A24’s latest foray into fantasy, The Legend of Ochi, got off to a shaky start. Its first trailer found itself in the midst of an AI kerfuffle, with the internet quickly pointing out how the film’s shots of mythical mountainsides and blue-faced, Yoda-shaped furballs looked almost too good, bearing too strong of a resemblance to AI-generated horrorcore TikToks.
The witch hunt against the movie got so bad that writer-director Isaiah Saxon had to join the conversation (“No AI. There’s the statement,” wrote Saxon in a now-deleted post). Everything in The Legend of Ochi bears a human touch: From the animatronics and performers puppeteering the ochi and the more than 200 painstakingly painted backdrops, it’s clear that the film is Saxon’s ode to the lost art of the handmade.
But beautiful scenery does not excuse a half-baked plot. The film follows Yuri (Helena Zengel), a lonely girl who lives with her hunt-crazy father Maxim (Willem Dafoe) and a group of The Lost Boy-esque tweens, who share his itchy trigger finger. Her mother Dasha (Emily Watson) is noticeably absent. While Maxim has taught Yuri to fear the ochi, a wild monkey-like species endemic to the forests of fictional Carpathia, she ends up caring for a baby ochi who has lost its mother (Again, a case of missing mothers). On her journey to reunite it with its family, Yuri is forced to confront her own long-buried mommy issues.
If you really think about it, the film should be fool-proof. It’s one-part fantasy quest and another-part mother drama, and it has enough star power to bring in audiences eager to see Dafoe go on an unhinged hunting spree (complete with armor and helmet) or Finn Wolfhard lead the tweens in their hunt for the innocent ochi. Plus, with so many references to past fantasy and even sci-fi hits — Carpathia’s mountainside looks a lot like the rolling hills of the Shire, and a scene where Yuri and her ochi touch fingertips is a subtle nod to E.T. — it’s obvious that the movie is dripping with nostalgia.
But there is something missing. The Legend of Ochi leans heavily on its breathtaking visuals, but sacrifices character depth in the process. The result is a slow, if stunning, journey through a magical island that relies too much on aesthetics to truly captivate.
