Oculus is a ghost story built on the fallibility of our perceptions, with two siblings seeking to shatter the malevolent haunted mirror that destroyed their family when they were children. It also scores major points for having a truly great heroine in Kaylie (Karen Gillan), who is orders of magnitude smarter and gutsier than anyone who's ever appeared in a Paranormal Activity film. This is honestly really refreshing, and I suspect it's a big part of the warm critical reception the film has received: it's hard not to be impressed with the rigorous and thoughtful way that Kaylie researches the mirror and plans to confront and destroy it, rather than just setting up some cameras and hoping for the best. As the film goes on, past and present blur into a surreal nightmare, but the story hangs together through the ending (which I really want to say something about but won't for fear of spoilers). And it's awesome seeing Katee Sackhoff, here playing a role that couldn't be more different than her stint as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica. Highly recommended.
After being date raped at a party, Samantha (a terrific Najarra Townsend) finds herself coming down with the mother of all STDs. Contracted is deceptive, though: it's a horror film that's big on metaphor, but the metaphor at work here probably isn't the one you're expecting. What really makes the film work isn't the squirmy body horror, but the way we slowly unravel the truth about Samantha's relationships; without giving anything away, there's a reason why a lot of them feel strained. Contracted is more than just Cronenberg for the hook-up era (although that would've been enough), and it even has a clever final twist that manages to tweak a pop culture cliche while also deepening the film's own themes. Not bad, right? (I also liked the fact that Samantha lives with her mom, which is a nice nod to the economic shit sandwich being fed to her generation.) It's on Netflix, so check it out.
Megan is Missing is sort of like Thirteen meets Irreversible or Martyrs, with teenagers behaving badly shading into sledgehammer shock tactics. Ironically, the best part is actually the first half, with a believably profane depiction of teenage life that carries some uncomfortable echoes of recent news items like the Steubenville rape case. Amy and Megan (Amber Perkins and Rachel Quinn) are a good girl/bad girl odd couple: proper Amy admires uninhibited Megan's confidence and independence, while Megan looks up to Amy for her basic decency and kindness. They're believable and sympathetic, which makes the film's last half hour all the more agonizing: it's a master class in cinematic cruelty, with some of the gnarliest audience abuse since Audition. Even some horror veterans may find themselves squirming (I did). But the movie also has a really subtle and wicked sense of black humor, as seen in the bit where a TV news crew solemnly interviews the airheads filming a dramatic reenactment of Megan's kidnapping. Director Michael Goi is also the director of photography for American Horror Story.
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