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Add Mike Flanagan's "Oculus" to the horror subgenre of supernatural item movies. This time it's not a haunted doll or magical box but a deadly mirror with the power to compel people to commit violent acts. A man will think that he is trying to rip a Band-Aid from his finger only to realize that he's pulling his fingernail off instead. And that's nothing compared to what happens to teeth. The mirror has destroyed dozens of lives over the years, such as the time a mother thought she was tucking her children into bed but was drowning them in a cistern. "You see what it wants you to see", as the tagline goes. While the narrative freedom inherent in that premise allows for some truly strong visuals at times—the focus on star Karen Gillan 's bouncing red pony tail down a hall or a bloody hand hidden behind a doorframe—"Oculus" eventually becomes little more than a series of ghostly figures and twisted visions on its way to a cop-out of an ending that you'll see coming an hour away. Solid performances and a few memorable images save it from disaster but Flanagan's film left me longing for the movie it could have been instead of what it actually is.

When "Oculus" opens, Tim Russell ( Brenton Thwaites ) is being released from years of intensive therapy. Much like Daniel Lutz (whose life story became " The Amityville Horror "), Tim believed for most of his time in a padded cell that his father was forced to commit horrendous violence because of a supernatural force. His doctors, including Miguel Sandoval in a prologue cameo, reworked those memories to lead him to believe that dad was just a really bad guy and there was no supernatural mojo at work. And so Tim hesitantly leaves the hospital to reenter society. Maybe having lunch with his sister wasn't the best idea.

Not having the "benefit" of therapy, Tim's sis Kaylie (Karen Gillan of "Doctor Who") wastes almost no time pulling her brother back into the world that he has spent years trying to repress. Kaylie, who works at an auction house, has found the mirror. She steals the haunted antique, setting it up in the family home as the focus of a fantastic array of cameras, alarm clocks, temperature gauges, and even a giant swinging blade designed to finally destroy it. Before Kaylie is willing to put an end to the mirror's unholy reign, she wants to document and prove its power. Another bad idea.

For the entirety of "Oculus," the narrative cuts back and forth from the adult pair's efforts to ghostbust the mirror with what happened to them years earlier. Young Tim (Garret Ryan) and young Kaylie ( Annalise Basso ) moved into a lovely home with their father Alan ( Rory Cochrane ), a software designer, and their supportive mother Marie ( Katee Sackhoff ). And then Dad went antique shopping. With far too little set-up, pop goes off the mental rails and mom is left an inevitable victim. The flashbacks in "Oculus" have a depressing fatalism because we're told who will live and who will die early on, turning these scenes into an exercise in inevitable gore. The lack of suspense is more disheartening when one realizes that the hole hasn't been filled by any sort of social context at all. Films like " The Shining " and "The Amityville Horror" also trafficked in the inevitable but grounded their narratives in cautionary tales of how familial stress and other external factors like alcoholism can destroy a patriarch.

The "present day" material in "Oculus" is much more effective, thanks largely to a game performance from Gillan. She renders Kaylie as a driven woman on the edge of sanity herself. When she growls at the mirror, "You must be hungry," one can see the B-movie glory that "Oculus" could have been. Her younger brother got the treatment he needed but Kaylie was left to fight for the day she could get vengeance on the mirror that wrecked her life. Gillan sells that hair-trigger intensity in the film's best moments, and when Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard open the door to the however-brief possibility that Kaylie may actually be crazy, "Oculus" is at its most interesting.

Sadly, they can't maintain that intrigue past the second act. As so many of these ventures do, the final act of "Oculus" becomes an increasingly random series of scenes designed to push buttons instead of anything inherent to character or narrative. If there are no rules or relatable subtext within the world of a horror film, the images have no power. Both overly foreshadowed climactic acts of "Oculus"—they tell us over and over again that dad is going to go homicidal and that they're going to try to destroy the mirror—feel like genre faits accomplis and so their inevitability becomes little more than a shallow reflection of superior works.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Oculus (2014)

Rated R for terror, violence, some disturbing images and brief language

105 minutes

Karen Gillan as Kaylie Russell

Brenton Thwaites as Tim Russell

Katee Sackhoff as Marie Russell

Rory Cochrane as Alan Russell

Annalise Basso as Young Karen

Garretty Ryan as Young Tim

Miguel Sandoval as Dr. Shawn Graham

Mike Flanagan
Jeff Howard

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Review: Why ‘Oculus’ Is One of the Scariest American Horror Movies In Years

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“Oculus” is an exception. Appropriately being co-released by microbudget fear factory Blumhouse Production — its founder, Jason Blum , helped turn the scrappy productions “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge” into profitable franchises — much of the new movie’s chilly atmosphere involves the experiences of two characters in a room with one very ominous mirror. As the haunted object plays tricks on its two would-be victims’ minds, the audience falls prey to the ruse as well. Director Mike Flanagan turns the fragile nature of consciousness into a better fear tactic than any visceral shocks could possibly achieve.

“Oculus” certainly relies on a familiar toolbox, including the occasional clichéd moment when something scary materializes right behind an unsuspecting character. But the specifics of the scenario engender a fundamental state of dread that grows heavier with each murky twist. Flanagan’s script, co-written by Jeff Howard and based on an earlier short film, nimbly moves between events that transpired 11 years ago and their ramifications in the present: In the opening scenes, 21-year-old Tim (Brenton Thwaites) is released from a psychotherapy ward after years on lockdown and reunited with his sister, Kaylie ( Karen Gillan ). With a steely resolve, she announces that the pair must return to the childhood home and “kill it” — a declaration that immediately establishes a menacing supernatural presence that remains hard to define throughout the movie.

But Flanagan quickly fills in a few more pertinent details: The siblings’ youth was disrupted with the arrival of the mirror into the claustrophobic study where their father (Rory Cochrane) worked alone; at some point, maybe because of his own lapsing sanity or maybe because the mirror drove him mad, their ill-fated father murdered their mother (Katee Sackhoff), at which point young Tim shot him dead. Kaylie has been waiting for her brother to reemerge into society so the two of them can confront the bizarre ancient menace, which is apparently responsible for 48 deaths in 400 years. As soon as he’s free, she snatches up the mirror at a local auction and brings him back to the scene of the crime, with camcorders set up to capture their every move over the course of one isolated, dreary night. In short order, plenty of things go bump in the night, but it’s gradually clear that nothing happening can be taken for granted, including Kaylie and Tim’s own behaviors. At its best, “Oculus” is a tightly enacted chamber drama that just happens to include supernatural phenomena. The mirror is messing with them at every turn — and, by extension, it’s messing with us.

The first sign that “Oculus” has more on its mind arrives as the adult Tim attempts to shrug off his sister’s recollections of supernatural occurrences with the “fuzzy trace” theory of human psychology — essentially, false memories derived from inaccurate associations: In Tim’s view, their dad was an unfaithful lunatic — hence the cryptic presence of another woman in his study after hours — and eventually went ballistic on his wife as a result of their marital tensions. His kids’ convictions about the nature of these events, the thinking goes, suggest a history of mental illness in the family.

And who’s to say whether Tim has it right? As the duo creep around the house, evading passing shadows and lashing out blindly in the wrong directions, it’s never entirely clear if any given point of view holds ground. “Oculus” keeps digging further into their frightened state, thickening the dreary atmosphere at every turn, so that even while the outcome of the scenario is fairly predictable early on, it’s continually haunting as it maps out a path to get there. A truly contemporary horror movie, its eeriness stems from manipulated cell phone conversations and recorded data on the ubiquitous cameras that may or may not accurately represent events as they transpire. No matter how much technology they have on their side, nothing in certain.

In recent years, few American genre films have managed the extreme spookiness found in many of their overseas brethren. Even while “Oculus” plays by the book in individual moments, it manages to invent a shrewder context for the events in question. It’s not the scenes that matter so much as the way they do (and don’t) fit together. It uses subjectivity like a weapon. By contrast, last year’s generally well-liked haunted house effort “The Conjuring” capably grappled with issues of faith, but failed to unite its bigger ideas with the rudimentary process for freaking us out.

In “Oculus,” the horror is at once deceptively simple and rooted in a deep, primal uneasiness. Its scariest aspects are universally familiar: By witnessing the two leads fall prey to the ghastly object’s manipulation, we too become its victims. Reflecting the way our greatest fears lie within our own insecurities, the mirror is an ideal metaphor for the horror genre’s lasting potency.

Criticwire Grade : A-

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Relativity opens “Oculus” nationwide this weekend. With little competition, it should find respectable returns among the sizable audience for horror films, although its primary audience lies on VOD, where it should be successful for a long time.

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Oculus Reviews

While it may have taken unconventional approaches to the visual language of haunted house movies, the narrative is messy and never offers up anything more than surface-level intrigue.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 20, 2023

We’re left with the terrifying fear that if Tim and Kaylie can lose themselves in the mirror’s reflection, so can we.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Feb 18, 2023

Flanagan's treatment elevates the material, both in his use of mind games and emotional complexity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 12, 2022

It may sound a bit ridiculous, but Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard do a fantastic job of making people question whether the threat to our characters is real or imagined right up until the very end of the film.

Full Review | Apr 14, 2021

The horror elements work because this is a character driven story and while there are blood and guts aplenty it is the intensity of the story and the performances that will stay with you.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 1, 2021

Mike Flanagan's debut to mainstream audiences is a tour de force of horror, seamlessly weaving between two timelines as he prepares us for a devastating gut-punch of an ending.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 29, 2020

While there are some solid scares and creepy scenes, considering the pieces, they never amount to much.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jul 8, 2020

Oculus is an ambitious horror film that doesn't quite reach its potential. While it has a strong cast ... the story just feels like it's spinning its wheels, trying to find the traction it needs to propel forward.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2020

Oculus is a smartly-plotted evil mirror film which slowly reveals itself as a haunting portrayal of child abuse. It's a nice light movie!

Full Review | Jun 30, 2020

The biggest misfortune in Oculus is that it's almost a good movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.7/5 | Nov 22, 2019

The final product is a beautifully shot and wonderful acted entry in the never-ending pool of niche horror movies looking to shock, scare, and unnerve.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Aug 8, 2019

Horror fans shouldn't miss Oculus; films as creepy as this one don't come along too often.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.6/10 | Jun 21, 2019

Mike Flanagan's Oculus does more to a familiar premise than most standard-issue scary movies out there.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 14, 2019

Ultimately, though, it is the characters that count, and Flanagan gives emotional resonance to the story of charming family undone by unexplained forces; and his actors go a long way in portraying this with honesty.

Full Review | Mar 5, 2019

A clever storyline keeps the pace, although it could be argued the film had too many storylines going for its running time.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2019

Oculus was actually awesome, even though I didn't have any expectations for it at all...happy to tell you that this one was well thought-out with some great performances.

Full Review | Jan 5, 2019

In some off-the-wall realm, Oculus works its seedy magic because the concept of frightening furniture and childhood disillusionment is not exactly what one would expect as a passable taunting tie-in of sorts.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 11, 2018

The acting and characters are solid enough, the general idea of the story is captivating and the atmosphere of the piece is genuinely disconcerting.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 1, 2018

The acting is solid, the camera work is noteworthy, and the story is well written.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2018

I thought that the storyline was original, awesome and definitely refreshing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 15, 2018

clock This article was published more than 10 years ago

‘Oculus’ movie review: A satisfyingly scary ghost story

A good carpenter never blames his tools. But neither does he go out and buy a new hammer every time he makes another cabinet.

Using the most tried and true of techniques and material, " Oculus " director Mike Flanagan has crafted a satisfyingly old-fashioned ghost story that, in its evocation of shivery dread, is the most unnerving poltergeist picture since " The Conjuring ."

