This short film freaked me out. It is a little over 30 minutes, it takes place entirely in a single, undecorated room, and is almost entirely performed by a single actor. Yet, despite the austerity, I felt more tense watching this than 95% of the movies that were meant to be scary.<br /><br />A man locks himself in a room with a large decorative mirror. He has several recording devices set up to document what will happen. He turns the cameras on and begins explaining what led to this "experiment." It turns out that the mirror has a history of causing violent death in every place that it has hung, including the narrator's own home. His father and mother were among the mirror's victims, and now he wants to document its effects. By shutting himself up in the room and recording what happens, he intends to prove the mirror is cursed.<br /><br />I am always fascinated by one-person performances. Even on sketch comedy shows, like Saturday Night Live, it seems like such an achievement to be able to tell the story completely by oneself. In the case of Oculus, there is very little special effects or technology supplementing the performance. Yet, it builds incredibly well towards a tense, satisfying conclusion. I won't say the acting is perfect, but I was definitely into it. For much of the film, the mirror actually stays covered up by a white sheet, yet projects a sinister feel. When you actually see it, it looks like something that might hang in the Disney World Haunted Mansion. Along with Rec, The Strangers, and Lake Mungo, Oculus is on a short list of scary movies that actually made me feel something.