31 Days of Halloween: Caveat

2020, Damian McCarthy (Oddity) -- Shudder

We have fallen behind more than a bit. A work conference plus nightly "teammate socializing" followed by Con Flu (nasty head cold) has interrupted the flow of watching. Hopefully we can do better in the last week of the month.

Yes, we watched Oddity just a little while ago, and saw his previous feature available, and were curious. Its an odd duck of a movie that fills one of the niches for horror movie binging, in seeing what an indie film director can do with limited budget and an idea.

Isaac (Johnny French, Oddity) is hired by an acquaintance to babysit his niece at a remote location. The man explains that the girl's mother went missing and her father, his brother, has recently died. He needs someone to watch her as she has schizophrenia. When they arrive the location turns out to be an island only reachable by a ramshackle rowboat. Isaac tries to refuse but the man, Moe (Ben Caplan, Call the Midwife), tells him he doesn't have much choice as he needs the money. But that's not all. There is a caveat. 

The niece Olga (Leila Sykes, Lancaster Skies) goes catatonic when approached by strangers, or anyone goes into her room. So, Moe has a vest attached to a chain that allows one to traverse the house but stops at her door. The vest is padlocked and only she has the key. Isaac just has to stay with her until Moe arranges a place for her to stay off island. Shouldn't be long.

But that's not all. The unspoken, plainly ignored bit, is that the house is essentially some abandoned hovel the film producers found in the woods. It has holes in the walls, no heat, barely any power or water. Isaac is expected to stay here without any real food (there is a nod to a can of Spam he finds) or anything to stay warm. That anyone actually lived here is astounding and I cannot believe its an aspect of Irish rural living I am not aware of. Something is up.

Also, there is plainly a ghost wandering around. Olga herself, in a preamble, wanders around with a weird raggedy rabbit-playing-a-drum doll (you know, like those creepy fuck monkeys) which she holds out before like a dousing rod, discovering.... ghost activity. Ghost around, rabbit taps. Also, Isaac has an unnerving painting in his room which he tries to turn to face the wall, but it won't have it.

Also, Isaac seems to have memory loss. Olga, when lucid, tells him he was here before. And that is assumed true because his own brother's jacket, is found in the house. 

All this, whether jumbled together because of sloppy indie film making, or because of an unnerving agenda on behalf of the film maker strangely... works? The surreal setup is as much the horror as the jump scares they add in to remind us of the supernatural. You see, there is a conspiracy at works, involving Moe, his brother, them getting rid of his brother's wife, and Olga being held captive by them all. Why? Who knows, doesn't matter. But despite the convoluted plot (Moe's plot, not movie's) there is a leering ghost afoot and Isaac is just an unwitting pawn in all of this.

It was an effective movie, creepy as all hell, sometimes unintentionally funny ("OK, ghost lady, now I know you are just fucking with me !!!" -- I said that, not the character, but he should have) but always keeping you off-kilter.