The Horror of Found Things in Oddity

Oddity (Courtesy of SXSW)

If you’ve ever browsed a vintage shop or secondhand emporium, you’ll feel the items carry their history with them. In the latest film from writer/director Damian McCarthy, supernatural whodunit Oddity, that history is revealed by touch as curio shopkeeper (Carolyn Bracken) attempts to solve her sister’s murder through the paranormal power of psychometry.

Many of Oddity’s props were acquired by McCarthy himself, who has spent years browsing shelves for, well, oddities, especially in West Cork, Ireland. He said, “There’s a lot of these very old antique shops, charity shops, and places where people have left this random stuff. I just feel it sparks off the imagination.” And sometimes those fascinating knickknacks come home with him, “if I see something that I’ll use in a film,” he explained. “I have no idea where, but I know that will be in there at some stage.”

Oddity is filled with such objects, like a front desk bell McCarthy’s had for years. Here, its bright ring augurs only ill, but he bought it simply because it’s pretty. “It’s got this lovely ivory button, and it’s so old that I thought, even if it’s just a scene where a guy goes to check into a hotel, it’s a nice prop. I’ll always be on the lookout for this kind of stuff.”

Provenance is less interesting to him than onscreen appearance – although his collecting habit can sometimes draw strange looks. There’s an antique jack-in-the-box in Oddity that he acquired on a trip to Spain: “I come back through customs and the guy goes, 'What are you doing with this?’”

Another hand-me-down element of Oddity was the filming location, the same converted barn in historic Bantry House in which he shot his last film, the enigmatic and disturbing Caveat. However, it’s hard to recognize, since Caveat used the giant space as a sound stage, building sets inside it. McCarthy was actually developing Oddity at the same time, “and I was thinking it’s a really lovely room. It would be an interesting location to strip away all the set, and to tell a story around the place.”

The most memorable image from Oddity was not found on dusty shelves, but specifically and deliberately constructed. It's a life-size wooden mannequin. "I'm a big fan of those old 'doll comes to life' films – Chucky in Child’s Play, Creepshow," he said, "but they're always small, and I thought it would be cool to have one that's your size, that would be a force to reckon with if it did come alive."

So has the filmmaker who surrounds himself with objects that look haunted ever had any uncanny experiences around them? McCarthy laughed. “I haven’t woken up and had the bunny drumming in the middle of the night. Not yet, anyway.”

Oddity

Midnighters, World Premiere

Friday 8, 10pm, Alamo South Lamar

Sunday 10, 7pm & 7:30pm Alamo South Lamar

Friday 15, 9:45pm, Alamo South Lamar