Oculus

Maybe my expectations were too high. I got bored with "Oculus". The premise was nothing original. There was a nice setup of the mirror as an ominous haunted object. When the main character describes why the mirror is to blame for up to 45 murders over a few centuries, it really holds your attention. Then, as the mirror starts to play tricks on the woman and her brother, the movie falls flat. There are some good moments, like when the main character is tricked into biting a light bulb (ouch!!!), but I was lost trying to figure out exactly what was happening. The movie keeps switching between the woman and her brother in the present, and then flashing back to when they were young and being terrorized by their mother and father (and the mirror). There are even times when the young characters see themselves as their grownup selves within the flashbacks. It makes zero sense. I'm confused just writing about it. Maybe the film makers needed to define the mirror's haunting techniques better. I don't know.