Pretty Good

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Better Late Then Never

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan" is a half-hour short film from almost 10 years ago. The writer and director is Mike Flanagan and he also made a feature film based on this one here. The whole thing is basically about a man's desperate attempts to prove that an old mirror (in a very sterile environment) is haunted. It's basically a one-man show for the lead actor here and I guess he does a fine job all in all. The random rambling gets repetitive and annoying, but that's not his fault, but the script's. Still, the material is simply not good enough for 30 minutes here and I really hope Flanagan managed to step it up with the full feature. As for this film here, I was never scared and I was rarely entertained. The good thing is that the end is probably the biggest strength of the film after 25 minutes of boredom though, so that was not a big achievement exactly. All in all, a fairly forgettable film and I cannot say this got me curious at all about the director's other works. Not recommended.

How horror should be.I was fortunate enough to view this prior to The Call of Cthulhu at the Leeds Film Festival in 2006 and to be honest, Oculus was better.Goes to show that you don't need masses of blood and gore and elaborate sets to produce chilling horror.I found myself holding my breath on more than one occasion as well as looking for a non-existent cushion to hide behind!That's how good it is!The acting was brilliant and it was really well written - the story will appeal to any fan that loves a spine-chiller.Looking forward to other instalments and hoping to get this on DVD someday.

We saw this short at the DragonCon Film Festival in Atlanta. This is a great brooding short that builds. The creep factor is very high, and it's heightened by the fact that we can see what's happening, but the main character can't.I thought the beeping alarm clocks were a little too loud and therefore a little irritating, but I'm guessing that was the desired effect. This also could have been due to the sound at the venue where we saw it. It wasn't a great room for movies, acoustic-wise.The make-up was very good, and the special effects were nice and creepy. Kudos to the team that created this, and we are looking forward to more installations!

I was lucky enough to see this wonderful film at the Dead by Dawn Festival at the weekend. Oculus is a cheaply made film which is visible from the start. But that doesn't effect the impact this film has on an audience. An antique mirror with deadly powers is tracked down by a guy who's been researching into the deaths of the past people who have owned it. Setting up an experiment, consisting of several cameras, various alarms, a plant, a dog and a white sheet, he sets out to reveal the mysteries of the mirror once and for all. This short had some exceptional parts in it. *SPOILER* The mirror people bellowing out the sound of the alarm is so cool, the mirror ghost suddenly appearing when the lights flash scared the s***t out of me, and the mirror itself - for an everyday inanimate object really does strike a nerve. *END OF SPOILER* This film; considering its low budget, and its average acting is a very powerful film that produces some strange and interesting ideas. I would recommend anyone to see this short if they get the chance, and as its part 3, hopefully the i'll someday get the chance to see 1 and 2 - fingers crossed!