The scenes of this movie are very important and play an important role in the overall plot of the story. Each individual segment displays suspense and makes the viewer anticipate the upcoming scenes to come. The overall plot is described thoroughly throughout the movie and without close attention the movie may seem confusing. When the mirror is re-discovered can be seen as the most important scene in the film. Everything following this scene will later lead to the climax and falling action(s) of the evil mirror. This selection of work would be easy for me describe, due to the movie being very interesting and action packed. Each segment is suspenseful and truly fun to watch.
Special effects are also evident in this film. This film revolves around the illusion of something being there but it actually isn’t. The characters of this story has flashbacks during encounters of the mirror. Special effects are used to show the flashback while the character just stares in the mirror. The film is exposed multiple times, allowing these flashbacks to just appear and disappear with a close of the camera lenses. The mirror then posses their mother without the crowd actually seeing it. One scene shes normal than with the flip of a switch darkness comes, then she re appears as a demon, displaying obvious special effects .
A way to analyze the segments of this film, you’d have to break the film into smaller more explainable chunks. The movie can be looked as broken into 3 chunks. Life prior, during, and after the encounter of this evil mirror. Some chunks are spoken in past tense but during present time, something similar to a flashback. These chunks are unified by action due to the mirror and all characters being present in each segment. Some segments are in fact out of order. During some scenes the producer would have the character experience a in dept flash back, allowing the viewer to build a logical bridge between the two actions. The producer also kept the actual meaning of the mirror away from the viewers to create a more dramatical suspense feeling. If the meaning was revealed earlier than the movie wouldnt be as interesting. The mirror can be seen as metaphoric towards the genre of horror. Whenever the mirror is seen, it can be labeled as a symbol of horror. As in film, the only actual scary parts described , only occur when the mirror is present in the film. This metaphoric comparison ultimately prepares crowd for a jump when this mirror is visible .
In my opinion this film wouldn’t be considered a great film due to it not having a signifigant impact on the overall genre of horror. The cinematography of this film is elite and usage of each individual segment plays a role in the huge success this movie had. Oculus is a tightly enacted chamber drama that just happens to include supernatural phenomena. By analyzing films critically, it allows viewers to get a better and well rounded understanding of the film prior to watching it. This way of analyzing films also allows the viewer to grasp a more enhanced ,thought out ,analytical conclusion.
Once my ideas where posted , I was told to not see the movie as horror but to us the mirror as a metaphor for horror. The movie doesn’t start off scary, and in fact doesn’t get horror like until the mirror is re discovered . My classmate is maybe stressing that only when the mirror is apparent, there is horror evident. With this in consideration I was able to revise and add more needed information to validate the point my classmate made. My comments also showed the benefits of using the method of chopping segments. I was able to give one of my classmates an example of using this method. It was easier to do this, becasuse it allows you to chunk up inforamtion and give it all at once, without confusing the viewer. This method better shaped my essay and hopefully our group essay!
sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_(film)
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/oculus-2014
Hi Charles:
Nice post! You have added some interesting points to the analysis of the film Oculus. When you mentioned the three smaller chucks of Oculus, I felt the storyline became easier to understand and enter with the metaphoric mirror at the center of the story.