Aahana Swrup
‘Oddity,’ a horror film laced with uncanny supernatural elements, tells the story of a psychic’s unconventional investigation into her sister’s mysterious murder. A year after Dani’s death, her twin sister, Darcy Odello, still mourns the insurmountable loss. However, her grief is also fueled by a fierce drive for revenge and a lingering feeling that the real catalyst behind Dani’s death is still out there. Consequently, Darcy—a born psychic —visits her brother-in-law’, Ted’s house to discover the truth. In her investigation, several intriguing elements—her own haunting Wooden Man, Ted’s psychiatrist patients, and objects cursed with their pasts—somehow come together and form the bigger picture. Thus, as the secrets of the past unravel, so do the mysteries within the crime scene. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Oddity Plot Synopsis
One night, as Dani Timmins newly moves into her unfurnished house—all set to sleep in a tent inside her living room—she receives a strange visitor at her front door. The man, Olin Boole, a newly discharged patient of Dani’s husband, Psychiatrist Ted Timmins, claims to have seen a stranger enter the house while the woman’s back was turned. Since her husband is working late that night, leaving Dani alone in the house, she’s skeptical to take the stranger for his word. Nonetheless, he insists he means no harm to her and only wants her to open the door to save herself from the intruder. The night ends with Dani’s brutal death and Olin’s conviction for murder.
A year later, Olin—who was readmitted to the psychiatric hospital that Ted worked at, dies after being mauled to death in a freaky invasion. From his corpse, Ted salvages his one fake eye, later bringing it to his late wife’s twin sister, Darcy Odello. Darcy is a blind antique shop owner who claims to possess various cursed, haunted, or otherwise otherworldly objects. Even though Ted is a patent disbeliever in the supernatural, he humors the woman, allowing her to have the eye so she can do a psychic reading on it. Days later, on the anniversary of Dani’s death, the psychic shows up at Ted’s house in the morning under the pretense of non-existent mutually agreed plans.
Darcy also sends a large shipment box prior to her visit, inviting Ted’s new girlfriend, Yana’s intrigue. Yana, Ted’s co-worker-turned-girlfriend, is already unsettled about staying at the same house—if a better-furnished version—where Dani was killed. Therefore, she is unwilling to stay alone while Ted tends to his late-night shifts, so she plans to return to the city. For the same reason, Ted—also leaving for work—offers to drive Darcy home. Yet, the latter chooses to stay at his house alone since she’s already here. However, after Ted leaves, Yana realizes she can’t find her car keys anywhere.
Furthermore, Darcy seems to have unpacked the trunk’s contents, setting a large man carved out of wood on the dinner table. Nonetheless, despite the eerie scene, Yana is forced to remain at the house well into the evening. Eventually, as the two women get to talking, Yana realizes Darcy is a little too suspicious of the timeline of her and Ted’s relationship. Moreover, the psychic remains transparent about her abilities as the two discuss the dreadful night of Dani’s death. Thus, she divulges that she has learned a lot about Olin through his prosthetic eye since the object was so close to the man, gathering many memories.
The only reason Olin was in the psychiatric hospital in the first place was because he had killed his mother. Nevertheless, his actions were driven by a defensive reaction since his mother—who was responsible for the loss of his one eye—was attempting to blind him further. As such, Ted wasn’t hasty in discharging Olin, and the latter wasn’t trying to kill Dani. Moreover, he couldn’t have ever harmed Dani since the woman never opened the door for him. Instead, he had left the remote house to call someone for help. In the meantime, Dani returned to her tent and looked through the self-timer camera she set up in the living room to discover that a stranger had indeed entered her house. Nonetheless, before she could escape, the intruder caught her—and killed her with a hammer.
Oddity Ending: Who was Behind Dani’s Death?
Once Darcy reveals that Olin wasn’t responsible for Dani’s murder, it becomes evident that the woman already had the answer to the central mystery before entering Ted’s house. In fact, she even shares the exact name of the killer with Yana, cementing that she’s sure of the truth that her psychic abilities have shown her. The interaction—paired with the seemingly mobile wooden man—leaves Yana pretty spooked. Eventually, after she starts seeing apparitions of Dani’s ghosts, the woman manages to find her car keys inside Darcy’s trunk and bolts out of the house.
Soon after, Ted returns home, leading to a confrontation between him and Darcy. As it would turn out, the psychic’s reasons behind visiting Ted’s place were driven more by revenge than curiosity. In Olin’s memories, she discovered that Dani’s husband was behind her murder all along. A year ago, Ted fell in love with Yana while he was still with Dani. However, he believed that his wife loved him so much that she could never get over his betrayal. Furthermore, if the two were to divorce each other, Dani would end up getting their newly bought house—something he decidedly did not want.
