MovieChat Forums > Oculus (2014) Discussion > Dog in Cage plothole cleverly covered

Dog in Cage plothole cleverly covered


Assuming the Dog in the cage was consumed by the mirror to give it enough power and not let out of the house as Kaylie and Tim thought happened. Did anyone else notice that they covered the plot hole of the dog being consumed on tape by the mirror when Kaylie goes to review the tape to see what actually happened. It shows Kaylee and Tim unknowingly moving the cameras to face each other and put the plants on the floor out of view of the 3rd camera while they argue. But she pauses the video before the dog is consumed. The camera does not reveal how the sheet was removed from the cage and how the mirror consumes the dog. Pretty big plothole to cover, and the film brilliantly whisks over it and goes on with the movie. Interesting.

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I started writing this post with points against your theory because I thought it was pretty clear Tim let the dog go but after seeing that scene again, I might agree with you.

This is the first moment in the movie when we see the mirror's power at work so maybe that was the exact moment when it 'absorbed' the dog and began to screw with their minds... She pauses the video before the sheet is removed so we never find out what happened to it.

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I don't understand how it's a plot hole though? Surely not showing the moment the sheet is removed stops it from being a plot hole?

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Actually, it is a big deal because she says she doesn't remember what happened, and she is going to review the tapes to see what exactly transpired. She stops and asks her brother if he remembers anything and says "No, you don't." She basically says that the dog must've been enough to "bait the shark." It makes no sense why she stops viewing the tape to uncover what actually happened to the dog, it is important to know if she actually fed the dog to the mirror. It would also aid her case in explaining that the mirror is indeed host to a demonic being as showing the dog being consumed would be very explicit. When Kaylie comes back to the room, the cage is still in front of the mirror without the sheet on. That should mean that there should be evidence of the mirror consuming the dog, as it was not moved by Kaylie or Tim while they were manipulated. Kaylie and Tim should be very curious what happened to the dog as they had a dog themselves when they were kids and they aren;t 100% sure what happened to it because there was no video evidence of its demise to the mirror.

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It's still not really a plot hole though is it? That's just a case of the characters acting stupid. Which is pretty common in the genre, and even more so in a movie where they're apparently being "manipulated" by some unseen force. If she wanted to see the dog be "consumed", then it was really dumb to put a blanket over the cage in the first place.

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"Plot hole" is a term that could use some defining, since people might have differing opinions as to what constitutes one.

However, if her plan was to capture some proof of the mirror's supernatural powers on camera, and there's a chance the camera recorded the moment the dog disappered (or whatever happened to it), then she should have watched it -- they maybe could've ended their night right there and tried destroying the thing. Granted that probably wouldn't have worked, but the "plot hole" is the character illogically not doing the thing they set out to do.

Sure, maybe it's "character stupidity" but I didn't get the sense the filmmakers were making that point, I think they simply omitted the moment so the movie story could continue, because they didn't think through a way out of that discrepancy.

That said, it didn't bother me so much. I liked the movie, despite several logic flaws and some predictible scary-movie tropes.

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Spoiler alert

Liek when they tried to destroy the mirro as children and were unable and found they were hitting the walls around it, the same could be true of the mirror not ketting her review the tapes. She went to review the tapes and then stopped and started asking her brother questions and then continued on with other things. Why? maybe the mirror knew if she saw wahst really happened, that wiold mean they woudl have what theyw anted - proof and they would both leave. Instead it made her think of other things to do to distract her from finding the proof that she needed. It woudl break the spell the mirror had over them by proving that it was the power to manipulate them in the first place.

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It drives people mad, puts visions in their mind, and potentially causes animals to get sick and die. I didn't see any indication that the mirror would literally eat the dog.

