With assistance from Peter Schlessel, executive producer of Evil Dead and Insidious: Chapter 2, among others, Mike Flanagan directs this creep show affair from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Howard based on a short screenplay he penned with Jeff Seidman, which is a long-winded way of explaining how Oculus is the latest in a recent spate of thoughtful, spine-tingling features about the supernatural rooted in solid, carefully crafted ideas rather than gore and torture porn hijinks. Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) attempts to set the record straight about her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites), recently released from custody for a murder he didn’t commit. In fact, her impossible-to-believe story is that a mirror owned by their family has the ability to take possession of people. The makers of Oculus want us to watch and see, but the mirror only allows us to see what it wants us to see, so beware. Opens wide April 11. (R) Not screened in time for review
