Oddity is the new low-budget horror flick produced by Shudder and distributed by IFC. Helmed by Irishman Damian Mc Carthy who wrote and directed the film, Oddity is his second full feature film, and boy is it a good one.

Shudder has been making a name for itself recently with these low-budget horror flicks that receive a lot of buzz and typically rely on some type of gimmick. This trend kind of started with Skinamarink in 2022. They had some experience producing horror films, notably Rob Zombies 31 and various other original programs, but Skinamarink was the first to become this real buzzy talked about horror movie. Audiences weren’t exactly sure what to make of it. It was definitely an art piece, one that was meant to polarize audiences, but I also don’t think the plan was really for anyone to see it. The budget for Skinamarink is listed at a parsley $15,000. I don’t even know how you can cover the cost of equipment rentals or craft services for that amount, but it was definitely an experimental film that got in front of the eyeballs of a lot more people than they planned.

Skinamarink is a bad movie. I know critics loved to praise it for the interesting use of camera angles and inventive set design, creating a space that feels much bigger than it really is, but there’s no plot. House of Leaves did that too, but there was at least a story there. The whole movie is literally just vibes and ambience and while that’s fine and cool for a short, it wears out its welcome pretty quickly in a feature. Great trailer. Fantastic short. Terrible movie.

Earlier this year though, Shudder released another buzzy gimmicky horror movie that was much better. The Cairnes brothers Late Night with the Devil. Late Night with the Devil uses the framing device of an old late-night talk show with much of the film presented as if we’re watching the show. It’s a lot like Ghost Watch, the 1992 BBC production that totally freaked audiences out on Halloween. My biggest problem with Late Night is actually the moments it takes away from the gimmicky talk show presentation. There is a 10-minute or so prelude that dumps exposition before the show within a film starts in earnest. It just felt like a lazy conceit and the entire movie the audience is thinking, well they said this at the beginning of the movie so when is that plot point going to show up? These exposition drops could have easily been slipped in somewhere during the talk show segments, but it’s still a fine film that’s actually made better because of its gimmick.

With Oddity, however, there are no gimmicks. This is more or less just a standard horror flick shot on a small budget with a limited number of actors. The best part of Oddity is how it uses these limitations to its advantage. Working with the constraint, not against it.

The film opens with a brief prologue of Dani, the wife of Dr Ted Timmis, home alone at their giant country house which is still in the early stages of being renovated. Dr Ted works nights at a psychiatric hospital while Dani stays by herself at the creepy old house. One night a former patient of Dr Ted’s shows up at the door, telling Dani she needs to let him inside. That someone else is in the house and if she would just let him in, he can help her out. The film never shows us exactly what happens, it just pushes us a year into the future and lets us know that Dani was killed that night and the crazed former patient, Olin Boole, was convicted of the crime and later found murdered in the psychiatric hospital.

Oddity plays around with several horror movie tropes but that’s not a bad thing. Some flicks like Longlegs get so caught up trying to be different things that they end up never finding their footing in anything. Oddity seamlessly plays like a paranormal thriller, a haunted house story, a ghost story, and even a bit of an homage to Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, all while firmly feeling like its own movie.

I won’t get too deep into the plot because the film is really easy to spoil. The film pretty much spoils its own big twist with foreshadowing but honestly, that’s forgivable in a 98-minute horror flick. There is a mystery to solve, but that’s not the real reason for seeing the movie. The audience is all keenly aware of the main character’s truth twenty minutes into the movie, but everything Mc Carthy is doing here is executed so perfectly that we don’t care. We’re here for the ride and the scares.

And this film certainly delivers on the latter. I can’t find a budget listed anywhere online but I’m assuming from the lack of marketing and use of only two real sets that it was pretty minuscule. But the director uses everything in that small budget to create a tense atmosphere and well-earned jump scares. Throughout most of the movie, there is a super creepy wooden life-sized man statue that’s just hanging out in the frame. It’s really unsettling and adds to the overall tension throughout the film.

Most of its runtime takes place in the house Dani died in, mostly in one room of this house, with an occasional scene set in a bedroom or Dr Ted’s office, but the set itself is so haunting that it doesn’t get old being there. The walls are a dark natural stone that gives off a cool feeling even if the tones of the film are starkly dark and dreary.

And that’s the magic of Oddity. The film works within these limitations. The small budget, few locations, and a small number of actors. These are not concessions, these are features. There are no CGI scenes, every effect is practical. There aren’t any high budget action sequences or chase scenes, everything is small and contained. The script was written with all of these limitations in mind and a great film was borne out of it.

Oddity is a masterclass in low-budget cinema, especially low-budget horror, and I’m incredibly surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. I’m giving it a hard 9 and I hope everyone gets that chance to see this wonderful summer movie.