Many people admit shuddering when seeing their own image in a mirror while walking through their homes. In Mike Flanagan’s Oculus, siblings Tim and Kaylie Russell do not want to look into the decorative mirror in their house either.  But their reasons have nothing to do with vanity; it’s because the mirror is haunted.

After the family acquired the mirror ten years ago, strange things happened. Tim (Brenton Thwaites) and Kaylie’s (Karen Gillian) parents ended up dead. Worse yet, Tim was blamed for killing his father and sent to a mental hospital. Now he’s out, and Kaylie feels bad that she got to be raised in a foster home while her brother was held in confinement. She’s determined to be there for him.

Tim appears a little taken aback when Kaylie reveals they are going back to live in their family home – mirror and all. She’s convinced there are reasons their dad was murdered , and it was not Tim’s fault. To prove this, Kaylie sets up a mess of studio equipment – a cross between equipment used by NASA and an elaborate movie set – in their dad’s former office. While Kaylie tries experiment after experiment that have some freaky/scary moments, Tim still insists his theory is the truth.

Although many flashbacks in this movie kind of break up the intense fright scenes, in a way they make those scenes seem more unrealistic. Actors playing the siblings as seen ten years earlier are Garrett Ryan as Tim and Annalise Basso as Kaylie.  Rory Cochrane and Katee Sackhoff portray their parents. At the time, everyone is excited about moving into the house. Mr. Russell likes the addition of the intriguing antique mirror in his office at first, but eventually the strange things that begin to happen frighten him into pure panic mode.

The heavyweights behind this movie have credible projects in the horror genre. Mike Flanagan, director, co-writer and editor of the film, also directed and wrote Absentia (2011). Jason Blum, who produced Oculus, also produced Paranormal Activity 1, 2, 3, 4 and the upcoming 5 as well as Sinister, Insidious, and more.

Oculus began as a short film in 2005. For the full-length feature, the filmmakers wanted to make more than a jump-and-scream horror film. They call it a “Mulder/Scully” dynamic, which refers to  “The X-Files” – the adventures of two paranormal investigators with a theme of mysticism versus reason.

Co-writer Howard said, “It was one of the biggest challenges that Mike and I grappled with. When we finally hit on the idea of having the main characters be siblings who have a disagreement about these tragic events in their past, that opened the door for a richer story.”

The mirror, carefully chosen, dressed and even given a name (Phillip Lasser) emerged as just the right special character to help tell the writers’ deeply thought-about story.

“In this case, the mirror’s distortion impacts the way that the audience peers into the lives of Kaylie and Tim,” Flanagan said. “The mirror is ‘the prison through which we see this story.’”

Die-hard horror fans who want continuous scare and gore might find Oculus a little on the lighter side. But those who actually understand the premise will probably be entertained.

(Released by Relativity Media and rated "R" for terror, violence, some disturbing images and brief language.)

Review also posted at www.reviewexpress.com.