A remake of an earlier short — shot by Flanagan on the cheap in and around Baltimore in 2005 — “Oculus” is the story of a haunted antique mirror, known as the Lasser Glass. Over the centuries since its fabrication in 1754, dozens of owners have experienced madness and mysterious, often violent death. The movie depicts the efforts of two near-victims to destroy the cursed object.

The idea of an artifact inhabited by a malevolent supernatural entity is, of course, nothing new. Nor are such horror-movie tropes as the spooked dog, the staticky television set or camcorder surveillance ( thank you , " Paranormal Activity "). Yet it's what Flanagan does with these well-worn tools here that counts. The filmmaker may not break new ground, but he marshals each of these tools — and more — with the skill of a pro, laying down a fresh path through familiar territory and deftly skirting cliche.

Brenton Thwaites and Karen Gillan play 20-something siblings Tim and Kaylie, both of whom, as we see in flashbacks, were almost killed 10 years ago when their parents (Katee Sackhoff and Rory Cochrane) went bonkers after purchasing the mirror. In the intervening decade, Tim has been locked up in a mental facility for the killing of his father, while Kaylie has put her time to good use in tracking down the home accessory, which she blames for what happened.

Set just after Tim’s release from the hospital, the movie is structured around Kaylie’s elaborate plan to exonerate Tim by proving that the events of 10 years earlier were the results of the mirror’s manipulative mind games. To this end, she has set up video cameras and other high-tech equipment in their old house to document the activities of the mirror, out of which she hopes to lure whoever — or whatever — is possessing it.

“Hello again,” Kaylie whispers to this home furnishing from hell, adding tauntingly, “You must be hungry.”

What Flanagan gets exactly right about this far-fetched scenario is that he never shows us the “you” Kaylie’s talking to. To be sure, the trailer suggests there is at least one creepy woman with devil eyes living in the mirror, but you would be wrong to assume that the tale is that straightforward.

Kaylie and Tim’s old house also is haunted by those scariest of demons: memories.

Juvenile actors Garrett Ryan and Annalise Basso play the sibling protagonists as children, popping up in the old house like they still live there — which, in a figurative sense, they do. The younger actors appear both in flashback sequences and in scenes in which their characters seem to be interacting with their adult selves. Whether it’s fantasy or mental illness is unclear.

That’s the most satisfying aspect of “Oculus” — the way in which Flanagan plays on the power of imagination. Shunning traditional flashback techniques, he tells the story in a twisty, perception-distorting way that messes with the audience’s heads as much as it does with Tim’s and Kaylie’s.

In that sense, using a mirror as the central metaphor for our darkest fears is a fairly brilliant strategy. When Kaylie and Tim look into the glass, of course, they see nothing but their own reflections.

★ ★ ★ R. At area theaters. Contains creepy, violent images and brief crude language. 105 minutes.

Relativity Media

Summary Ten years ago, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents. Now in his 20s, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that fateful night, is con ... Read More

Directed By : Mike Flanagan

Written By : Jeff Howard, Jeff Seidman, Mike Flanagan

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Karen Gillan

Kaylie russell.

Brenton Thwaites

Tim russell.

Katee Sackhoff

Marie russell.

Rory Cochrane

Alan russell.

Annalise Basso

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James Lafferty

Michael dumont.

Miguel Sandoval

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Oculus (2013)

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Oculus review – smart and scary supernatural thriller

M ike Flanagan had been an unfamiliar name to me before seeing this film – but this editor-writer-director is clearly a scary movie auteur to be reckoned with. Oculus is a variation on traditional horror themes, perhaps chiefly John Carpenter's Halloween and Robert Hamer's haunted mirror sequence in the 1945 Ealing Studios portmanteau classic, Dead of Night. It is, in fact, a feature-length development of a short Flanagan made in 2006. Nothing very self-consciously new is being done with these horror tropes, and there are no postmodern twists. It's just that Flanagan (with co-writers Jeff Seidman and Jeff Howard) contrives a piercingly unpleasant atmosphere of fear. Karen Gillan stars as Kaylie, whose brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites) has just been released from a mental facility, deemed to be sane and safe after a horrific episode in their childhood. Tim believes himself to be cured; Kaylie, on the other hand, has grown up believing that her brother was compelled to violence by a supernaturally malevolent antique mirror in their parents' possession and that they must now "kill" this evil-looking glass. Is she displaying symptoms of post-traumatic delusion? Or is the mirror – gulp! – displaying symptoms of being haunted? Smart, scary stuff. One thing: the script says the mirror was once in Balmoral castle, presumably the property of the royal family. What havoc did it wreak there? Something for Oculus 2: The Queen Mother Connection.

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DVD & Streaming
Drama , Horror , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

April 11, 2014
Brenton Thwaites as Tim Russell; Garrett Ryan as Young Tim Russell; Karen Gillan as Kaylie Russell; Annalise Basso as Young Kaylie Russell; Katee Sackhoff as Marie Russell; Rory Cochrane as Alan Russell; James Lafferty as Michael; Kate Siegel as Marisol; Miguel Sandoval as Dr. Graham

Home Release Date

August 5, 2014
Mike Flanagan

Distributor

Relativity Media

Movie Review

Tim Russell is 21 years old. And for the last 11 years, he’s been a resident of St. Aidan’s Mental Facility. The reason for his long stay? He was accused of killing his father.

At the time of the alleged murder, Tim insisted that his father was possessed by a supernatural antique mirror, and under its influence he had shot and killed Tim’s mother. So for the last 11 years, doctors have worked extensively with Tim to help him understand that there is no such thing as a possessed mirror. And that his father’s obvious delusional instability (it’s clear he’s killed his wife, but unclear why) has been passed along to his similarly delusional son.

Tim’s finally accepted that explanation after a decade of therapy. It was all just a fantasy, he’s realized, a horrific hallucination that was never real.

But just try to tell that to Kaylie, Tim’s older sister.

Kaylie had to deal with the aftermath of her parents’ death on her own as she was shuffled through the foster-care system. And for her, no reality is more certain than the fact that a certain centuries-old mirror—known as the Lassar Glass, named after its first unfortunate owner in 1754—was responsible not only for her parents’ deaths, but for the deaths of some 45 other victims over the last four centuries.

Kaylie has painstakingly documented the Lassar Glass’ detrimental impact upon the individuals and families who’ve been unfortunate enough to possess it. And she can show that, without fail, it ends up possessing them . She’s committed to finding and destroying the mirror, which was sold during an estate sale following her parents’ deaths. And now as the employee for an auction company specializing in antiques, she’s finally found it once again.

Her plan? “Borrowing” it for a couple of days (she tells a co-worker she’s going to get a crack repaired) before it goes to its new owner. She’s determined to not let that happen. Katie, along with her reluctantly recruited brother, has other plans for it.

As it turns out, the mirror’s got other plans for them .

Positive Elements

Kaylie feels driven to prove her father’s innocence. She wants to establish that the Lassar Glass is a portal for supernatural evil that possesses and kills any individual or family that comes into close contact with it. Though her quest is grim, her selfless sleuthing is nevertheless commendable. And to counter every possible influence of the mirror she’s been able to uncover, Kaylie has also ingeniously constructed what she believes is a foolproof system to outsmart it.

It’s clear that Kaylie and Tim love and care for each other deeply and would do anything to protect each other as they strive to clear their family name. Likewise, their mother, Marie, loves her children … before she goes insane, that is.

Spiritual Elements

No surprise or spoiler here: The Lassar Glass is indeed seriously, violently, malevolently, hungrily haunted. At first it seems the mirror is haunted only by the ghost of a woman who manages to transfix and bedazzle Allen Russell, Tim and Kaylie’s father. He falls under the mirror’s thrall and begins acting increasingly erratically. Marie sees this and suspects he’s having an affair, slipping deeper and deeper into paranoia—and the mirror plays on her insecurities, heightening them cruelly to send her plunging off the deep end of sanity.

The mirror’s devilish influence includes killing plants and pets within a certain distance from it. But that’s just the beginning. Ghostly specters with silvery spooky eyes begin appearing from it as well. For much of the film, it’s just the woman, whose name is Marisol. It becomes apparent, though, that all of the mirror’s many victims now inhabit it. And so we eventually witness a small army of ghostly, ghastly undead trying to keep Tim and Kaylie from destroying their “home.”

Sometimes that means direct, chill-inducing confrontations as they shamble ominously toward Tim and Kaylie (both as adults and when they’re just children, via flashback). Other times, they work through wickedly nasty hallucinations. The film never offers an explanation for where these spectral interlopers come from or where their power is sourced. The closest we ever get to an answer is Allen telling his children, “I have seen the devil, and he is me.”

Sexual Content

Marie wears a nightgown unbuttoned all the way down the front. She pulls her underwear down slightly to look at a scar from a Cesarean section. Elsewhere, some of her outfits reveal cleavage.

Marie and Allen embrace and kiss and fall into bed together. Oral sex is implied. Her suspicion that her husband is having an affair gets reinforced when young Kaylie sees her dad embracing another woman in his office. Later, that pair is shown kissing. And slowly it also becomes evident that Allen is being seduced by Marisol. (Though Marisol’s visage is usually horrific, when Kaylie sees her, the specter looks like a normal woman, suggesting that Allen may see her that way as well.)

Kaylie and her fiancé, Michael, kiss and are shown in bed together. (She’s wearing a clingy nightie and he’s wearing boxers). They’re clearly cohabiting.

Violent Content

The opening scene features youngsters Kaylie and Tim hiding from their father, who’s pacing the house, hunting them with a gun. That sequence turns out to be a dream (in which he shoots his sister). But throughout the film, the original story from 11 years before is woven into the current narrative of Kaylie and Tim’s attempt to destroy the mirror. The horror they experienced as children is shown again, this time with Tim eventually pointing the gun at his father and his father grabbing it to squeeze the trigger to commit suicide.

Marie looks in the mirror and watches in horror as her C-section scar begins to tear open. When she tries to attack her children physically, Allen chains her up in their bedroom like an animal. Kaylie checks on her once, only to find that Mom has become ravenously wolf-like; she charges her daughter and gets yanked back at the end of her chain. We watch the older woman eat pottery and spit out her broken teeth. And Allen ultimately shoots Marie three times, killing her (as young Kaylie watches).

Elsewhere, grown-up Kaylie thinks she’s biting into an apple, but it’s actually a light bulb, which shreds her mouth. The camera spares nothing as she pulls out the shards. (That also turns out to be a hallucination.) Kaylie gets choked by both her mother and father in separate scenes.

Influenced by her hallucinations, Kaylie rams a pottery shard into Michael’s neck, killing him in yet another blood-spattered scene. Similarly confused, Allen tries to remove a stubborn Band-Aid with a staple remover, only to find he’s pulled out a fingernail. (There’s more blood, and by the end of the film, all his fingernails are gone.) In the film’s cruelest turn, one of the siblings accidentally kills the other; it’s a gory death involving an anchor swinging down from the ceiling.

Kaylie shows her brother gruesome crime scene photos of the mirror’s previous victims while relating the grisly ways they died.

Crude or Profane Language

A half-dozen s-words. God’s name is paired with “d‑‑n” two or three times. There’s one abuse of Jesus’ name. Milder profanities (“h‑‑‑”) are rare, but present.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Alan and Marie drink wine at dinner. As things begin to unravel, Marie turns to alcohol to cope. We see her with only a bottle of wine in front of her at dinner one night and watch as she drinks two glasses.

Oculus delivers a tense, terrifying take on the familiar haunted house template. Many mainstream reviewers are dishing out high praise for it, noting the intricate way director Mike Flanagan weaves the two separate timelines into a single horrifying narrative.

