What actually happens
An office accessory with a body count
The film tells two stories side by side. In 2002, software engineer Alan Russell moves his family into a new house and buys an antique mirror to decorate his office. His wife Marie and their kids Tim (10) and Kaylie (12) have no idea the mirror causes hallucinations. Marie begins seeing her own body decay. Alan falls under the spell of Marisol Chavez, a ghostly woman whose eyes are mirrors. In the other story, set eleven years later, the family has already fallen apart, and the film keeps cutting between the two so that the cause and the damage arrive together.
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The most thorough documentation ever done for a mirror
In 2013, Tim is released from a psychiatric hospital, where he has been told, and has come to believe, that the mirror had nothing to do with his parents' deaths. Kaylie has spent her adult life researching the mirror's history and powers. She works at an auction house, which gives her access to it, and she has it moved into the family home. There she sets it up in a room full of surveillance cameras, with a heavy anchor hanging from the ceiling on a pivot, ready to swing down and smash the glass. She plans to destroy the mirror, but only after recording what it does, so that both her father and her brother are cleared.
How to run out of food and sanity in one house
Back in 2002 the parents come apart. Alan shuts himself in the office and Marie turns withdrawn and paranoid. The plants in the house wither, and Mason, the family dog, vanishes once he is locked in the office with the mirror. Kaylie tells Marie about Marisol, the parents fight, and Marie is finally taken over by the mirror and tries to kill her children before Alan locks her away. When the food runs out, Kaylie finds her mother chained to a wall and behaving like an animal. The neighbors don't believe the children, and every phone call Kaylie makes is answered by the same man. Alan then arms himself and frees Marie so that both can attack the children. Marie briefly comes back to herself and is shot by Alan. The children swing at the mirror and find they have been hitting the wall. Alan has one clear moment, forces Tim to pull the trigger on a gun aimed at him, and begs the kids to run. Tim is taken away by the police, and he sees his parents' ghosts in the house.
The house learns to edit
In 2013 the plants begin to wilt, and when the siblings check the camera footage they see themselves doing things they have no memory of. Tim finally accepts that the mirror is real and tries to take Kaylie out of the house, but the mirror pulls them back. Kaylie sees her mother, stabs her in the neck, and finds she has stabbed Michael Dumont, her fiancé, who had come by to see how she was doing. They try phoning the police, but all they reach is the same voice that answered when they were children. They then see their own doubles standing in front of the mirror. Younger versions of themselves appear, the past and the present run into each other, and the siblings are separated, each reliving the old nightmare alone.
The anchor
This is the scene to brace for, and it comes at the very end. Tim comes to by himself in the mirror's room, while a younger Kaylie sees her mother calling to her from the glass. Tim releases the anchor, but he can't see that Kaylie is standing in front of the mirror, so the anchor hits her and not the mirror. She is killed, and the mirror is untouched. The police arrive and arrest a hysterical Tim, just as they did when he was a boy. In both versions of his life, he says the mirror did it. As he is taken away, he sees Kaylie's ghost next to their parents.
The ending, explained
Kaylie's plan fails at the last step. Tim releases the anchor believing the mirror is in front of it, but Kaylie is standing there instead, and she is killed. The mirror survives. The police arrest Tim, who is hysterical, and he gives the same explanation he gave as a child: the mirror did it. The adult Tim is taken away and spots Kaylie's ghost in the house, next to his parents. Alan and Marie died in 2002, Kaylie dies in 2013, and Tim is the only Russell left, in custody for the second time.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: not fine, though the death is only implied.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Oculus scary?
Oculus is a 6 out of 10, and the dread lasts about a night. There are jump scares, but most of the fear comes from hallucinations and not knowing what is real.
How does Oculus end?
Tim releases the anchor meant to smash the mirror, but Kaylie is standing in front of it and is killed. The police arrest Tim, who blames the mirror, and he sees Kaylie's ghost with their parents.
Does the dog die in Oculus?
Yes, the dog dies in Oculus. The family dog, Mason, is shut in the office with the mirror and disappears. The death is implied and nothing graphic is shown.
Is there a post-credits scene in Oculus?
No. Oculus has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What does the mirror do in Oculus?
The mirror causes hallucinations, and over time it takes control of the people near it. In 2002 it drives Marie and Alan Russell to violence, and in 2013 it makes Kaylie and Tim see and do things they can't remember.
