I’ve discussed one or two horror thrillers on this blog, but this one is a bit of an oddity. I don’t mean the plot which is perfectly serviceable but not particularly outlandish. Nor do I mean the acting or the camera work — both are really good without being shocking. No, the oddity about Oddity is the title. Why is it called oddity? What’s the oddity?¹ There are one or two objects in the movie that could be meant, but it could also be the story. Or maybe it’s all very meta and the oddity is the fact that it’s a movie called oddity.

In any case, it’s a movie about a man whose wife was murdered, whose house is still in disrepair, and whose sister-in-law is a blind medium with a wide arsenal of weird and cursed knick-knacks. But not all is bad in his life: he has a coworker to play chess with.

On the other hand, he has black in this position:²

so perhaps all really is bad in his life. After some thinking, he plays Kf5, which is probably his best move, as it allows for the sequence 2. Rb6 e5 3. Rf6# which probably minimizes black’s suffering. That is indeed what appears on the board. Immediately after executing the checkmate, white stands up and leaves. Possibly because he’s annoyed white played on for so long, possibly because he’s disgusted his opponent is taking a call during the game.³

You see, his new girlfriend is creeped out by his ex-sister-in-law and she feels the need to ait that to him. Perhaps she has even done so before and that’s the real reason black has such a crappy position. If so, it is unfortunate that she, of all people, gets to survive.

Realism: 4/5 All of this is quite plausible, although black obviously should have resigned a long time ago.

Probable winner: White. The helpmate was super effective.

<sup>1. [I suspect it might be me.] ↩
2. [This diagram editor is an oddity in the best sense of the word.] ↩
3. [Possibly because he feels he’s about to be discussed on a chess in popular culture blog.] ↩</sup>