This review, however, is more interested in grappling with content and the bigger issues of worldview. Because while Oculus isn’t the most gruesome horror movie I’ve ever seen, it’s still more than bloody enough to well earn its R rating. Dreadfully disturbing scenes relentlessly focus on two young children being terrorized by both of their parents—one who’s seemingly been possessed and reduced to an evil automaton, the other who’s lost her mind in a way that leaves her feral and ferocious.

And we haven’t even gotten to Marisol and her cohorts yet.

As boogeywomen go, Marisol’s the kind who’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. And when we eventually discover that she’s just one of many such spooks residing in the Lassar Glass, well, the freak-out factor spikes yet again.

Horror movies, of course, always invite you to root for the poor unfortunates who have to take on supernatural baddies like Marisol. And once upon a time, you could reliably count on the good guys finding a way to effectively combat if not permanently eradicate the evil encroaching upon them.

But ever since The Ring started constricting around the throats of theatergoers back in 2002, directors seem to have lost their enthusiasm for letting good triumph. More often than not, today’s horror movies end in sickening despair—valiant efforts at resisting evil’s creeping, crawling, crouching ways notwithstanding.

So you can stop hoping to see any reflection of a mirror-free future for Kaylee and Tim. Oculus seems perversely, nihilistically determined not only to scare, but to vacuum up any shred of hope or sacrificial meaning into the dark supernatural void hidden behind the glass. Ultimately, Kaylie’s elaborate plans and dogged determination are simply no match for an evil that’s had hundreds of years to perfect its supernaturally murderous ways.

And God? He’s not in this picture at all.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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'Oculus' Review: A Mind-Bending New Horror Franchise Is Born

These days it feels like every horror movie can be easily categorized. Either it's a possession movie, a found footage movie, a slasher movie or some inane combination. Finding something different is rare. Mike Flanagan 's Oculus , at the very least, strives to be different. Combining elements from several subgenre columns into something that feels new and fresh, Oculus is the story of a brother and sister who try to destroy a haunted mirror that drives people to wild hallucinations, blurring lines between what's real and what's not.

Flanagan's script is a psychological jumping bean as it hops wildly between multiple timelines, putting the audiences in the shoes of the characters, everyone totally unaware of precisely what's going on. The whole thing has a fluid feeling that's not exactly innovative, but exciting enough to potentially kick off a new franchise. Read more of our Oculus movie review below.

Karen Gillan ( Doctor Who, Guardians of the Galaxy ) is Kaylie, a young woman reunited with her brother Tim ( Malificent's Brenton Thwaites ) as he's let out of mental institution. Right away she tells him she's found it. The haunted mirror that, just maybe, ruined their lives with its wicked ways. Thanks to a ripe and fascinating backstory spanning generations (surely included for possible sequels and prequels), we're initially lead to believe Kaylie. However, as the film continues on, the validity of her claims that this mirror is haunted are called into question. Then, just as we think we've uncovered the truth, a series of flashbacks we've been watching (featuring Kaylie and Time as young kids along with their parents, played by Empire Records ' Rory Cochrane and Battlestar Galactica' s Katee Sackhoff ) start to become more and more prevalent.

Are we in the past? Are we in the present? Is this really happening? Is it not? We can never quite tell. That's in large part due to Flanagan's use of cameras. Whether it be the diagetic cameras Kaylie uses to document the events, or non-diagetic cameras perched high above the action giving the audience a powerful, off-putting feeling, reality and perspective are always in question. Nothing ever is clear, and that makes things all the more frightening.

As Kaylie, Gillan is a formidable, captivating lead. Thwaites, on the other hand isn't quite as natural a performer. Together, they do a solid job even if they're eclipsed by their younger counterparts, played by Annalise Basso and Ryan Garrett . Those two young actors give the flashbacks real energy and make what feels like a secondary story into much more.

One downside to Oculus is, while it's fun to watch, and and a puzzle worth unraveling, it's never quite that scary. There's plenty of tension, a few jump scares, some gleeful turn-your-head goriness, but never anything that'll keep you awake at night. The film's power comes not from its scares, but from its mystery.

Oculus leaves about 500 million options open for sequels, prequels or spinoffs and I hope we see just that. This is a really interesting, worthy conceit done incredibly well. Fright fans will be pleased.

/Film rating: 7 of 10

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Outstanding direction with decent scary scenes.

This title has:

A surprisingly great, very well-executed horror film that needs more recognition.

Oculus good, gory, and for 15 and up, oculus, great for mature 13 year olds but nothing less, oculus will be in your head long after you leave.

Oculus (2013) : Movie Plot Ending Explained

Mike Flanagan’s direction Oculus, is a horror flick which has a non-linear narrative (his other popular films are Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep ). The Oculus movie cast includes Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan in the lead roles. I got quite a few requests for this film, finally got watching it, so let’s get going. This is not an Oculus movie review, this is the plot and ending of Oculus Explained, so spoilers ahead!

Hollywordle – Check out my new Hollywood Wordle game!

Where To Watch?

To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer . You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

The strength of the film is the fantastic non-linear storytelling. However, it’s just a lot easier if we walked through the plot in a chronological order. I’d like to mention here that there are two ways to view this film – either as a horror (a paranormal mirror) or a psychological thriller (a crazy family) . Let’s do the paranormal approach first.

Oculus Explained: The Paranormal Version

It began 11 years ago.

A family moves into a new house. Alan, the dad. Marie, the mom. Kaylie, the elder daughter. Tim, the younger son. They buy new furniture. Amongst them is this one mirror. This mirror is evil. And as evil objects, this mirror takes a while before it extends its field of control and domination. The mirror uses illusions to trap its victims.

Dogs and Plants

Through the happenings of this film, we find out that the mirror feeds on dogs, plants, and human minds for its energy. The family dog begins to fall sick. One day, Marie locks the dog up in the office and when Alan gets back in the evening, the dog is gone. Presumably, the mirror consumed it.

Woman in the Office

Marisol, the evil in the mirror seduces Alan. This mind is slowly corrupted by the the mirror as it is in the office room where he is most of the times. Both Kaylie and Tim happen to see this woman in the office room on multiple occasions. Now, they both assume that it is a human woman. Marie has never seen her, although, she does hear Alan talking to someone when in his office room. Marie begins to suspect that Alan is having an affair. Alan begins to grow more distant. He is spoken to by Marisol quite often now and his mind is well possessed.

One day, Marie sees that Alan has bought a gun, apparently for protection. She asks him to lock it away, he agrees. As Marie leaves the room the mirror calls her a “Grotesque cow” in Alan’s voice. Marie is wounded deeply by this. She looks into the mirror and is presented with a distorted image of herself.

Marie Gets Possessed

After hearing from both her children about the “woman in the office”, Marie goes to the office to see a sheet filled with “Marisol”. Not knowing that is evil in the mirror, she concludes that Alan is having an affair. In her anger, she throws something in the direction of the mirror and she hits only the wall next to it. Right after this, Marie is possessed. Tim and Kaylie come to check on her, she chokes Tim. The two kids break away and run upstairs and lock themselves in their room. Just then Alan shows up. He quickly subdues Marie and knocks her out. For a short moment, Alan is in his senses and tries to call for help. But the mirror intercepts and tells Alan to chain and lock up Marie like an animal instead. Alan tells the kids that their mother is sick and they need to keep away from her. He ends up saying “we” instead of “I”, Kaylie notices but Alan doesn’t care to clarify who “we” is. Later, we are shown Alan taking some really bad looking food for Marie. He’s torturing her and making her eat plates. Marie loses her teeth as a result.

Kaylie Calls For Help

Alan has not been paying any bills or buying groceries. The TV goes out, and there is no more food. Kaylie tries telling Alan to get groceries and get their mom a doctor. He doesn’t seem to care. Kaylie decides to talk to her mother only to realize that she’s now a wild creature chained to the wall. Alan gets furious with the kids and grounds them. The kids try calling various doctors but constantly get the same voice asking them to tell their father to make the call. The two realize that there is something extremely strange going on. Kaylie tries to get a neighbour for help, but Alan talks to him like it’s nothing at all. Kaylie tells Tim that it’s time to get really brave. She means that busting their way out might be the only option.

Death Of Marie

The house finally loses power. Tim tries to get his dad to fix it and is greeted by Marisol. Tim freaks out and runs upstairs. At a later time, Tim peeks into the room to see that his dad looks into the mirror and then takes the gun out and loaded it. The kids decide that the mirror is the root of all evil and they need to smash it. But they are faced by Marisol and they run back up to their rooms. Alan goes up to Marie’s room and releases her. She goes banging on the kids’ door. Kaylie instructs Tim to run for the stairs and she goes out and clobbers Marie with a golf club. Tim runs down and Kaylie jumps on to the outside lawn from the window. Inside, Alan goes after Tim and fires a shot. Kaylie hears this and goes in, she finds Alan hiding and he’s signaling to get out. Marie attacks Kaylie and begins to choke her. For a small moment, Marie is back to her senses but Alan shoots and kills her. The kids run and try to smash the mirror but are hitting the wall instead. They realize that the mirror won’t allow them.

Death Of Alan

Alan enters the room and points the gun at Kaylie. He beings to say what the mirror tells him. Tim hits the gun out of Alan’s hands. Alan tries to choke Kaylie, Tim gets the gun and holds it to Alan. He stops choking Kaylie, turns around and get on his knees, puts his hands on the trigger. Alan is back to his senses (just like Marie) for a short bit and he asks Alan to run and pulls the trigger.

Case Concluded

The cops show up and declare that this was a case of a domestic violence where a husband has brutally killed a wife and his son retaliated by killing him. Tim is put into a psychiatric institution and Kaylie is taken to a foster home. Kaylie screams to Tim asking him to remember to keep the promise of killing the mirror. As he’s driven away, at the window, he sees both his dead parents staring at him.

After 11 Years, The Present Day

11 years go by. Tim completes his treatment. The movie begins with a dream sequence where young Tim and Kaylie are at gunpoint and the shooter is Tim. We aren’t shown what the treatment has been like but this seems to be a defining moment to release Tim from his custody. Tim believes, or wants to believe, that what he saw as a kid was merely his young brain creating an elaborate ghost story to cope with the events of his parents’ murders. Kaylie is left all alone in the foster home. She grows old there and their house is now transferred to her. She lives with her fiancee in a different house. In the time that has passed, she has been researching on the mirror to find out that weird and ghastly things have happened to the owners of this mirror. She locates the mirror via the auction company she works in and gets it taken to the old house. There is a short moment where the mirror plays tricks with Kaylie at the auction house (with the blanket-clad disappearing ghoul, the mirror clearly likes to mess around). When Tim comes out Kaylee receives him. She reminds him of their promise to kill the mirror.

Kaylee’s Preparation

In the night Kaylie has a nightmare of her father choking her, she wakes up screaming. Next day, she has Tim come over to the old house where the mirror is back, and Kaylie has set up cameras, screens, plants, food, water and a trip mechanism connected to a 20-pound Danforth anchor. Kaylie thinks she needs to ensure that in case they die, the trip mechanism will cause the mirror to be shattered. She has also asked her fiancee to call on the hour to check on her. If he doesn’t get a response he is to call the police. She begins recording and goes through a list of people who have owned the mirror and their fates. Tim doesn’t believe her because he truly feels that their experiences were just imagination. They argue about their dog and how it perished. Tim says that their dad was a homicidal maniac and killed their mother and that he was having an affair. Kaylie disagrees because their mother had lost her mind when she died. Tim releases Kaylie’s sacrificial dog.

