Odd Thomas

Sommers Light
by Reymundo Salao

Based on a Dean Koontz novel of the same title, ODD THOMAS is about a short-order cook who moonlights as a clairvoyant who is able to communicate with dead spirits, and oftentimes act in aid of the police in solving crimes and bringing spirits to rest.

The difference between Odd Thomas and the typical horror movie character who is able to communicate with the dead is that whenever the dead does seem to ask help from Odd, he really does something about it. And with the anticipation that his quest will often lead him to trouble, he knows he to throw a punch or two. He's not exactly the kind of one-man-army type of hero, he's quite the opposite actually; but he at least knows how to handle himself when facing bad guys. [read more after the jump]

Anton Yelchin gets to show that he has the potential to be the star of his own movie, his charisma gets to carry the story and immediately lets you follow him through with ease.

Addison Timlin as Odd's girlfriend Stormy Llewellyn, does a satisfying performance despite the fact that in some scenes, her acting does not really come off as good, but easily redeems it with some degree of charming cuteness. By the end of the movie, she has proven to be that great factor that has made the love story aspect of the movie really good.

The movie has a light tone, one could mistake it to be comedic at first. But what it really is, is the tone from the perspective of a main character who does not see his plight in a bleak manner, unlike how it is portrayed in other horror movies. The route of the story takes you to several suspenseful moments, but not the usual apocalyptic set pieces like those in most of Sommer's movies. In this movie, Sommer gets to deliver some smart storytelling techniques that has more the element of innovation rather than flashy CGI.

ODD THOMAS is a good horror-suspense adventure movie. It's light, and a bit more wholesome than your usual horror flick. It almost feels like a mellow comic book movie; mildy surreal, thrilling, and never slows down for dull moments. It is very simple, but achieves to deliver a nice little horror-adventure tale despite its humble scale. It proves that Stephen Sommers is a director that can indeed do a good movie with rich character-development, and proves that he does not necessarily need big special effects to achieve hsi target. But then again, this movie does have a simple and limited scale. It's a great movie, but only in a TV-movie quality kind of way.