Sartaj Singh
In the directorial hands of Damian McCarthy, ‘Oddity’ is a genre-bending horror film that centers on a blind medium, Darcy, who seeks to uncover the truth behind her sister’s death. Darcy is a collector of curios and dabbles into the occult, bringing along a frightening wooden mannequin to help catch the real culprit behind her twin sister’s death. She also recruits Ted Timmis, her former brother-in-law, and his current partner, Yana, taking them to the remote countryside locale where the grizzly killing took place. With its blend of psychological horror, ethereal phenomenon, and bizarre characters, the film raises questions regarding the inspirations that led to its creation.
Oddity is an Amalgamation of Horror Ideas
There was an array of ideas behind ‘Oddity’ that writer-director Damian McCarthy wanted to bring to life, much like the wooden mannequin. During his childhood, in the early 80s and 90s, McCarthy would come home from school to his parents’ VHS shop. The thick tapes would come with official artwork, which he would collect and put up as posters on his wall. He found himself being drawn towards the horror genre in particular and would read the blurb on the back of all the tapes, even for movies like ‘The Exorcist’ that he wasn’t allowed to watch.
“Yeah, I think it’s just taking a lifelong love of horror films and then all the subgenres in that horror film,” explained McCarthy when asked about how he formed the story. “Your slasher and your ghost story and your psychological thriller and just trying to mix it all together and see if you can get away with it. And luckily it did work because you never know. But I will say it was definitely written with love because I do love all those subgenres… It’s only now that it’s all finished and people have seen it that you start to see it (all come together). It’s even a little bit of a monster movie at the end.”
The core idea of the movie was Darcy being the narrative center as a blind psychic who becomes the subject of morbid fascination with her dangerous and haunted items. She drives the narrative forward with her pursuit of supernatural revenge. As the other characters fell into place around her, the filmmaker began inserting all his fascinating ideas into the story, making for a genre-bending feature that scratched his creative itch.
The Mannequin and Self-Aware Storytelling
Another central idea connected to Darcy was the wooden mannequin. When talking about inducting these elements into his plot, McCarthy said in an interview, “I just found a way to weave these ideas throughout one story, build them around these characters, build them around this idea of this wooden mannequin coming to life through witchcraft, and that’s it. Yeah, that’s the real start of it.” The mannequin is an idea that the filmmaker built on from the same concept he had in his debut film, ‘Caveat.’ The film featured a strange bunny, which led to a truly unsettling jumpscare.
The mannequin’s mouth was left gaping wide in a silent scream that would later factor into an actual scream. It was not intended to be hidden but became more of an unsettling presence that kept the tension high, with the audience apprehensively glancing toward it, expecting movement. “That was always the idea that he’s just there, and it might even become comedic because he’s just sitting there, and you’d almost wonder whether he is going to lose any kind of a threat because we’re so used to looking at him, by the time he finally does something,” said McCarthy in an interview.
“There were little things that we shot; that classic trope of his head moving left and right, and he’s looking at different things. We teased it a little bit, but no, in the end, once we really started locking the edit, it was actually funnier and just a little creepier if he just does nothing.” This line of thinking towards his work makes McCarthy self-aware enough to realize that if the film takes itself too seriously, it leans towards becoming unintentionally funny as a result. He deliberately creates some subtly humorous moments to keep the dialogue fresh and provide moments of relief from the tension.
‘Oddity’ is a testament to Damian McCarthy’s deep-rooted passion for the horror genre and his innovative approach to storytelling. By intertwining the haunting presence of the wooden mannequin with Darcy’s relentless quest for truth, McCarthy crafts a film that is as unnerving as it is captivating. The filmmaker’s experience with his debut film did contribute to some of the horror elements felt in ‘Oddity.’ His ability to blend horror subgenres while infusing subtle humor ensures that the tension remains palpable without veering into parody.
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