For the same reason—drunk on his own narcissism and greed—instead of simply exposing his affair and leaving Dani, Ted decided to take a more violent approach. One of the orderlies at the psychiatric hospital, Ivan, was a former patient whom the doctor had befriended. Thus, Ted employs Ivan to attack Dani while he is at work. This way, his infidelity can remain a secret, he can keep the house, and he won’t have to break his wife’s heart—a fate he deems apparently worse than death. Therefore, even though Ivan had delivered the final blow that killed Dani, Ted had always been behind her death.
Does Ivan Confess? What Happens to Him?
After Darcy reveals that she knows all about Ted’s involvement in Dani’s death—since it was preserved in Oli’s memories from when he overheard the conversation at the hospital—she also tells the psychiatrist that she plans on revealing this truth to everyone. Although she had initially wanted to kill the man responsible for her sister’s death, she has now decided that a tarnished reputation would be the worst punishment for him. Nevertheless, Ted insists that her claims are false and that she has lost her mind. To prove his innocence, he leaves to talk with the detective who worked on Dani’s case to explain all the evidence to her.
However, before leaving, Ted sets one last trap. Darcy doesn’t have any tangible evidence against him since Olin, the only witness, is dead—a murder that the psychic is secretly responsible for. Even so, now that she knows the truth, it can spell trouble for the man. Therefore, before leaving, Ted unlatches the trap door on the hallway floor, soundlessly creating a perfect one-story drop right in Darcy’s pathway. Afterward, he sends Ivan to check on her and presumably kill her if the trap has failed.
Nonetheless, by the time Ivan arrives, Darcy is already nearing death after falling through the trap door and to her own death. Yet, as she takes her last breath, she performs one last spell. As a result, the wooden man who has been keeping guard over the dining table all this time comes to life and chases after Ivan. The wooden man is actually a magical guardian designed to protect Darcy and Dani upon activation. Consequently, as the psychic is dying, the Wooden Man attacks Ivan with the intent to kill.
Still, as Darcy’s spirit moves on from the mortal plane, the Wooden Man’s spell also dies, leaving Ivan passed out rather than dead. However, in a turn of events, Ivan’s interaction with the magical being seems to have brought him a moral reckoning of sorts. For the same reason, after he wakes in the psychiatry hospital—newly treated for his injuries—he tells Ted that he wants to repent for his sins by confessing to Dani’s death. Naturally, the psychiatrist can’t allow the same to happen.
If Ivan confesses, he will take Ted down with him one way or another. Even if he doesn’t reveal the latter’s hand in the murder, people would question the doctor’s judgment for allowing Ivan to be discharged in the first place. As such, Ted has him readmitted to the psychiatric hospital, where he sets the resident Cannibal loose on him. In the end, Ivan dies, taking the truth of Dani’s death with him, and Ted gets to pass off the incident as an unfortunate accident—a common occurrence in a workplace like his.
Why Did Darcy Send Ted the Bell? Does He Die?
In the end, Ted seems to have gotten away with his perfect crime, infuriatingly free of consequences. Even though Yana leaves him for the shadiness surrounding his life, the end of a relationship hardly seems like enough comeuppance for his actions. Yet, even in death, Darcy has one last trick up her sleeve. Days after her death, a parcel arrives at Ted’s house from her shop, Odello’s Oddities. The package has a vintage call bell that Ted previously saw at the woman’s antique store. Darcy had told him that the bell was haunted by the spirit of a bellboy who had died while helping a guest with their luggage.
Ever since the bellboy’s death, anyone who rings the call bell invites the vengeful spirit attached to it into their lives. Thus, eventually, the bellboy ends up killing any ringer. When Darcy had told Ted the story, he mockingly brushed it off, firm in his scientific beliefs and cynical of anything else. For the same reason, before her death, Darcy had sent the call bell to Ted as a backup plan in case she failed to kill him.
Darcy knew Ted was narcissistic and cocky enough to scoff at the call bell again. Moreover, she knew that he wouldn’t be able to let things be without proving to himself that he had indeed been right about the bell. In fact, after Darcy revealed that she figured out his reality through psychic visions, Ted would be even more eager to reaffirm his beliefs by proving that the bell wasn’t haunted. To him, not ringing the bell would prove that he had doubts about his own beliefs, which would concede an argument in Darcy’s favor.
Naturally, Ted couldn’t let the same happen. Consequently, he rings the bell. Afterward, he cautiously looks around the room—unwittingly proving his own insecurity in his lack of faith. Even though he doesn’t think a bellboy would haunt him for ringing the bell, he can’t help but be scared. Therefore, after nothing happens in the next few minutes, he relaxes, smug in the fact that he has been right. However, unbeknownst to him, the dead bellboy’s rotting spirit is actually right behind him, waiting for the ideal opportunity to reveal itself and kill Ted. As such, Darcy manages to get her revenge from beyond the grave by making Dani’s killer the harbinger of his own demise.
