood trauma. He is reticent to believe his sister's claims about the mirror, dismissing them as leftover childhood fantasies. This conflict between them as she seeks to convince him of the truth drives the first half of the film. It is an effective and organic way to disseminate the necessary exposition as she explains to him the history of the mirror. She is also giving this explanation to a series of cameras she has set up in an attempt to prove her theories about the mirror before destroying it, a good answer to the question "Why don't they stop talking and smash the thing already?".
These early scenes, and the rest of the film, are intercut with flashbacks showing the events from the characters' childhood, when the mirror drove their parents to murderous acts. I did not find these scenes nearly as compelling as the present day scenes, largely because we already know where they are headed, removing the suspense from the proceedings.
Once all the exposition is provided and the mirror's tricks are discovered, the film starts to become less interesting. The mirror's only major trick is that it can alter the perceptions of those nearby. It can make them see or hear things that aren't there, it can make it so they cannot see things that are there, and it can even make them do things they aren't aware of. The characters come into the situation taking every precaution they can think of, but once the mirror's power to alter perception is made known, they really have no way to counter it. The rising action that should be present in a film like this would dictate that the characters should find a way to see through the illusions, only for the mirror to come up with something even more powerful for them to overcome. Instead, the film becomes a series of scenes where the characters are repeatedly fooled into believing what the mirror wants them to. In addition to being boring because of its repetitiveness, it also removes any potential for true horror. As an audience, when we become conditioned to believe that what we're watching might not even be real, it becomes a lot harder to find it scary.
The film's ending is a letdown, not because it is a downer ending, but because it is just another in the cycle of repetitive scenes. The mirror ultimately achieves its victory by toying with the character's perceptions of reality, the same thing it has been doing all along. Downer endings can actually be very satisfying when cleverly done, but this one just made me shrug. The film started out promising, but, much like the mirror, the script only had a limited number of tricks to pull, and that number was not enough to carry a full length movie.
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