Star power propelled me to want to see the 2013 horror film Oculus and, sadly, it proved to be just about the only reason to see this film.

Putting together -though they never actually share any screen time together, other than one little “portrait” piece towards the end- cult favorites Karen Gillian (the lovable Amy Pond on Doctor Who) and Katee Sackhoff (the tough as nails “Starbuck” from the Battlestar: Galactica remake series), you figure that if nothing else, having these two in the mix you’d have something worth watching.

Unfortunately, in the end the answer is no.

Not that Ms. Gillian and Sackhoff did a bad job.  They didn’t.  What let them down, what always seems to let films down, lies in the script.

A while back, I reviewed the Scarlett Johannsen film Under the Skin (if you’re curious, you can read the full review here).  I noted that the filmmakers were clearly going for a Stanley Kubrick-like “vibe”, but noted that:

Unfortunately, when one sees so many familiar echoes to the brilliant works of other artists, one can’t help but compare them to Under the Skin.  Doing so, even more unfortunately, reveals that this film doesn’t quite live up to what came before.

And this, my friends, winds up being the exact same problem with Oculus, for Oculus is essentially Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, only switching a haunted hotel with a haunted mirror and having the in-danger siblings presented both in the present and via flashbacks that become, perhaps, illusions crafted by the mirror.  (It’s worth noting that The Shining also had an element of time/flashback to it, of the 1920’s and the then present 1980)

Good or bad, The Shining benefited tremendously from Jack Nicholson’s robust, sometimes waaaaaay over the top turn as the homicidal father.  Actor Rory Cochrane, as the homicidal father of Oculus, unfortunately enters and exits the film as an emotional enigma.  Before he goes “crazy”, he appears aloof and distant and therefore one cares very little about him.  When he goes crazy, he’s still aloof and distant, only now he’s carrying a handgun.

The plot of Oculus goes something like this: The modern day siblings, particularly Kaylie Russell (Karen Allen), want to prove that the horrifying things they went through as children were caused by this evil mirror her late father brought into the house.  To prove this Kaylie sets about going all scientific, recording everything and sprinkling alarms to remind them of the actual time and break the mirror’s illusions.

But the mirror, of course, has other things in mind.

The first hour or so of the film isn’t too bad.  Unfortunately, the movie hits its peak early on and kinda coasts along, never really building any more tension or intrigue until it reaches its downbeat and very stupid ending (who was shocked, shocked when the item Kaylie set up over the mirror wound up –gasp!– not doing what it was intended to?)

Anyway, a pass, despite the most interesting cast.