Oddity (film)

Oddity is a 2024 paranormal horror film written and directed by Damian Mc Carthy. The film centers on a blind medium and curio shopkeeper who is still grieving the death of her twin sister a year prior. A wooden mannequin from her cabinet of curiosities becomes crucial to her quest to uncover the truth about her sister's murder.

It premiered at South by Southwest on March 8, 2024, where it won the Audience Award in the Midnighter section of the festival.

Plot
Dani, the wife of psychiatrist Ted Timmis, is brutally murdered while renovating the couple's newly-acquired country house alone one night. Olin Boole, one of Ted's former patients, visited Dani that evening, warning her that a stranger had infiltrated the home. Olin is ultimately convicted of the crime, and is later found brutally murdered in his room in the psychiatric hospital.

One year later, Dani's twin sister, Darcy, a blind clairvoyant with psychometric powers, is visited by Ted at her oddity shop in Cork, and the two make tentative plans to visit again. Several days later, Darcy arrives unexpectedly at the country house, where Ted now resides with his new girlfriend Yana, a pharmaceutical representative. Preceding Darcy's arrival is the shipment of a large crate containing a strange life-sized wooden mannequin from Darcy's cabinet of curiosities, which she plans to use to uncover the truth behind her sister's murder.

Ted departs to his night shift at the hospital, leaving Darcy alone with Yana, who wishes to leave but is prevented from doing so when her car keys vanish. The two women engage in tense conversation before Darcy eventually dozes off on the couch. Yana is frightened when she notices the mannequin inexplicably moving positions, and drops her cell phone from an upstairs landing, destroying it. Upon examining the mannequin, Yana finds several strange objects inside holes in its head, including photographs of Dani and Darcy, locks of hair, and a vial of blood. After observing what appears to be Dani's apparition in the house, Yana panics and manages to flee after finding her car keys inside the crate the mannequin was transported in.

Ted returns to the house to find Darcy alone upstairs. Darcy reveals to Ted that she knows he was responsible for Dani's murder: She reveals that she herself killed Olin to avenge Dani, but, upon performing a psychometric reading of Olin's glass eye, she discovered he was in fact innocent. Rather, it was Ted who arranged Dani's murder, enlisting the help of Ivan, a brutish orderly at the psychiatric hospital. Olin overheard discussions between Ted and Ivan regarding the plan to kill Dani, and upon his planned release from the hospital, he arrived at the house that evening to warn Dani.

Ted refutes Darcy's claims and accuses her of being delusional, attributing it to the brain tumor that originally caused her to go blind. To prove it, he places his cell phone on the landing and tells Darcy he is going to meet with the attorney who presided over the case and have the attorney phone her to explain the evidence. Ted returns to the hospital and calls his cell phone. Darcy, unaware that Ted has removed a trap door in the floor near where he left the phone, goes to retrieve and falls to the stone floor below, seriously injuring herself. At Ted's command, Ivan visits the house to ensure Darcy's fate, only to be stalked and brutalized by the wooden mannequin, which Darcy appears to have supernaturally animated before she succumbs to her wounds.

Some time later, Ivan, having survived the attack, is committed to the psychiatric hospital by Ted. To ensure that Ivan does not confess to Dani's murder, Ted sets free a violent cannibal in the hospital, who brutally kills Ivan. Ted returns to the country house after a shift at the hospital, where he now resides alone; Yana broke off their relationship, disturbed by Ted's nonchalance over the fact that both Dani and Darcy died in his home. On the doorstep, Ted finds a small box delivered from Darcy's oddities shop. Inside is a concierge bell that Darcy had earlier shown him, which she indicated was haunted by the ghost of a bellhop who died in a local hotel. It is alleged that ringing the bell summons his vengeful ghost, and that he will kill anyone who dares to do so. Ted defiantly rings the bell, and momentarily observes his surroundings with no indication of the spirit. As Ted begins to relax, he is unaware of the bellhop's spirit standing behind him.

Cast

 * Gwilym Lee as Ted Timmis
 * Carolyn Bracken as Dani / Darcy
 * Tadhg Murphy as Olin Boole
 * Caroline Menton as Yana
 * Steve Wall
 * Jonathan French
 * Joe Rooney

Production
The film was shot in the same converted barn in West Cork, County Cork, Ireland, as Mc Carthy's first film, Caveat. Mc Carthy was developing Oddity at the same time he was working on Caveat.

Effects artist Paul McDonnell created the life-size wooden mannequin with input from Mc Carthy. Mc Carthy cites films like Child's Play and Creepshow as influences. "I'm a big fan of those old 'doll comes to life' films," he said in 2024. "But they're always small, and I thought it would be cool to have one that's your size, that would be a force to reckon with if it did come alive."

Mc Carthy, who frequently browses antique stores, acquired many of the props for the film himself.

The character Olin Boole was the subject of Mc Carthy's 2013 short film How Olin Lost His Eye, which explores the character's backstory.

Release
In February 2024, Blue Finch Films acquired the international distribution rights for the film. The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 8, 2024. It won the Audience Award in the Midnighter section of the festival. It won the Audience Award for Feature Film at the Overlook Film Festival in April 2024.

The film was released in the United States on July 19, 2024, prior to playing at the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival on August 4, 2024.