It Begins … Again

For the remainder of the film, the mirror essentially toys around with the two of their minds, makes them run around like children and annihilates them . Kaylie first sees that the cameras have gotten into a position facing each other. When they play the recorded footage, they see that the two of them move the cameras but can’t remember doing it. This would have been an ideal time to bail on the plan and run out, but they don’t. They can’t. They don’t know it yet, but they are already screwed. Tim leaves the house to make a call but can’t get a network. He is suddenly back in the house. He only imagines exiting. They go back in to arrange the cameras. Tim is seeing an image on the screen completely different from what’s going on. This scene is enough to say that, you can’t believe the electronics if your mind is being played around with. Kaylie gets a call from her fiancee checking on her, looks like there is no way to know it’s him. The plants begin to rot as well.

An Apple A Day

Slowly the lights start going out. Tim starts seeing flashes of the past. As Kaylie is fixing bulbs, she picks up an apple and bites into it, only to think she’s bitten into a bulb and is bleeding. Soon she snaps back and sees that it’s indeed the apple. Both their minds are beginning to wander.

Memories Of The Past

Both of them begin to start seeing the past play out in front of them. The event of their mom becoming crazy, the doctor calls, etc. Tim finds himself upstairs and Kaylie is standing in front of the mirror, daydreaming. Just before the timer trips she snaps back and resets it. She begins getting frustrated and breaks a vase with a dead plant in it. Tim sees his younger self who goes down to ask his dad to fix the electricity issue and sees Marisol. The house loses electricity and Kaylie begins to turn on the battery operated lamps. Upstairs, she sees a chain and broken plates and tells herself that it’s not real. As she gets back down, she sees more pieces of a broken plate. When she looks through her phone, the floor is clear. Suddenly dead Marie appears and Kaylie stabs her with a piece of the plate she’s holding. Soon she sees that it’s her fiancee she has stabbed. The piece in her hand is not from a plate but from the vase. Now there is a 50-50 chance that the fiancee is actually in the house and dead. It could be that he’s tried reaching Kaylie, didn’t get through and shows up at the house. But it might be good to assume that all that is happening in the house are mirages. The mirror is projecting visions in their minds to get them to do things.

The 911 Call

The two of them run out and Tim calls 911. A point to note here is that this call goes through (the cops show up, in the end, saying Tim made the call). The mirror has already planned their fates, it’s just executing it . Tim now says that they just have to wait till the trip goes off and the mirror is shattered. It’s not that simple. The lights come back on and they see their doppelgangers inside the room standing in front of the mirror. The two are confused now if what they’re “seeing” from the outside is an illusion or them “being” outside is the illusion. Tim places another call to 911. He hears the old voice asking their father to call the doctor. Kaylie stomps on the phone. The two are convinced that a call never went through and go back into the house. They see their doubles at the mirror with Marisol walking up to them talking in their dad’s voice.

Reliving The Nightmare

Kaylie sees that Tim is now a kid again and running up in fear. She remembers running up with him in the past for similar events. They are back up in the room and haunted by their ghastly mom. Tim realizes that this is just a replay of older events. He goes out and sees his dad with a gun and fires at him. Kaylie, like in the past, is now outside and runs indoors when she hears the gun. She sees her dead fiancee by the mirror. She sees Tim hiding as before and she goes through the events of her mom choking her and dad shooting her mother all over again. Tim sees the events of him finally shooting his dad. He imagines being haunted by ghouls, this is not a memory, this is an illusion currently being projected to instill enough fear in him. Tim wakes up sitting alone by the mirror in the present day, scared.

Oculus Movie Ending Explained. Mirror Wins. Flawless Victory. Fatality!

Tim thinks he is alone in the room. He can’t see Kaylie. She is in the room too. The illusion being projected in her head is that of her younger-self looking into the mirror to see her mom who’s calling out. Young Kaylie goes to the mirror and hugs her mom. In reality, the present day Kaylie is standing in front of the mirror, hugging it. Tim is not seeing this. In his fear, he sees an opportunity to destroy the mirror. He runs to the timer and turns it to zero. The anchor drops and gets Kaylie at the back of her neck. She dies. Tim sees Kaylie only after the anchor hits her.

All Is Lost

The cops arrive and see the footage. Tim recollects all the events as they happened 11 years back. It’s happening again. This time Kaylie is dead. They shouldn’t have messed with that mirror. Tim is arrested as the cops only see Tim killing Kaylie in the recordings. As Tim is driven away, he remembers his promise to his sister which he’s not been able to keep. At the window, this time, he sees his dead parents and now Kaylie too staring at him as the film comes to an end.

Oculus Plot Explanation: Psychological Thriller

Remember we talked earlier about two approaches to this film. This one is seeing all of the events as simply illusions of a deranged family. It will be short and not a lot of fun, which is why it’s at the end of the article. Consider this, the mirror is not evil. Alan is a crazy person. He locks up and tortures Marie who, as a result, loses her mind. Alan eventually shoots and kills Marie. The kids are young and create an elaborate ghost story to deal with this. In this version, their dog just falls sick and dies during one of the trips to the veterinarian (this scene exists in the film too). Years later, the kids too become looney and end up being wrapped up in their own illusions. Tim kills Kaylie because of this. No ghosts, no evil mirror. Just a family with looney genes. The End.

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Black Bear Movie Explained (Plot & Ending)

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Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

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Oculus: film review.

A brother and sister attempt to destroy the spirit-possessed mirror that killed their parents.

By THR Staff

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A brother and sister face off against the mysterious force that destroyed their childhood in Mike Flanagan ‘s Oculus , an effective little creeper that makes the most of its ghost-hunting conceit. Key art focusing on our heroes as young kids fails to capture the well-balanced nature of the yarn, which is as involving in its present-tense action as in the extended flashbacks showing the horrors that the children witnessed. But strong word-of-mouth should help genre fans find the picture, which has no fright-flick competition in theaters at the moment save for a Jim Jarmusch vampire film that will never be mistaken for fanboy fare. Sequels are a possibility, though screenwriters would be unable to reuse the devices responsible for much of this outing’s appeal.

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Oculus Quest 2 review

Oculus quest 2 offers small changes that make big differences.

TechRadar Verdict

Lightweight, comfortable, and powerful enough to run impressively detailed virtual reality experiences, the Oculus Quest 2 is the best VR headset that Oculus has made so far. And, depending on your perspective on raw power versus portability and comfort, it might just be the best VR headset ever, too.

Incredibly immersive experiences

Comfortable weight

Easy to use

Requires Facebook account linking

Can still cause motion sickness

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Recent updates

Two-minute review

In January 2022, Meta renamed the Oculus Quest 2 headset to the Meta Quest 2. The hardware itself, reviewed here, remains the same.

The Oculus Quest 2 is one of the best VR headsets available for both beginners and seasoned VR veterans alike. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s a must-have device if you’re looking for a top-tier VR system that doesn’t require the additional wires, huge expense or added fuss of a PC-based VR setup, like the HTC Vive or now-discontinued Oculus Rift S . Now that the Meta Quest Pro now here, there's a solid chance we could be seeing discounts on the more accessible VR headset now, too.

But for how long will it remain top of the VR pile? Facebook ( now called Meta ) announced its latest VR headset – dubbed Project Cambria – at the Connect event last October. At the time the company explained that this new device will be home to groundbreaking technology that aims to help establish the earliest days of its ambitious 'metaverse'.

It's due to arrive sometime this year, but for now, Meta's Quest 2 VR device continues to rule the roost.

For starters, the standalone Quest 2 brings you easy access to everything that makes virtual reality special and well worth your time, delivering high-quality virtual reality experiences at a fair price to your front room with minimal set-up.

The Quest 2 allows you to (almost literally) step inside gaming worlds, as well as access 360-degree video content and apps covering all genres. This is a truly immersive gadget that even the most tech-shy members of your family can have a blast with – once they’ve eased themselves into it, that is (VR-induced motion sickness is real).

The Oculus Quest 2 VR headset is the second version of the Quest headset range. It’s similar to the original Oculus Quest in that it’s a battery-powered, standalone headset that allows you to freely roam around your physical and digital play spaces without fear of tripping over a wire.

But there are some significant changes that would make an upgrade well worth it if you currently already have the original Quest and you’re considering the Quest 2. The new model offers a more responsive experience overall, thanks to improved RAM and chip specs. It also has a higher resolution display, which is a whole 50% sharper than its predecessor. Combined, these upgrades make the Oculus Quest 2 experience even more seamless and immersive.

What's more, where the Quest 2 is concerned developers now have the option to make their games run at 90Hz and even 120Hz (this is important for increased comfort and even more realism while playing), and the headset itself is noticeably lighter than before, with double the battery life in the controllers.

Hand tracking – which arrived on the original Quest via a firmware update, but is baked into the Quest 2 from the off – is also highly impressive, though can feel a little like a work in progress at times.

There are hundreds of separately-sold Oculus Quest games – and some free ones too – available to play with the headset, including everything from shooters to puzzle games, fitness titles to meditation apps, there truly is something for everyone, even if levels of quality – and comfort – can vary depending on what you're watching and playing.

The Oculus Quest 2 also offers a social experience. Though some will shudder at the Facebook account requirement (more on this below) the Oculus Quest 2 is superb when playing with friends. Whether you choose to do that through online avatars, or in the same physical room thanks to the option to Google Cast whatever you’re viewing within your headset to a nearby TV .

Oculus Quest 2 and controllers on gray sofa

And yet, while Quest 2 is the most accessible and feature-rich VR headset we’ve tested to date, it still falls foul of some of the same pitfalls that virtual reality as a whole suffers from. There’s still the chance you’ll experience a degree of motion sickness, depending on your constitution, which is unavoidable on most headsets – even those that claim to have solved these problems – and might require you to introduce yourself to VR more gradually to avoid the telltale signs.

What's more, getting a good, tight fit to ensure the screen appears as clear as possible can be claustrophobic and a little uncomfortable. These base-level issues remain unsolved; for a new generation of hardware, we’d have liked to have seen a wider array of brand-new software to go with it, too.

Having said that, we are expecting more and more upgrades to the Quest 2 that might not address every niggling issue but could improve the VR experience even more. For example, the addition of 120Hz gaming for some titles didn't just make for smoother gaming but can reduce the chance you'll experience VR-induced motion sickness.

Oculus Quest 2 isn’t perfect, then – but it’s as close to perfect as VR has come so far and well worth your time, money, and energy if you’ve been looking for an excuse to swap reality for virtual reality.

Oculus Quest 2: price and availability

Following a few price changes the Oculus Quest 2 now comes in two variants: a model with 128GB of storage, priced at $400 / £400 / AU$630, and a 256GB version for $500 / £500 / AU$790.

While this is cheaper than the original entry-level Oculus Quest model launched it's more expensive than the Quest 2 has been previously. Before Meta brought in a price increase (caused by inflation and production costs going up) the 128GB model cost £299 / $299 / AU$479, and the 256GB version sold for £399 / $399 / AU$639.

The higher price for the Oculus Quest 2 does come with one new benefit though, you'll get a copy of one of the best Oculus Quest 2 games for free: Beat Saber. Buy a new Quest 2 before the end of 2022 and you'll be eligible to get a copy of the game at no charge.

Do check out the latest Meta Quest promo codes for ways to save some extra cash on the VR headset.

Oculus Quest 2: design

Self-contained VR headset
Improved resolution screen and processor
Controllers have double battery life and thumb rest spaces

The Oculus Quest 2 is worn on the head, quite a bit like a scuba mask. Where a scuba mask’s window would be, you’ve instead got a padded cavity that houses a pair of goggle-like lenses that sit in front of a screen, giving you stereoscopic 3D visuals. Paired with motion sensors and accelerometers in the headset, you can move your head and see the motions reflected in real-time on the digital screen in front of you as if you were looking out and moving around in the real world.

