Halloween Flick: Odd Thomas

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 22, 2015

Yes, it’s October, I’m still posting about all things spooky, creepy, and otherwise Halloween-y.

In this case, it’s another Netflix film that was panned by many critics: Odd Thomas, starring Anton Yelchin (Chekhov in the Star Trek reboot) and Willem Defoe, directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy), based on a Dean Koontz novel of the same name (in fact, a series). You’d think that’s a pretty good pedigree, but the critics disagreed.

Me? I liked it a lot. Yeah, it was a little jumbled, and there were man moments that looked like there were significant events portended that ended up on the cutting room floor. It’s quirky — the characters are definitely quirky — and at times it acts almost as if it wants to be a comedy. Sort of like The Mummy. But it’s really not. It’s an action / mystery movie with major supernatural elements.

The titular character is Odd Thomas, a guy with clairvoyant abilities. He sees dead people. And more. That makes him extremely handy to the chief of police, as Odd is remarkably on the nose when it comes to solving murders in his small town. Besides being able to see ghosts, he sometimes has prophetic dreams, has something of a psychic ability to find people he’s looking for, and can see into the spirit world. This includes seeing bodachs, nasty spirits that feed off of pain and violence. They can also possess people. But usually, they are simply the harbingers of extreme pain and violence. But you don’t want them to ever learn that you can see them, or they’ll use their abilities to possess someone and kill you.

And suddenly, the small town has become filled with bodachs. Something really bad is about to go down.

It’s a popular Instant Play show right now, and I really enjoyed it, warts and all.  It’s unrated, but it’d probably warrant a PG-13 for violence.

 

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