04 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: Odd Thomas (2013)

Critical writing can be a god damn pain in the ass.  The writer wants to be fair, but must also admit his/her biases, and get through all the muck to some how quantify a qualitative written review.  Some writers revel in writing negative criticism and while I've found myself in the position to do so, I don't enjoy it, but here I am about to write a mostly negative review of Stephen Sommers' Odd Thomas.

The first of a series of popular novels by Dean Koontz and set in a fictional California desert town called Pico Mundo, Odd Thomas is a film about a young man who is a detective for the dead.  He has a psychic gift to spirits of murdered people and helps capture their murderers.  His power then leads him to a chance to prevent a mass murder in his town, but not without cost.  At the start the film is a supernatural detective story with a lot of quirky dialogue and comedy thrown in for good measure.  Anton Yelchin, who played the lead, truly is the star of the show, relegating pretty much everyone else (Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin, et al) to the background.  He embodies the idea of the character superbly, but unfortunately that does not save the film.

The thing about genre bending is that there has to be some sort of underlying thematic or tonal consistency.  Odd Thomas is all over the map.  The opening, which I enjoyed, sets up the story and the protagonists quite smoothly and although there is the strange discrepancy of a small town police chief (Willem Dafoe) being supportive of this strange kid's endeavors, it's one that is easy enough to overlook.  The character dynamic of star crossed love between Odd and Stormy (Addison Timlin) comes across well, but at times in a sort of annoyingly predictable way.  When you know how a scene is going to play out before it's finished playing out it's because you're characters have become 2-dimensional, which, again unfortunately, seems to happen a number of times throughout the middle portion of the film.

Stylistically, the look of the film was probably the most consistent part.  The desert environment is amplified by warm cinematography which is an added bonus.  Most horror films seem to adopt a very de-saturated cold look, which at this point has become a tiresome cliche.  This doesn't fully save the film, but it is a saving grace.  The ending "twist" was kinda wasted with bad pacing and a sudden drastic tonal shift that, while effective in eliciting emotion, still left me thinking "Really?  That's it?"  To summarize: Odd Thomas is not a bad film, but it's not a good film either.  It all comes down to personal taste and while it does offer quite a bit, it fails to offer enough.  Make your own decision and rent it or watch it on Netflix.