It’s a similarly lightweight design to the first Oculus Quest (now available in white plastic rather than a dust-hugging, fabric-covered black) with its outer shell housing external cameras that help to track your positioning and that of the supplied controllers.

You tighten the headset with a velcro, slightly-elasticated fabric strap – a change (not necessarily for the better) from the more structured rubberized original.

Oculus Quest 2 headset, viewed from inside

The internal improvements between the Quest 2 and the original Quest headset are significant. Compared to the original Quest, the Quest 2 offers 6GB of RAM compared to 4GB, and there’s a much faster Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chipset running the show. This allows for greater fidelity in experiences shown on the Quest 2, as well as allowing for boosted resolutions and refresh rates.

The first Oculus Quest made use of dual 1440 x 1600 resolution OLED displays (one for each eye), but the Quest 2 opts for a single LCD panel, split so as to display an 1832 x 1920 pixel resolution per eye. That’s about 50 percent sharper than the original, and while we’d usually prefer the richness of an OLED display, we hardly missed it here. LCD also opens up an improved refresh rate of 90Hz to developers, compared to the original Quest’s 72Hz - with an experimental feature bumping it up to 120Hz. Where supported, it will be a notably smoother experience.

Note though that there's a change to the Interpupillary distance (IPD, the gap between your pupils) slider on the Quest 2. Previously, you could make fine adjustments with a slider on the underside of the original Quest. Now you have to physically shift the goggles themselves over three pre-set distances, 58mm, 63mm, and 68mm. While most won't notice any difference (the three settings cover the most common IPD ranges), it's a shame that more delicate control has been lost.

The Quest 2 does all of this while still offering the same 2-3 hour battery life as the first Quest, depending on the application you’re using. That may not sound like much, but longer play sessions than that are unlikely to be comfortable anyway.

Oculus has managed this thanks to significant improvements to its tracking algorithms, which extend to the controllers too, now offering double the battery life (we’re talking weeks of constant play) compared to their predecessors.

The motion controllers themselves have seen some small improvements too. Now available in white, they offer more room to rest your thumb during play, making them easier to hold for longer sessions. Each has a baton-like handle, including triggers for your forefingers and grips, as well as facial buttons and movement sticks for your thumbs. A strap keeps the controllers from flying free from your hand, while a plastic ring surrounds your thumbs, housing the near-invisible LEDs that allow the headset to track your hands’ and arms’ movements.

Speakers are built into the headset’s strap supports, offering directional left and right stereo sound. They’re reasonably clear and loud enough to get across the drama and directional audio feedback of your games, while keeping your ears free in order to allow you some awareness of your physical surroundings. Note that if you’re playing in a room with a friend, they’re going to hear everything going on using the built-in speakers, but there’s also a 3.5mm jack if you want to connect your own headphones for a private session.

A microphone is built in too, again clear enough for communicating in multiplayer games and doing some voice searches in the various UI elements of apps that support it. Speech recognition is surprisingly accurate, too.

Oculus Quest 2: using it

Intuitive set-up and safety system
Impressive hand tracking features
Chromecast-enabled screen sharing

Getting a VR headset set up can be a painful affair – there’s usually loads of wires to plug in, and external sensors to arrange. But because all the computing and motion tracking is done on the self-contained Oculus Quest 2 headset, getting into the action here take just 5-10 minutes.

You’ll turn on the headset after its first charge, and be showed a few safety clips, and a very short intro video that introduces you to controllers and how their wand like point-and-trigger system can be used to navigate menus. You’ll then be asked to set up what's called a ‘Guardian' – the first of many 'wow' moments the Oculus Quest offers.

Oculus Quest 2 controllers on colored cushion

Using the headset’s external cameras, you’ll be shown a grayscale view of your surrounding environment on screen, in real-time. You’ll then use the controllers like a spray paint can, painting around the edges of your room to show the headset the safe play space you can freely walk about in without bumping into, say, your TV or sofa.

Stationary or seated settings are also available, but it’s these room-scale experiences that prove the most immersive. Oculus suggests a minimum space of 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet for room-scale titles, but you can probably get away with a bit smaller if you're careful. With the boundaries established, the Guardian wall is then revealed: a grid-like digital wall that only makes itself visible if you’re attempting to cross its boundaries. Here you’ll know the limit of safe play space, and if you stick your head through the digital wall, you’ll again see your real-world environment. It’s an ingenious safety feature.

The safety video animation below, which was revealed alongside the original Quest, does a good job of illustrating how it works:

With the Guardian set up, you’ll then be shown how to (optionally) use your hands to navigate menus, instead of using the controllers. Small movements like thumb and forefinger pinches can be used to select options and looking at your palm with fingers touching opens up menus. While the number of games using it remains limited, it's so intuitive that we're sure we'll see it used more and more in the future.

With set up out of the way, you’re into the Oculus menu system, which sits like a floating panel over your customizable ‘Oculus Home’ environment, a bit like a virtual living room.

Oculus Quest 2 interface with hand-tracking

It’s here that you can browse app, game and video content, manage the storage on your headset, and connect with friends through Facebook. Note that a Facebook account is now an unavoidable part of the Oculus Quest experience, so if you’d rather not be a part of Zuckerberg’s data-harvesting empire, you’re going to have to pass on the headset entirely. It simply can’t be used without one.

There are plans to bring in a separate login method, however, we've not yet heard specifics of when this option will be available.

That moral quandary aside, it’s a smooth and easily navigable device. It also instantly shows just how far VR has come, especially mobile VR. Text is sharp and legible, and motion smooth and comfortable. While your field of view is narrowed by the goggles, it doesn’t take too long to get used to inhabiting the virtual space. For a newcomer, it’s breathtaking.

And while VR is often accused of being a solitary affair, Oculus has made strong efforts to make using Quest 2 in a group accessible. Like the original Quest, you can use the Google Chromecast screen sharing function within the Quest 2’s menu to allow someone not wearing the headset to watch what you’re up to on a second display like a smartphone or TV. Some games even actively encourage it, with one player taking charge of a role in the real world, while another navigates the VR world presented in the headset.

Oculus Quest 2: Software and apps

Backwards compatible with original Quest games
Immersive seated, standing and room-scale experiences
Still has the capacity to make you feel nauseous

All Oculus Quest apps work on Oculus Quest 2, and most new applications will be backwards compatible with the original Quest (save for some high-end games like Resident Evil 4 VR ).

As such, there was a healthy library of hundreds of games and apps available to Oculus Quest 2 at launch and that suite of titles has only grown. For some recommendations, you'll want to check out our best Oculus Quest 2 games , best VR horror games , and best VR fitness games lists.

Red, polygonal enemies meet your fists in Superhot VR

Oculus Quest 2 has access to some of the best virtual reality games that have been made. The range of inventive ideas on display is delightful, and with events like the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase becoming a yearly event we're seeing a healthy cadence of big titles appearing on the system.

It’s a wondrous experience losing yourself in the Quest 2, letting you really live within and feel connected to the games that you play. But the crucial question is… can you stomach it?

Some people can enjoy VR for hours without any complaint, while many feel symptoms akin to seasickness, caused by the disconnect between what your senses feel, and eyes see. While a tolerance to VR motion sickness can be built up over time, be prepared to limit your play sessions accordingly, or keep a bucket handy.

Many games thankfully have various comfort settings that can ease you in, such as snap turning, or features to make moving on the spot less sickening, so you should be able to find something that works for you.

But Quest 2 goes beyond games, of course. VR can be educational – there are applications talking you through historical moments, such as a touching look at the life of Anne Frank, and one letting you visit the Chernobyl disaster zone.

Virtual reality can be seen as an ‘empathy’ platform, letting you experience not only other worlds, but other lives and cultures. There are great apps from National Geographic and other organizations that let you visit locations around the world for a spot of virtual tourism, while also opening up the very real dangers of climate change. With fitness studios and meditation spots also available in app form, if you can visit it in the real world, there’s a good chance there’s a VR alternative being developed, or already in existence.

And then there are video players. The Quest comes with a built-in video player for side-loading your own clips onto, and there’s browser access, too.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube are all also available to download, offering digital living rooms for you to watch titles on. YouTube VR is the best of the three – not only does it let you sit inside 360-degree videos and access the wealth of content uploaded to YouTube, it generally feels sharper, and gives you the option of pulling its massive screen closer to your seated position, as if you were at your very own personal IMAX screening.

Oculus Quest 2: PC tethering

Access to high-quality PC VR experiences with Oculus Link feature
Stands toe-to-toe with dedicated PC headsets
Can access other VR gaming stores and platforms on PC

The Oculus Quest 2 rings the death knell for Oculus’s tethered, PC-only headsets, such as the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S . It has confirmed to TechRadar that, going forward, its headsets will offer a combination of mobile and PC tethered play, rather than being solely PC-tethered hardware.

Should you be lucky enough to have a decent-spec gaming PC , you can use the Oculus Quest 2 to tap into tethered virtual reality experiences powered by your computer. It’s simply a matter of plugging in a high-speed USB 3.0 cable to your headset, setting up the PC-based Oculus launcher and store on your computer, and grabbing the apps that take your fancy.

Alternatively, you can use the Quest 2's Air Link feature for a wireless PC VR experience.

Whichever method you choose this will dramatically increase the number of titles available to Oculus Quest 2 players, providing they have the PC hardware to power them. In addition, PC-based experiences, by virtue of the potential GPU horsepower behind them, can be more detailed and ambitious by an order of magnitude than their mobile counterparts.

Hands up as enemies approach in Half-Life: Alyx

With the greater power of a PC at hand, the Quest is capable of taking advantage of some really impressive adventures, such as the god-stomping Asgard’s Wrath and mind-blowing Lone Echo 2 . These are high-end VR adventures with graphical fidelity leagues ahead of the majority of Quest 2’s mobile apps and should be taken advantage of if possible. With a bit of tinkering, you can get the Quest 2 to play VR apps from other stores too, such as Steam VR’s highlight Half Life: Alyx .

Offering access to both these play scenarios through one headset line is a wise move by Facebook, reducing the amount of hardware it supports. However, as mobile VR now becomes the default for Oculus (not everyone has a gaming PC , after all), we hope that that doesn’t dull the ambitions of developers. We wouldn't want to see apps focus solely on the lower-powered mobile headset and give a cold shoulder to the more powerful made-for-PC experiences that can be achieved.

Oculus Quest 2: Accessories

New for the Oculus Quest is the introduction of a number of Oculus-licensed accessories beyond the controllers. These include a new, structured headband for an optional comfort fit, a headband with a built-in battery to double playtime, audio accessories from Logitech , and different inner faceplates for varying sizes.

Our favorite is by far the Quest 2 strap with battery. Not only is it the best way to extend the battery life of your Oculus Quest 2 , but the weight of the battery makes the headset feel less front-weighted, improving comfort.

The elite strap is also a solid add-on, but you'd be better off saving up and getting the strap with battery upgrade instead.

Buy it if...

You want an accessible, wire-free VR experience Self-contained and remarkably easy to use, Oculus Quest 2 represents the very best of VR gaming and experiences, in a package that even a technological novice can set up and appreciate.

You have a VR-ready gaming PC You’ll get even more bang for your buck if you’ve got a highly specified PC to hand, as plugging a cable into the Quest opens up access to tethered PC VR experiences, too.

