Oddity is masterfully tense horror from the director of Hokum

《怪奇》（Oddity）：来自《Hokum》导演的精湛惊悚力作

Damian McCarthy’s previous film delivers more cursed objects and unsettling isolation in the Irish countryside. 达米安·麦卡锡（Damian McCarthy）的前作在爱尔兰乡村的背景下，带来了更多被诅咒的物品和令人不安的孤寂感。

Hokum recently hit theaters, and it’s already outperforming box office expectations. If this Kubrick-referencing haunted hotel flick starring Adam Scott was your introduction to director Damian McCarthy, do yourself a favor and go watch his previous film, Oddity. 电影《Hokum》近期上映，票房表现已超出预期。如果这部由亚当·斯科特（Adam Scott）主演、致敬库布里克的闹鬼酒店题材影片是你认识导演达米安·麦卡锡的契机，那么请务必去看看他的前作《怪奇》。

If you prefer to go in blind — the ideal way to watch any movie — Oddity is available to stream on Hoopla, Kanopy, Hulu, and Shudder. 如果你喜欢在对剧情一无所知的情况下观影（这也是观看任何电影的最佳方式），《怪奇》目前已在 Hoopla、Kanopy、Hulu 和 Shudder 等平台上线。

Warning: Spoilers ahead. 警告：下文包含剧透。

Like Hokum, Oddity takes place in a sprawling Irish countryside location. They both traffic in similar kinds of scares — cursed objects, the occult, isolation, dark corners, and sketchy men living outside the norms of society. They also both embrace magic and the supernatural, while making the true evil seemingly respectable men who victimize the women in their lives. 与《Hokum》一样，《怪奇》的故事也发生在广袤的爱尔兰乡村。两部作品都运用了相似的惊悚元素——被诅咒的物品、神秘学、与世隔绝的环境、阴暗的角落，以及游离于社会规范之外的可疑男性。同时，它们都融入了魔法与超自然元素，并将真正的邪恶指向那些看似体面、实则加害身边女性的男性。

Both were also made on extremely small budgets. Hokum cost just $5 million. Oddity’s budget has proven harder to confirm, but I’ve seen reports as low as $750,000. The result is a movie that’s gritty, extremely dark, and deploys its limited production budget smartly. 两部电影的制作预算都极低。《Hokum》仅耗资 500 万美元。《怪奇》的预算虽难以确证，但有报道称其成本低至 75 万美元。最终呈现出的电影风格粗粝、基调极度阴暗，且极其巧妙地利用了有限的制作经费。

A good chunk of the money was clearly spent on the wooden golem that is the centerpiece of the film. It is… upsetting. Where most haunted items, monsters, or ghosts in horror movies lose their impact the more you look at them, the golem in Oddity remains disturbing and terrifying, no matter how long it’s on screen. 显然，预算中有很大一部分花在了作为影片核心的木制傀儡上。它……令人不安。在大多数恐怖片中，闹鬼的物品、怪物或鬼魂往往会随着出镜时间的增加而失去冲击力，但《怪奇》中的傀儡无论出现多久，始终保持着那种令人毛骨悚然的恐怖感。

Its intricately carved wrinkles, mouth frozen in a permanent scream, and hollow eyes are the stuff of nightmares. And the fact that it sits there, unmoving for almost the entire film, only adds to the discomfort. You’re forced to stare at it for a significant chunk of the 98-minute runtime, waiting for it to do something, anything. But mostly it just looks straight ahead, daring you to let down your guard for even a single second. 它那雕刻精细的皱纹、凝固在永恒尖叫中的嘴巴，以及空洞的双眼，简直是噩梦的化身。它在整部电影中几乎一动不动地坐在那里，这种状态只会加剧观众的不适感。在 98 分钟的片长里，你被迫长时间盯着它，等待它做出任何动作。但它大多只是直视前方，仿佛在挑衅你，让你不敢有哪怕一秒的松懈。

McCarthy proves expert at building tension and atmosphere. While there are quite a few jump scares in Oddity, they never feel cheap or gratuitous. It manages to lull you into a false sense of security almost every time, teasing that a scare might come, but only delivering it when you least expect it. Even on rewatch, even when I know exactly what is going to happen and when, several still make me flinch. 麦卡锡证明了自己在营造紧张感和氛围方面的功力。《怪奇》中虽然有不少“跳跃式惊吓”（jump scares），但从不显得廉价或多余。影片几乎每次都能让你陷入虚假的安全感中，通过暗示惊吓即将到来来戏弄观众，却只在你最意想不到的时候才真正抛出恐怖点。即便是在重温时，即便我清楚地知道接下来会发生什么，其中几个桥段依然让我感到战栗。

At its core, this is a revenge film. But one with quite a few twists and turns. It follows Darcy Odello, a blind psychic seeking vengeance on those responsible for her twin sister Dani’s murder. What Darcy has uncovered is that the man accused of the murder is innocent, and that Ted’s (Dani’s widower) relationship with his new girlfriend, Yana, might not be so fresh after all. 从本质上讲，这是一部复仇电影，但充满了曲折。故事围绕盲人灵媒达西·奥德洛（Darcy Odello）展开，她正向杀害双胞胎妹妹丹妮（Dani）的凶手寻求复仇。达西发现，被指控谋杀的男子其实是无辜的，而丹妮的鳏夫泰德（Ted）与新女友亚娜（Yana）之间的关系，或许并非表面看起来那么简单。

While the wooden horror that Darcy brings to Ted’s home and sits at his dining room table is the main scare, it’s not the only one. Along the way, Dani’s ghost makes repeated appearances, a cannibal feasts on a foot, oh, and it’s impossible to get any cell reception. 虽然达西带到泰德家中并放在餐桌上的那个木制恐怖傀儡是主要的惊吓点，但这并非全部。在剧情推进过程中，丹妮的鬼魂反复出现，还有食人者啃食脚掌的桥段，哦，对了，那里还完全没有手机信号。

It’s a remarkably efficient film that barely gives you a chance to breathe. 这是一部极其高效的电影，几乎不给你任何喘息的机会。