‘Oddity’s ending explained, plus the happy accident that defined it [Video]

One of the best horror movies of 2024 has an ending that’s sublimely sick and satisfying. And that very last shot came by chance. 

When Mashable sat down with Oddity writer/director Damian McCarthy — and the Wooden Man at the film’s center — we learned how the last brutal beat in the multifaceted horror story came to be. 

Sure, Oddity begins with a frightening premise of home invasion: a woman alone, renovating her remote country house, hears a knock at the door only to be confronted by a wild-eyed stranger who warns her that someone has snuck inside and means to hurt her. But from there, McCarthy pulled from folk horror, haunted house movies, and killer doll flicks to craft a menacing medley of a movie, which has an anthology feel even as it centers on one house and the doomed people who cross its threshold. 

While the flashiest figure in Oddity is undoubtedly its Wooden …