If you see only one haunted mirror movie in 2014, there’s a good chance it’s going to be Oculus. Mike Flanagan’s horror story stars Karen Gillan and Brendon Thwaites as the adult versions of children whose parents were destroyed by an evil reflective surface, and the film intercuts between their childhood drama and their current attempt to prove once and for all that they weren’t crazy, and to exact their revenge.
We already spoke to Karen Gillan about her unusual role in Oculus, and interviewed producer Jason Blum, who will be releasing Oculus in theaters on April 11 through Blumhouse Productions. Now we present our video interview with Mike Flanagan himself, straight from SXSW 2014.
Mike Flanagan explains why studios were hesitant about making a movie about a haunted mirror, why mirrors are scary, the greater meaning of mirrors to society as a whole, the history of mirrors in horror movies and religious lore, his desire to come up with “a portable Overlook Hotel,” the haunted objects of the Amityville sequels, the nine-year journey Oculus took from a short film to a feature, his fight to keep the film from being shot in the found footage format, why he moved away from his original idea to turn Oculus into an anthology movie, the influence of Lone Star on Oculus, the nine stories they already have written for Oculus and where he would like to go in the sequel.
Oculus hits theaters on April 11, 2014.