You have a big play space to enjoy Oculus Quest 2 can be enjoyed by anyone, thanks to the way it scales its Guardian room tracker from seated, to standing, to free roaming experiences. But Quest 2 is at its best when you’ve got a large (indoor) space to roam around, free of obstacles to break the illusion of wandering around a digital world.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t want to be tied to Facebook Oculus’s recent changes to its User Agreement means that you must have a Facebook account activated in order to use the Quest 2. That brings with it Facebook’s data monitoring practices, so if you’re not a fan of that scenario, you’re out of luck.

You’re easily nauseated It’ll vary from person to person, but certain virtual reality experiences still have the capacity to make you feel a bit nauseous. There’s lots of ways to minimise this effect, including not playing racing or flying games, but it’s a consideration that doesn’t usually have to be made with other platforms and media.

You’ve already got the original Oculus Quest There’s lots to love about the new Quest, but if you’re an owner of the original model, you shouldn’t feel left too far behind by the introduction of this new version.

Also consider...

Meta Quest Pro Meta's latest VR headset costs a fair amount more than the budget-friendly Quest 2, but its performance upgrades and suite of new features (like color passthrough and eye-tracking) make it a great pick for those looking to splash out on a VR device.

Check out our Meta Quest Pro review

Valve Index If you have a beefy PC set up and a decent-sized budget you could try the Valve Index. This headset's more impressive specs allow it to deliver some great VR experiences, though you will miss out on the Quest 2's exclusive library of games like Resident Evil 4 VR.

Check out our Valve Index review

PlayStation VR If you have a PS5 or a PS4 then you might want to consider picking up the PSVR headset instead. It's generally a bit cheaper and can offer you a new way to enjoy games you may already own like Resident Evil 7 and Star Wars Squadrons. Though with the PSVR 2 headset coming soon you might want to hold off a little longer.

Check out our PlayStation VR review

First reviewed

Oculus Quest 2: Recent updates

Right now, we're still awaiting further news on Meta's next two headsets, Project Cambria and Oculus Quest 3 (also known as the Meta Quest 3). In the meantime thought, we've seen some unusual accessories being developed for the existing Quest 2 headset, including one which suffocates you to better simulate firefighting in virtual reality.

Otherwise, if you're looking to get the most out of Meta's current headset, we're here to help. We know that Ghostbusters VR is coming to Oculus Quest 2 soon, and Among Us VR is coming to Oculus Quest 2 as well. There's plenty to look forward to, so if you're hoping to use it on PC too, we're here to help. Thanks to Oculus Link, you can play Steam VR games with Oculus Quest 2 , and here's our guide on how to connect Oculus Quest 2 to a PC .

Here are 6 things you might not know an Oculus Quest 2 can do

Gerald is Editor-in-Chief of iMore.com. Previously he was the Executive Editor for TechRadar, taking care of the site's home cinema, gaming, smart home, entertainment and audio output. He loves gaming, but don't expect him to play with you unless your console is hooked up to a 4K HDR screen and a 7.1 surround system. Before TechRadar, Gerald was Editor of Gizmodo UK. He is also the author of 'Get Technology: Upgrade Your Future', published by Aurum Press.

Hamish Hector Senior Staff Writer, News

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Oculus: the lasser glass' strange origin explained.

Mike Flanagan's 2013 psychological horror, Oculus, created the rich mythos surrounding the film's cursed mirror, the Lasser Glass.

Oculus was a 2013 psychological horror film from Mike Flanagan ( Doctor Sleep ) that made audiences terrified of something as benign as a household mirror with its cursed Lasser Glass.

Flanagan, whose name is slowly becoming synonymous with the horror genre in general, released Oculus toward the beginning of his career. Oculus was originally intended to be a series of short films, but couldn't get the funding to complete the series and focused his talents elsewhere. His first feature, Absentia , was funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign and ended up being released direct-to-video before being picked up by Netflix, which helped boost Flanagan right into funding for his next feature, which saw the director returning to his old idea and structuring it as a feature instead of short chapters. Oculus was Flanagan's first theatrical release in 2014, but the film traveled through the festival circuit in 2013 before being distributed to a wider audience.

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Starring Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff , and Rory Cochrane, Oculus is a paranormal time warp centered around two siblings who re-acquire a mirror that one believes is directly responsible for the untimely, violent deaths of their parents when they were children.

The Lasser Glass' Origin Explained

Oculus explores the dark history surrounding the Lasser glass when Kaylie ( Gillan ) starts to go mad on a quest to prove the mirror's supernatural influence. Her brother, Tim (Thwaites), is convinced that the mirror is merely what Kaylie has chosen to blame, as he's been treated throughout the years by various psychologists who have all convinced him there was nothing supernatural involved.

In her research, Kaylie learned that events just like what she remembered date all the way back to 1754 and involved the mirror in a significant fashion. In 1754, the mirror belonged to Phillip and Virginia Lasser, who displayed the mirror prominently in their home. Phillip was found burnt to death at the base of their fireplace. Robert Clancy, who was a large man of around 300 pounds, obtained the mirror in 1864 and hung it in the ballroom of his Atlanta home. Soon after, he lost a dangerous amount of weight for an unknown reason and died. In 1904, Mary O'Connor from New England put the mirror in her personal bathroom and was found in her bathtub only two weeks later, dead from dehydration despite the bathtub being full of water. Alice Carden of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, hung the mirror in the children's nursery in 1943. Carden ended up drowning both of her children, then smashed her own bones with a hammer inside the nursery. Her dogs also vanished from the home.

In 1955, Tobin Capp hung the bedroom in his mirror and was found starved to death in the same room with the mirror. His pet Dalmatian vanished and all his house plants were also dead. The mirror was hung in the lobby of Hill Trust Bank in San Diego, California in 1965. Maria Wicker, one of the bank's tellers, locked her manager in the vault and chewed through a live power line. All the plants inside the bank died as well. In 1971, Oliver Jeffries, a New York City teacher, obtained the mirror and hung it in a central lecture hall. Like in other cases, his classroom plants all died, but he tried to destroy the mirror, then walked out of his classroom and into oncoming traffic. Marisol Chavez died from a hemorrhage related to a miscarriage and perished in the same room as the mirror in 1975. Chavez also pulled out her teeth with pliers and kept them in a plastic bag. In 2002, Alan and Marie Russell experienced the same dead plants and the disappearance of their family's dog after Alan hung the mirror in his home office. Within two weeks, Marie suffered a nervous breakdown and ends up shot dead by her husband. Alan tried to kill his son, Tim, and daughter, Kaylie, but was shot dead by Tim in self-defense. The story of the Russell family is the central plot of the movie, Oculus .

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Oculus (Movie review)

Robyn Andrew

Cryptic Rock CrypticRock Movie Reviews News Reviews

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Oculus is the latest psychological horror movie from Director and Writer Mike Flanagan ( Absentia 2011 , Ghosts of Hamilton Swift 2003) and produced by WWE Studios. Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, it was released in theaters April 11th in the United States and now sees a DVD/ Blu-ray release August 5th.

Garrett Ryan (left) and Annalise Basso (right) star in Relativity Media's OCULUS. Photo Credit: John Estes ©2013 Lasser Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Based on the 2006 short-film Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan, the full-length adaption takes places eleven years ago when tragic events saw ten-year-old Tim (Garrett Ryan: Dog with a Blog , Insidious Chapter 2 20113), and a thirteen-year-old Kaylie (Annalise Basso: Bedtime Stories 2008 , Dark House 2009) witness their father Alan (Rory Cochrane: Argo 2012 , Parkland 2013), killing their psychotic mother Marie (Katie Sackhoff: Battlestar Galatica series, Riddick 2013), and ending with Tim having to fatally shoot their father. Tim is taken from the scene by police and placed in a Psychiatric Institution after claiming the mirror made them do it. Fast forward to present time, after serving his time and dealing with his many issues, Tim (Brenton Thwaites: Save Your Legs 2012 , Blue Lagoon: The Awakening 2012) has just been released into the care of his older, seemingly more stable, sister Kaylie (Karen Gillan: Not Another Happy Ending, Guardians of the Galaxy 2014) with the belief that the incident was not supernatural in nature.

Left his share of their parents’ estate, Tim sets about starting to get his life on track. Unknown to him, Kaylie has harbored her own beliefs during his incarceration, tracked down the fated mirror through her work, and has organized for it to be transported to their former family home. Despite his misgivings, Tim accompanies Kaylie on her mission to get answers. Kaylie has done some extensive research into the mirror and plans on setting the mirror up in their old family home with cameras and finally proving what it is capable of. Despite his pleas to leave, Tim’s love for his sister overrides his misgivings and he stays and helps Kaylie in her possible irrational mission, hoping she quickly becomes convinced that the mirror is innocuous. Not long after they enter the house, the mirror starts weaving its evil, and horrifyingly thrust Kaylie and Tim into their terrible past, revealing their family secrets in a bloody way. Will they both survive, or will they succumb to the mirrors wicked wishes.

Oculus is told from the viewpoint of Tim and Kaylie in the past and present, switching backwards and forwards, which can be a little confusing at first, but it quickly comes together revealing its tightly woven plot. The movie is extremely well acted, written, and well-worth watching. Cryptic Rock gives Oculus 4 out of 5 stars.

Order a copy of Oculus on Blu-ray / DVD here

Posted by Robyn Andrew

Published on August 4, 2014

Category(s) Cryptic Rock CrypticRock Movie Reviews News Reviews

Tags Annalise Basso Brenton Thwaites Garett Ryan Horror movie review Karen Gillan Mike Flanagan Oculus

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Shockingly, people aren’t interested in paying $3,500 for apple’s wildly overpriced vision pro vr headset.

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A customer tries his Vision Pro at the launch of the Apple Vision Pro at Apple The Grove in Los ... [+] Angeles, California, on February 2, 2024. The Vision Pro, the tech giant's $3,499 headset, is its first major release since the Apple Watch nine years ago. (Photo by David SWANSON / AFP) (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images)

There are essentially two fundamental flaws with Virtual Reality in its current form, at least when it comes to widespread consumer adoption of the technology.

The first problem is the design. Basically every VR gadget is a headset that you have to strap awkwardly to your face. These are varying degrees of comfortable, but even the most luxurious leaves a lot to be desired. Because you have goggles strapped to your face, which is inherently uncomfortable. A lot of times these are tethered to a PC or console, but even the untethered headsets have lots of drawbacks when it comes to comfort and convenience compared to just playing games or watching movies on a normal screen.

On top of this, despite progress in this regard a lot of people still get motion sickness using VR headsets. Or headaches. Or nausea and headaches. I certainly do. The combination of just not enjoying having something strapped to my face and the physical illness I feel has basically killed VR for me. Nothing in VR is good enough to bring me back. My son plays a ton more VR than I do, but even he has been spending less and less time with his Oculus and more and more time on his PC playing Minecraft, Roblox and other games online with his friends.

The other big hurdle for VR adoption is price, though stuff like the Oculus Quest line has made it more affordable than before.

Into this reality, steps Apple—a company known for charging pretty exorbitant amounts for its fanciest devices—with the $3,500 Vision Pro VR headset, and rather shockingly it’s not selling as fast as the company had hoped.

Here’s IGN :

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the company had slashed its Vision Pro shipments to 400,000-450,000 units, with the market predicting 700,000–800,000 units or more. According to the report, Apple cut shipments ahead of the Vision Pro’s launch in non-U.S. markets, suggesting weak demand in the U.S.

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Ming-Chi Kuo speculates that Apple is currently reviewing its Apple Vision Pro roadmap, and may no longer release a new, cheaper model in 2025. Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple now expects Vision Pro shipments to decline year-on-year in 2025.

I find this completely unsurprising. I find the notion that close to a million people would spend $3,500 on this gadget more shocking than the fact that no, actually, they won’t.

