Old-fashioned ghost story a nerve jangler

Brenton Thwaites, Karen Gillan, Katee Sackhoff

Mike Flanagan such horror-movie tropes as the spooked dog, the staticky television set or camcorder surveillance (thank you, Paranormal Activity). Yet it’s what Flanagan does with these well-worn tools here that counts. The film-maker may not break new ground, but he marshals each of these tools – and more – with the skill of a pro, laying down a fresh path through familiar territory and deftly skirting cliche.

Brenton Thwaites and Karen Gillan play 20-something siblings Tim and Kaylie, both of whom, as we see in flashbacks, were almost killed 10 years ago when their parents (Katee Sackhoff and Rory Coch-rane) went bonkers after purchasing the mirror. In the intervening decade, Tim has been locked up in a mental facility for the killing of his father, while Kaylie has put her time to good use in tracking down the home accessory, which she blames for what happened.

Set just after Tim’s release from the hospital, the movie is structured around Kaylie’s elaborate plan to exonerate Tim by proving that the events of 10 years earlier were the results of the mirror’s manipulative mind games. To this end, she has set up video cameras and other hightech equipment in their old house to document the activities of the mirror, out of which she hopes to lure whoever – or whatever – is possessing it.

What Flanagan gets exactly right about this far-fetched scenario is that he never shows us the “you” Kaylie’s talking to.

Kaylie and Tim’s old house also is haunted by those scariest of demons: memories.

Juvenile actors Garrett Ryan and Annalise Basso play the sibling protagonists as children, popping up in the old house like they still live there – which, in a figurative sense, they do. The younger actors appear both in flashback sequences and in scenes in which their characters seem to be interacting with their adult selves.

That’s the most satisfying aspect of Oculus – the way in which Flanagan plays on the power of imagination. Shunning traditional flashback techniques, he tells the story in a twisty, perceptiondistorting way that messes with the audience’s heads as much as it does with Tim’s and Kaylie’s.

In that sense, using a mirror as the central metaphor for our darkest fears is brilliant. When Kaylie and Tim look into the glass, of course, they see nothing but their own reflections. – Washington Post