Plot
Alone one night, Dani Odello-Timmis, the wife of psychiatrist Ted Timmis, is brutally murdered in the couple's newly acquired country house. Olin Boole, one of Ted's former patients, visited Dani that evening, warning her that a stranger had infiltrated the home. Olin is believed to be the murderer, and is later found by Declan Barrett, murdered in his room in the halfway house.
One year later, Dani's twin sister Darcy Odello, a blind clairvoyant with psychometric powers, is visited by Ted at her Cabinet of Curiosities shop in Cork. Ted gives her Olin's glass eye, which she had requested so she could read it. Several days later, Darcy arrives unexpectedly at the country house where Ted now resides with his new girlfriend Yana. Preceding her arrival is the shipment of a large crate containing a creepy life-sized wooden golem.
Ted departs to his night shift at the hospital, leaving Darcy alone with Yana, who wishes to leave but is prevented from doing so when her car keys vanish. Yana is frightened when she notices the golem inexplicably changing position throughout the evening. Upon examining the golem, she finds several strange objects inside holes in its head, including photographs of Dani and Darcy, locks of hair, a tooth, and a vial of blood. After observing Dani's apparition telling her to run, Yana panics and manages to flee after finding her car keys inside the golem's crate.
Ted returns to the house to find Darcy alone. Darcy accuses Ted of being responsible for Dani's murder. She reveals that she was the one who killed Olin to avenge Dani, but, upon performing a psychometric reading of Olin's glass eye, discovered he was in fact innocent. Rather, she says it was Ted who arranged Dani's murder by enlisting Ivan, a brutish orderly at the psychiatric hospital, so Ted could be with Yana and not lose the house in a divorce. Olin overheard discussions between Ted and Ivan to kill Dani, and upon his release from the hospital, arrived at the house that evening to warn Dani.
To prove his innocence, Ted offers to bring in the investigator for the case. Not having his number, he leaves his cell phone with Darcy and leaves to call the investigator from his office and tell him to phone her. Ted returns to the hospital and calls his cell phone. When Darcy goes to retrieve it, she falls through a trap door that Ted had removed, landing on the stone floor below. At Ted's command, Ivan visits the house to ensure Darcy's fate, only to be brutalized by the wooden golem, which Darcy appears to supernaturally animate before succumbing to her wounds.
Sometime later, Ivan, having survived the attack, is committed to the psychiatric hospital by Ted after he rambles about the golem, which lost its power with Darcys death. Ted assumes Ivan is mad with guilt; to ensure that he does not confess to Dani's murder, Ted sets free a violent cannibal in the hospital who eats and kills Ivan. Ted returns to the country house, where he now resides alone; Yana broke off their relationship, disturbed by Ted's nonchalance that both Dani and Darcy died in his home.
On the doorstep, Ted finds a small box delivered from Darcy's oddities shop. Inside is a call bell that Darcy had earlier shown him, which she explained is haunted by the ghost of a bellhop who kills whoever rings it. Ted rings the bell to prove the rationalist worldview he'd argued to Darcy. With no indication of the spirit, he relaxes, unaware of the bellhop's ghost standing behind him.
Production
The film was shot in the same converted barn in County Cork, Ireland, as McCarthy's first film, Caveat . McCarthy was developing Oddity at the same time he was working on Caveat. [4]
Effects artist Paul McDonnell created the life-size wooden golem with input from McCarthy. [5] McCarthy cites films like Child's Play and Creepshow as influences. "I'm a big fan of those old 'doll comes to life' films," he said in 2024. "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." [4]
McCarthy, who frequently browses antique stores, acquired many of the props for the film himself. [4] The character Olin Boole was the subject of McCarthy's 2013 short film How Olin Lost His Eye, which explores the character's backstory. [6]
