Since horror films can be built wholly around discrete mechanical “scare” devices, the genre has an interesting way of producing what I dub “buffet” films, ones that utilize a notably wide set of subgenres. This can’t really happen in other genres - no one talks about a science fiction film containing “multiple different types of science fiction”, or a romance movie containing “multiple different types of romance”. Even action or comedy, which are the closest to horror in this regard, don’t inspire the same sort of discourse. Oddity is a prime example of my point, as it contains multiple types of horror, to varying but largely positive degrees of success and scariness.
Oddity is scary, above all. It’s a smorgasbord of very scary horror ideas, akin to Demian Rugna’s Terrified though less fundamentally an anthology film. It throws everything at the wall, and while a lot of it sticks, I don’t think it will stick in my mind for long as no individual horror idea is given the space to earn a lasting impression. Additionally, the disparate elements aren’t woven together for any driving reason beyond “they’re all horror tropes”. The ceiling is unfortunately low when there aren’t any themes to the story.
It’s still an enjoyably anxious time, if you enjoy anxiety. The first horror element - a brilliant home-invasion “what if?” - could stand alone as an arguably-perfect short story. From there, an overarching whodunnit narrative strings together a laundry list of horror subgenres, tropes, and ideas. I’d like to list them for my own satisfaction’s sake, but you might wanna tap out if you haven’t seen the film yet, as I did enjoy discovering how long the list stretched. Here we go:
Scary doll/statue horror
Psychic horror
Ghost story horror
Found-footage/photo analysis horror
A shop of cursed curios -horror
Home-invasion horror
Haunted house horror
Mental hospital horror
Slasher horror
A murder mystery
Twins!
Blindness!
Cannibals!
Possession!
Each of these elements are satisfyingly sound from a mechanical perspective, but goddamn what a list!
Since horror films can be built wholly around discrete mechanical “scare” devices, the genre has an interesting way of producing what I dub “buffet” films, ones that utilize a notably wide set of subgenres. This can’t really happen in other genres - no one talks about a science fiction film containing “multiple different types of science fiction”, or a romance movie containing “multiple different types of romance”. Even action or comedy, which are the closest to horror in this regard, don’t inspire the same sort of discourse. Oddity is a prime example of my point, as it contains multiple types of horror, to varying but largely positive degrees of success and scariness.
Oddity is scary, above all. It’s a smorgasbord of very scary horror ideas, akin to Demian Rugna’s Terrified though less fundamentally an anthology film. It throws everything at the wall, and while a lot of it sticks, I don’t think it will stick in my mind for long as no individual horror idea is given the space to earn a lasting impression. Additionally, the disparate elements aren’t woven together for any driving reason beyond “they’re all horror tropes”. The ceiling is unfortunately low when there aren’t any themes to the story.
It’s still an enjoyably anxious time, if you enjoy anxiety. The first horror element - a brilliant home-invasion “what if?” - could stand alone as an arguably-perfect short story. From there, an overarching whodunnit narrative strings together a laundry list of horror subgenres, tropes, and ideas. I’d like to list them for my own satisfaction’s sake, but you might wanna tap out if you haven’t seen the film yet, as I did enjoy discovering how long the list stretched. Here we go:
Scary doll/statue horror
Psychic horror
Ghost story horror
Found-footage/photo analysis horror
A shop of cursed curios -horror
Home-invasion horror
Haunted house horror
Mental hospital horror
Slasher horror
A murder mystery
Twins!
Blindness!
Cannibals!
Possession!
Each of these elements are satisfyingly sound from a mechanical perspective, but goddamn what a list!
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