I haven’t tried the Vision Pro (I didn’t receive a review unit and I’d rather spend $3,500 on a new gaming rig) but the price-tag alone was going to kill this thing before it ever had a chance to make a splash. Maybe if this had been the first VR headset ever that price point would have made sense, but in a market with plenty of cheaper alternatives (none of which are flying off the shelves) it’s hard to imagine Apple was ever going to stick this particular landing.

Reviews didn’t help. The headset was not the most comfortable according to reviewers. Too heavy and the weight distribution was off, making it a literal pain to wear. The battery life left much to be desired, with reviewers noting that watching a movie on the Vision Pro was great, but the battery couldn’t make it through longer films. The headset also sports a puzzlingly low Field Of View (FOV) well behind most of the competition. Stack on lens glare, no motion controllers and suddenly you have a lot of unhappy customers. These sorts of issues might be okay on a $400 headset, but when you’re shelling out three-and-a-half grand, you expect the best. Then again, even a flawless headset at that price would have trouble because VR just isn’t compelling enough to justify breaking the bank.

Speaking of which, the $3,500 model only includes 256GB of storage. You’ll need to shell out $3,900 for 1TB. You could buy 9 PlayStation 5 consoles for that amount and still have some money leftover for a couple games and an extra gamepad. Of course, that’s pre-tax. And you’d better add AppleCare+—another $500, which you probably want to buy given how pricey the repairs are. It doesn’t come with a case. That’ll cost you another $200. The battery gives you maybe two hours, so grab an extra one for $200 more.Very, very few customers—even spendy Apple customers—have that kind of cash laying around for what is effectively a very expensive toy.

The vicious cycle that comes next, with sales down, is grim. If sales continue to be sluggish, support for the hardware may follow suit. There aren’t a ton of apps for the Vision Pro yet and that may not improve if the hardware doesn’t move.

Immersive video experiences, top-notch sound and crisp movie viewing all sound like neat features, but the drawbacks of VR—and the drawbacks of spending thousands of dollars—outweigh every single one of them. And really, you’ll be watching those cool movies alone. That’s another problem with VR. It’s isolating in a way that a big-screen TV is not. Even our phones can be easily shared with those around us. VR is solitary. And if Apple really is reconsidering releasing a cheaper version of the Vision Pro in 2025, things look awfully grim for the company’s first foray into virtual reality.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Until we get a Holodeck, virtual reality is a bust. It’s certainly not going mainstream in its current form, and that isn’t my inner Luddite speaking. It’s just the cold, hard truth.

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‘The Spider’ – Short Film Starring Chandler Riggs Imagines Spider-Man as a Body Horror Nightmare

Known for his role as Carl Grimes on “The Walking Dead,” Chandler Riggs is back this month in the brand new fan film The Spider , which just shattered 1 million views on YouTube.

It’s not hard to see why, as the 9-minute short imagines Spider-Man as a Cronenbergian body horror movie! You can watch The Spider down below to join the million+ other viewers.

Chandler Riggs plays a new version of Peter Parker in the short from writer/director Andy Chen , and his origin story is much the same as we’ve seen before. Peter gets bitten by a spider, and he starts to realize that he’s gained some pretty wild super-powers as a result.

The Spider starts off innocently enough, with Riggs’s Peter Parker taking to the skies like Toby Maguire and Tom Holland before him. But it’s not long before things, well, take a turn…

This particular version of Spider-Man doesn’t merely become a spider by putting on a fancy superhero costume. No, he literally BECOMES A MAN-SPIDER in the most gruesome way.

The Spider features a gnarly creature suit design and fabrication by Alen Stubbs & Sci-Fi Studios , and you’ll have to watch the short for yourself to see just how nasty it gets.

Oh and be sure to watch through the end credits…

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Video Games

Survios announces vr title ‘alien: rogue incursion’, coming this year [trailer].

Remember back in 2022 when developer Survios had announced that they were teaming up with 20th Century Games to develop a new Alien title? Well seeing as it’s Alien Day, Survios has announced their brand-new VR title, Alien: Rogue Incursion . Coming “ Holiday 2024 ” to the PlayStation VR2, SteamVR, and Quest 3, Rogue Incursion will feature an original story that “fully surrounds players within the terrors of the Alien universe”.

Details on the game are light at the moment, but the official site describes the upcoming title as being “designed by Alien fans for Alien fans”, with Survios aiming to craft a “technically advanced, and frightfully immersive Alien virtual reality game.”

Seeing as Alien: Isolation never got official VR support when it was released, this is obviously a welcome announcement. In the meantime, if you’re keen to experience an Alien game in VR, you can always check out the fan-made mod for Alien: Isolation by Nibre_ , which allows both the Steam and Epic Games Store version of Alien: Isolation to be played using the Oculus.

And speaking of Alien: Isolation , as you might expect, it’s got a hefty 80% discount going on at the moment on Steam until May 1 . So if you still haven’t grabbed it after all these years, this is as good a time as any.

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'The Veil' Review: Elisabeth Moss Makes the Most of Hulu's So-So Spy Thriller

The limited series, co-starring Josh Charles, Yunma Marwan, and Dali Benssalah, premieres April 30.

The Big Picture

FX on Hulu's The Veil ultimately fails due to its limited episode count.
The show's characters lack depth and complexity as a result of time constraints.
A rushed plot reveals key information prematurely, missing out on the opportunity for deeper story development.

As a genre, spy shows will seemingly always be a wealth to mine. The espionage industry, with its necessity for secrecy, or rival agencies competing to apprehend the same target, lends itself to the high stakes and drama that television demands. Even the pursuit of deep undercover work, in which you rarely know the real truth about a person until it's either unearthed or confessed, holds an inherent degree of suspense in most instances. Unfortunately, not every spy show can exist on par with some of the best to ever do it, like FX 's The Americans . That network's latest production, The Veil , which is set to debut on Hulu later this month and hails from writer Steven Knight ( Peaky Blinders , Taboo ), largely misfires. What should be a complex cat-and-mouse game between its leading duo ultimately rushes through dropping its biggest bombshells.

The Veil (2024)

Follows the relationship between two women playing a deadly game of truth and lies. One woman has a secret, and the other has a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

What Is 'The Veil' About?

The Veil wastes no time at all in introducing us to its main characters right from the jump. Imogen Salter, played by The Handmaid's Tale 's Elisabeth Moss , is a seasoned MI6 agent who's just come off another successful mission when she gets word of her next assignment, courtesy of the French intelligence agency DGSE. At a refugee camp, tucked away in the mountains on the Turkish and Syrian border, a woman named Adilah El Idrissi ( Yunma Marwan ) has been detained on suspicion of being an agent of ISIS. However, it's not only Imogen who has been tasked with securing Adilah and transporting her into safer territory; the CIA has sent its best operative, Max Peterson ( Josh Charles ), to accomplish the same task. In case Imogen's assignment couldn't possibly become more entangled, her DGSE handler, Malik Amar ( Dali Benssalah ), is also her on-again, off-again lover, who finds himself constantly torn between his loyalties to his own country and his undeniable connection to Imogen.

However, the story doesn't just end after Imogen manages to sneak Adilah out of the refugee camp; once the two women hit the road together, driving through the winding mountains and traveling from Istanbul to Paris to London, Imogen makes it her personal mission to uncover Adilah's secret . While her target is adamant that she was recruited into the dangerous organization and now has every desire to get out for good — especially for the sake of her young daughter, who is living removed from all of this in Paris — Imogen is less convinced that Adilah is telling the truth about her backstory. With a potential terrorist attack on the U.S. looming and several other threats closing in, it's now a race against time, as these two women remain uncertain about whether they can trust each other while slowly offering more and more details from their respective pasts.

'The Veil's Story and Characters Are Underserved by Its Runtime

The biggest problem The Veil has lies within its episode count. While limited series have become a more and more popular storytelling format over the last several years, allowing even the biggest names to participate in television projects for a small amount of time, they also carry some ingrained risks. The Veil only boasts a total of six episodes, four of which were provided for review, and its characters ultimately suffer as a result of the series not having nearly enough time to dig into its story .

As an MI6 agent, Imogen is purported to be a skilled chameleon, someone who can adapt and change her demeanor to blend into any situation — but the show doesn't allow us to see all the personas she's supposedly capable of. Instead, episodes build Imogen's plot more around her investigating her own family's past rather than establishing her as a layered and intriguing character, and then peeling back said layers one episode at a time. Moss certainly does her best with what she's given to play , and the glimmers of truth in even her most minute expressions are worth paying attention to. Ultimately, however, Imogen is rendered more one-note based on the fact that the series first teases out her history in bits and pieces before having to accelerate those reveals, as if suddenly realizing it has less time than it initially thought.

Apart from its lead, most of The Veil 's other characters are thin and ill-defined — though this is, again, a consequence of the narrow window through which to develop them. As Imogen's handler and romantic partner, Benssalah's Malik spends most of his scenes desperately trying to get her on the phone for abbreviated conversations that don't successfully shed light on the depth of their connection. Perhaps that's the point, and we're meant to understand that Malik is just way more invested in Imogen, while she barely spares him a thought in return. But it does create the feeling that there could have been an even more complicated and thorny relationship established between them, something that six episodes simply doesn't have the opportunity to build to its fullest potential. The same goes for Max, and while Charles brings the signature smarm and charm we've come to know and love him for, he's unfortunately only peppered throughout the plot. That said, his and Moss's undeniable chemistry proves to be one of The Veil 's bright spots, momentarily slowing the series down from its breakneck pacing.

'The Veil' Plays All Its Best Cards Too Early

The Veil 's narrative limitations do the biggest disservice to Adilah, whose real identity is the source of the series' overarching mystery at the start. Is she merely a woman who became swept up in a greater conspiracy than she ever planned for, or is she actually its most powerful mastermind? If The Veil had been afforded more episodes to spool out this particular thread, creating more doubt about Adilah's trustworthiness, it might have resulted in an even better version of this story — and given Marwan more of an opportunity to hint at more of the character's facets. Instead, the show shows its hand too early, abandoning the fraught interpersonal dynamics between Imogen and Adilah in favor of a more global threat that lacks the same intrigue.

Watching The Veil , the scenes that deliver the most impact aren't the ones adorned with all the trappings of a traditional spy thriller — undercover agents, rooftop chases, even nameless assassins. Where the series is at its best is when Moss and Marwan effectively ground the plot in more of a two-hander through their early road trip scenes, facing off with each other warily before deciding where and when to be more honest about themselves. If only the show was more intent on allowing them to spill their truths on their own terms and in their own time, rather than rushing to spoil the reveals for us first.

Elisabeth Moss makes the most out of The Veil, a so-so spy thriller that suffers from a lack of time.

The series is at its best when Moss and Yunma Marwan turn it into more of a two-hander with their road trip scenes.
Josh Charles brings his signature smarm and charm to the role of CIA operative Max Peterson.
Moss's Imogen Salter is set up to have an intriguing backstory, but is rendered one-note due to a limited number of episodes.
Most of the show's supporting characters are too thinly defined.

The Veil premieres with two episodes on April 30, exclusively on Hulu.

Watch on Hulu

Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Jessica Chastain Voice Projects in Cannes Film Festival Immersive Lineup

By Ellise Shafer

Ellise Shafer

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Cate Blanchett Colin Farrell Jessica Chastain

The Cannes Film Festival has announced the selections for its Immersive lineup, including projects voiced by stars like Cate Blanchett , Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain .

According to a press release, the Immersive competition includes “collective location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, and projection mapping and holographic works. These carefully selected immersive works showcase the cutting edge of this new era in storytelling, challenging convention, embracing new technologies, and above all celebrating new artists as well as old.”

Popular on Variety

The best immersive work award will be presented at the Immersive section’s closing ceremony on May 23. See the full Immersive lineup below.

