Oculus #movie #prescreening

I got passes to see the upcoming horror movie, Oculus. I like scary movies but not the over the top, fake blood, crazy stuff, type of horror. I am more interested in could possibly happen in real life type horror. I was a bit on edge about going to see the movie this evening. Everyone I knew that had heard about it and people all over Facebook and Twitter were talking about how they were waiting for it to come out and how they couldn't wait to see it....and I had passes. So I went. The screening was for 7:30 pm and we left about 2 1/2 hours early to avoid traffic at 5o'clock, since it was in Tampa and I am in St Pete. I have to say I was surprised at the line. It was 3 lines deep when we got there and the people that were in the front of the line were comfortably sitting in their foldable chairs. We have been to movie screenings before and have not had to deal with a line of anykind so I wasn't even sure we were going to get in. 
Onto the movie.....
It started out fairly normal, well normal for a Tim (Brenton Thwaites), who was just a kid when he was taken off to a mental facility. On his 21st birthday he is released from the facility and is reunited with his sister, Kaylie (Karen Gillan) who has been through the foster system. It then takes you back 11 years when their family moves into a new home. During the move the father (Rory Cochrane), purchases some new possessions, the most important is the Lasser Glass mirror.  This mirror happens to be an antique piece that has made its way through many many generations and has a nice long history to it. Kaylie, in an effort to help her brother and clear her family name has spent her years researching the mirror. Her goal was always to destroy it, along with her brothers help. 
The movie itself goes back and forth, between present day and their past. The events that lead up to who these two are in the beginning of the movie and how they ended up apart. The story lines are blended together by the mirror in a effort to destroy them as they try to destroy it. Throughout the movie Tim and Kaylie have to relive the past as they are trying to make sense of what they are seeing and doing in the present day. There are plenty of hallucinations and flashbacks into their family life and events that lead up to their mother (Katie Sackhoff) going crazy. They have to determine if the things they are seeing are real. They have to determine what they need to do in order to win. They have to determine if things are real or not. 

I hate giving away too much of a movie so I won't go too much more into detail but I will say that the trailers I have seen do not do the movie justice as far as the realness of some of the scenes. There is a scene in the trailer where Kaylie grabs her apple to bite it and ends up biting a light bulb.....it is WAY better played out in the movie. There is much more detail to just that incident and you can actually cringe with it when you see it. The last 10(ish) minutes were not at all what I thought but it was good. The ending was well written if there is going to be a sequel (so hopefully they will). If not then the ending could have been something different but overall it fit the story well. 

Release Date: April 11, 2014      Rated: R

Cast: Karen Gillian, Brenton Thwaites, Katie Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane  

Producer: Jason Blum 

Director: Mike Flanagan  

Oculus 

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isclosure: I received free tickets from Cinemit to attend the screening. The review was not asked for or required. It is fully personally done and opinions are all honest and my own.