Oblivium

Cast View all

	Dani Dean	Sky Song
	Sabrina Orro	Liz Oswald
	Ibrahim Ashmawey	Adrian Song
	Karen VandenBroek	Claire Song
	David Warpness	Walter Song
	Lisa Baker	Sky's Mother
	Tim Baker	Sky's Father
	Debbie Dineen	Funeral Mourner
	Nick Dineen	Funeral Mourner
	Robert Dineen	Funeral Mourner
	Shane Dineen	Funeral Mourner
	Matthew Draper	Priest
	Brittany Durlach	Louise Holloway
	May El Halaby	Sketcher
	Aly Elayat	Interviewee
	Thomas Glasscock	Hospital Extra
	Virgina Glasscock	Hospital Extra
	Baker Hasan	Interviewee 3
	Basil Latif	Interviewee 4
	Nancy Orro	Funeral Mourner
	Jo Rae	Nurse Sarah
	Nick Rosales	Interviewee 2
	My-Lynne Tran	Interviewee 1
	Gary Voelker	Old Man Ghost

Crew View all

Director	Ibrahim Ashmawey
	Omar Ashmawey
Writer	Ibrahim Ashmawey, Omar Ashmawey
Producer	Ibrahim Ashmawey, Omar Ashmawey, Dillan Damodar, Brittany Durlach, Yusuf Moraby
Musician	Yitong Chen

Trailer

Edition details

Personal

Notes

My quick rating - 3.3/10. Oblivium opens with the kind of artsy imagery that screams, “Pay attention, this will matter later.” We get a woman drifting through different locations, from a beach to a cityscape, and I’m assuming this was meant to come full circle. Whether it actually does or not is… debatable. From there, we meet Sky (Dani Dean), who would rather do literally anything than visit her estranged grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately for Sky, avoidance is not an option because this is a horror movie, and poor life choices are mandatory.

Along for the ride is her friend Liz (Sabrina Orro), who sees this emotionally charged family visit as the perfect opportunity to shoot documentary-style footage about Alzheimer’s and its impact on families. Because nothing says “sensitive subject matter” like whipping out a camera during unresolved family trauma. Naturally, the two are at each other’s throats almost immediately, as if their friendship contract clearly stated they must argue nonstop from minute one.

Things get spooky when Sky and company start encountering ghostly figures that conveniently vanish the moment you look away, and then vanish from your memory entirely. The film leans hard into the whole “forgotten horrors” angle, though it often feels less like an intentional theme and more like the movie itself forgetting what it was trying to do. The sound design certainly doesn’t help, with uneven audio levels that make some conversations borderline impossible to hear. I could've used some subtitles for survival gear, assuming the dialogue even mattered.

It feels like writer-directors Ibrahim Ashmawey and Omar Ashmawey had a solid idea in their heads but couldn’t translate it to the screen. Unless, of course, they were aiming for a less-than-average low-budget thriller, in which case… mission accomplished. The ghosts here are an interesting breed: fully physical, throat-grabbing, levitating-you-off-the-ground types. Apparently, the story bundles these characters with a memory-wipe feature, since everyone they interact with instantly forgets everything, a trait the film casually calls an “Alzheimer’s thing.” I found that choice strangely convenient.

To be fair, Dani Dean and Sabrina Orro are doing far more than the material deserves. Both actresses overachieve and manage to remain watchable despite the script working against them at every turn. Ibrahim Ashmawey, who also appears on screen as Adrian, does not fare as well and might want to keep his talents firmly behind the camera going forward.

The film also avoids showing much in the way of ghost carnage, likely due to budget constraints. Instead of walking through bodies or obstacles, the ghosts politely walk around them, which somehow makes them less terrifying and more like considerate paranormal houseguests. The scares themselves are scarce, and the story never quite builds the tension it seems to be aiming for. By the time the movie wraps up, the message seems to be something along the lines of “Don’t forget the dead.”

Don’t worry, you’ll forget Oblivium long before they’re done haunting you. And honestly, I think that might be for the best.

Tags

Links