Competition

“En Amour” — Claire Bardainne, Adrien Mondot, Laurent Bardainne Casting: Claire Bardainne (voice over), November Ultra (singing voice) Produced by: Adrien M & Claire B, Ekleroshock records

“Evolver” — Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, Robin McNicholas Casting: Cate Blanchett (voice) Produced by: Marshmallow Laser Feast, Atlas V, Pressman Film, Orange, Bia-Echo Foundation, Dirty Films

“Human Violins: Prelude” — Ioana Mischie Casting: Cabiria Morgenstern (English Voice) Produced by: Storyscapes, Da Prod, Studioset

“Maya: The Birth of a Superhero” — Poulomi Basu, CJ Clarke Casting: Indira Varma, Kathy Packianathan (French voices), Indira Varma, Charithra Chandran (English voices), Florrie Antoniou (voices) Produced by: Just Another Production Company, Floréal, Meta VR for Good, France Télévisions, Francetv Storylab, Meta

“Telos I” — Dorotea Saykaly, Emil Dam Seidel Casting: Dorotea Saykaly Produced by: Dorotea Saykaly, Emil Dam Seidel

“The Roaming” — Mathieu Pradat Casting: Axel Beaumont, Pierre Tallaron, Tony Sanial, Mila Pousséo, Chloé Froget, Anne Klein, Marianne Bourg Produced by: La prairie productions, Wild Fang Films, Normal Studio, Small Creative

“Traversing the Mist” — Tung-Yen Chou Casting: Jing-Yan Lin Produced by: Very Theatre

Out of Competition

“Battlescar” — Martin Allais, Nico Casavecchia Casting: Dawson (English voice), Jehnny Beth (French voice), Lo Rivera (German voice) Produced by: Atlas V, Albyon, 1STAveMachine, ARTE France, Oculus, Ryot

“Emperor” — Marion Burger, Ilan J. Cohen Casting: Olivia Cooke (English voice), Vimala Pons (French voice) Produced by: Atlas V, Reynard Films, France Télévisions

“Gloomy Eyes” — Fernando Maldonado, Jorge Tereso Casting: Tahar Rahim (French voice), Colin Farrell (English voice), Max Riemelt (German voice), Jorge Drexler (Spanish voice), Jam Hsiao (Mandarin voice) Produced by: Atlas V, 3dar, ARTE France, HTC, Ryot

“Missing Pictures: Naomi Kawase” — Clément Deneux Casting: Naomi Kawase Produced by: Atlas V, ARTE France, BBC, PTS, Serendipity Films, Wild Fang Films, Giioii

“Notes on Blindness” — Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton, James Spinney Casting: John Hull (English version), Lambert Wilson (French version) Produced by: Ex Nihilo, ARTE France, Archer’s Mark, Novelab

“Spheres” — Eliza McNitt Casting: Jessica Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown, Patti Smith Produced by: Protozoa Pictures, City Lights, Crime of Curiosity, Atlas V

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Jacob Greenwood

Mark of the deep bringing pirate adventure to pc, a pirate’s life .

Time for some classic metroidvania gameplay with some nautical twists. The seas leave much to be explored, and as a pirate it’s your job to explore them. Yet, keep in mind, the depths are far from linear, and dangers lurk around every reef. Today, Mad Mimic is happy to unveil their ambitious new indie game, Mark of the Deep. Inviting players to step into the boots of a wannabe Pirate Legend, the game takes players on an exploration of a cursed island. Interestingly, the game combines metroidvania style with deep exploration and dynamic combat. A new trailer gives players a first taste of the salty adventure that awaits them.

Mark of the Deep introduces players to Marcus “Rookie” Ramsey and his crew. Lost to a mysterious cursed island players, as Rookie, will explore looking for a way out. Of course, many dangers lurk on the island. Of course, some of them may even be mythical in nature. Importantly, Rookie must explore the island to recover his missing crew and save them from the clutches of a strange and nefarious figure. This stranger leads a cult who worships the “Old Folk”. Interestingly, the game combines its metroidvania style with cosmic horror elements and non-linear exploration, creating a new kind of adventure set in the universe of pirates.

Importantly, players can get a better look at Mark of the Deep in the new trailer for the game. Check out this nautical adventure and prepare for some action-packed swashbuckling. So, view the trailer below.

Mark of the Deep is releasing on PC via Steam. Importantly, the game can be wishlisted now on Steam .

SOURCE: PRESS RELEASE

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Oculus movie review & film summary (2014)
When "Oculus" opens, Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is being released from years of intensive therapy.Much like Daniel Lutz (whose life story became "The Amityville Horror"), Tim believed for most of his time in a padded cell that his father was forced to commit horrendous violence because of a supernatural force.His doctors, including Miguel Sandoval in a prologue cameo, reworked those ...
Oculus
Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Oculus is about one adjustment away from being a superior thriller. Rated: 2.5/4 Jan 5, 2015 Full Review James Rocchi Film.com Praised on the festival circuit ...
Review: Why 'Oculus' Is One of the Scariest American Horror Movies In Years
In "Oculus," the horror is at once deceptively simple and rooted in a deep, primal uneasiness. Its scariest aspects are universally familiar: By witnessing the two leads fall prey to the ...
Oculus (2013)
Oculus: Directed by Mike Flanagan. With Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane. A recently released inmate from a mental asylum learns from his sister that the murders he was convicted of committing were actually orchestrated by a supernatural entity, the Lasser Glass mirror.
Oculus (film)
Oculus is a 2013 American supernatural psychological horror film co-written, edited, and directed by Mike Flanagan. It is based on his short film Oculus: Chapter 3 - The Man with the Plan, and stars Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites as two young adult siblings who are convinced that an antique mirror is responsible for the death and misfortune that their family had suffered.
Oculus Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 7 ): Kids say ( 23 ): Creepy mirrors have been featured in horror movies plenty of times before, but none of them have been anything quite like OCULUS. It immediately turns your expectations upside via the character of Tim, a troubled but cured soul with blood on his hands.
Oculus
Full Review | Jun 30, 2020. The biggest misfortune in Oculus is that it's almost a good movie. Full Review | Original Score: 2.7/5 | Nov 22, 2019. The final product is a beautifully shot and ...
'Oculus' movie review: A satisfyingly scary ghost story
April 10, 2014 at 3:55 p.m. EDT. Siblings Kaylie and Tim (Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites) revisit the furnishings of their childhood home for answers to a family tragedy. (John Estes) A good ...
Oculus
Oculus - Metacritic. Summary Ten years ago, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents. Now in his 20s, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that ...
Oculus Review
Oculus is creepy; and serves up some deeply effective body horror, as mentioned. The sort of gore that makes you cringe deeply into your seat in an attempt to escape; the stomach churning variety ...
Oculus (2013)
Quickie Review: Oculus is a movie about a mirror that may or may not be evil. A brother and a sister, set out to prove that there is something supernatural about the mirror that tormented their family during their childhood. This film does try some creative ways of storytelling by weaving in and out of the present and past time-lines.
Oculus review
There are no new horror tropes or postmodern twists, but this psychodrama induces an unpleasant atmosphere of fear. Peter Bradshaw. Thu 12 Jun 2014 16.10 EDT. M ike Flanagan had been an unfamiliar ...
Oculus
This review, however, is more interested in grappling with content and the bigger issues of worldview. Because while Oculus isn't the most gruesome horror movie I've ever seen, it's still more than bloody enough to well earn its R rating. Dreadfully disturbing scenes relentlessly focus on two young children being terrorized by both of ...
'Oculus' Review: A Mind-Bending New Horror Franchise Is Born
This is a really interesting, worthy conceit done incredibly well. Fright fans will be pleased. /Film rating: 7 of 10. Read our Oculus movie review. Doctor Who star Karen Gillan is a woman who ...
Oculus
Movie poster owned by Blum House and associated Productions. Today I wanted to review Oculus (2013), a movie I think it should get more praise than it does.. Plot. Oculus follows two siblings ...
Parent reviews for Oculus
A surprisingly great, very well-executed horror film that needs more recognition. Oculus is an ingenious horror-thriller film. The dialogue, especially coming from the young protagonists, is very eloquent and the knowledge they elucidate about the post-traumatic situation that happened to their parents in the past is also quite captivating.
Oculus (2013) : Movie Plot Ending Explained
The Oculus movie cast includes Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan in the lead roles. I got quite a few requests for this film, finally got watching it, so let's get going. This is not an Oculus movie review, this is the plot and ending of Oculus Explained, so spoilers ahead!
Oculus: Film Review
April 8, 2014 12:19pm. A brother and sister face off against the mysterious force that destroyed their childhood in Mike Flanagan 's Oculus, an effective little creeper that makes the most of ...
Meta Quest 2 Review
The Meta Quest 2 (formerly Oculus Quest 2) follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, but improves upon the experience with a more powerful processor, a sharper screen, and a lighter design. It ...
Oculus Quest 2 review
The first Oculus Quest made use of dual 1440 x 1600 resolution OLED displays (one for each eye), but the Quest 2 opts for a single LCD panel, split so as to display an 1832 x 1920 pixel resolution ...
Oculus: The Lasser Glass' Strange Origin Explained
Oculus was a 2013 psychological horror film from Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) that made audiences terrified of something as benign as a household mirror with its cursed Lasser Glass.. Flanagan, whose name is slowly becoming synonymous with the horror genre in general, released Oculus toward the beginning of his career. Oculus was originally intended to be a series of short films, but couldn't ...
Oculus Quest 2 review: The best VR headset for most people
The best overall VR headset. Oculus. The Meta Quest 2 is the most popular and accessible VR headset on the market today. A minimalistic and comfortable design, respectable battery life, great ...
Oculus (Movie review)
Oculus is the latest psychological horror movie from Director and Writer Mike Flanagan (Absentia 2011, Ghosts of Hamilton Swift 2003) and produced by WWE Studios.Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, it was released in theaters April 11th in the United States and now sees a DVD/ Blu-ray release August 5th.
Shockingly, People Aren't Interested In Paying $3,500 For Apple's
The first problem is the design. Basically every VR gadget is a headset that you have to strap awkwardly to your face. These are varying degrees of comfortable, but even the most luxurious leaves ...
'The Spider'
Known for his role as Carl Grimes on "The Walking Dead," Chandler Riggs is back this month in the brand new fan film The Spider, which just shattered 1 million views on YouTube. It's not ...
'The Veil' Review
The limited series, co-starring Josh Charles, Yunma Marwan, and Dali Benssalah, premieres April 30. FX on Hulu's The Veil ultimately fails due to its limited episode count. The show's characters ...
Cannes Immersive: Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Jessica Chastain
Cannes Film Festival's Immersive lineup includes projects voiced by Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Jessica Chastain. ... Atlas V, Albyon, 1STAveMachine, ARTE France, Oculus, Ryot "Emperor ...
The Veil Review
The Veil premieres with two episodes on Hulu on Tuesday, April 30. New episodes will stream every Tuesday through May 28. The first scene of The Veil, the new six-part limited series about ...
Unreal Engine 5.4 is now available
Movie Render Graph For those creating linear content, Unreal Engine 5.4 introduces a major update to Movie Render Queue as an Experimental feature. Dubbed Movie Render Graph (MRG), the new node-based architecture enables users to set up graphs to render a single shot, or design them to scale out across complex multi-shot workflows for large ...
Mark of the Deep Bringing Pirate Adventure to PC
Movies/TV; nintendo 64; Oculus Quest; Oculus Quest 2; Oculus Rift; PC; ... Tales of Kenzera: Zau Review - Ancestral Action No Rest for the Wicked is an Artful and Arduous Action RPG

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