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Well actually, during the movie, Tim and Kaylie argue what actually happens to their childhood dog when the mirror was introduced to the house. Tim believes, with the help of therapy, that the dog got sick and had to be put down coincidentally around the time the mirror was placed in the room. Kaylie specifically recalls when her mother locks the dog in the room with the mirror, and then the room locks up from the inside until Kaylie's father can return from his golf trip. Kaylie, per her account, claims she stayed outside the room the entire afternoon from the time the dog was locked in the room to the time her father returns to open the room. When the room is opened, the dog is no longer to be found and there is no way to verify what exactly happens as both Kaylie and Tim are just kids, and the parents die during that stint with the mirror. Can you really claim the mirror does not literally eat the dog? Per Kaylie's account it would seem the mirror fully consumes the dog somehow. But also, as a kid, there are things that become exaggerated in memories. So it is one of those things that we really don't know. One thing is for sure, the 3rd camera is not pushed away from the view of the mirror when the grown kids return to the room, the tape should reveal what actually transpires with the dog. Whether Tim actually lifts the sheet and releases it, or the mirror consumes the dog. It can only be one or the other because the dog never shows up again in the movie after that scene.

If the dog is consumed before the moving of the cameras to face each other, the tape should reveal WHEN the dog is consumed. If it is before or after the moving of the cameras. I would postulate the dog is actually consumed BEFORE they move the cameras to face each other because the mirror needs enough power to begin manipulating Tim and Kaylie to move the cameras to face each other without their knowledge. But there is no question that audience is left in the dark on this issue, and I was surprised they just glossed over it. I even said during the movie to my date, "watch the tape, wtf why aren't they watching the tapes?" lol

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Maybe I don't understand what you're asking. I'd have to watch the movie again to remember exactly how the scene was pieced together. But from what I remember, it seemed implied to me that the mirror consumed the dog after making the siblings turn the cameras. There would be nothing on the tape because the camera had been moved. The mirror was screwing with Kaylie's plan to capture the paranormal activity on camera by moving the cameras and consuming the dog only after it was turned.

Its possible they goofed with the way the scene was edited. But this did seem like the intent of the scene to me.

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There are two cameras on tripods that Kaylie and Tim move to face each other. But there is a 3rd camera mounted on the wall that never gets moved. Definitely rewatch the movie here. Like i said, it makes no sense why Kaylie doesn't rewatch the tape. Is that the mirror manipulating Kaylie and Tim to not be more curious about what happens? But that argument still isn't convincing enough as the mirror's power is clearly inconsistent during that point in the movie. I feel like the way it went down was the mirror first fed off the dog and consumed it giving it enough power to manipulate both tim and Kaylie to move the cameras to face each other and place the plants down out of the view of the 3rd wall mounted camera and then make them leave the room, then the mirror got more power by consuming those plants. Just a theory.


I had to rewatch the movie 2 more times because the first watch bothered me and I had trouble following it all in the theatre. This is a great film to challenge your psyche.

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I see what you're saying.

I think this was an editing goof. My interpretation is that the third camera was moved, but that part of the scene was edited out. So Kaylie would know not to bother watching the rest of the tape, because the mirror had thwarted all attempts to aim a camera at the plants or dog.

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The third camera is absolutely moved, you clearly see Kaylie pull it off the wall and hook it up to the monitor right before reviewing the footage. In fact, that third camera is the only camera she ever checks on playback, and while she's watching it, the other two cameras are still at the center of the room, where she and Tim moved them.

The dog is freed and released. The implication is that the mirror got "enough" energy from the dog to start messing with them... but it has also been feeding off of the plants and Tim AND Kaylie the entire time they've been in the room with it.

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The third camera is absolutely moved, you clearly see Kaylie pull it off the wall and hook it up to the monitor right before reviewing the footage. In fact, that third camera is the only camera she ever checks on playback, and while she's watching it, the other two cameras are still at the center of the room, where she and Tim moved them.

The dog is freed and released. The implication is that the mirror got "enough" energy from the dog to start messing with them... but it has also been feeding off of the plants and Tim AND Kaylie the entire time they've been in the room with it.

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I don't understand the thinking that the mirror needs energy to do anything. We are shown early on when the daughter uncovers the mirror at the storage place and it immediately messes with her. This implies that either she is crazy or the mirror doesn't need anything to get started.

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I agree with your conclusions.

I also saw the short upon which this movie was based. In it, the test dog does disappear. I figure they did it behind a sheet in the original due to the low budget. In this version, they probably didn't want accusations of animal abuse... or maybe it would mean an NC-17 rating or some-such.

In the short, the mirror-dog was ironically named "Flip."

Oh, and also in the short, the neighborhood pets, even the crickets in the area, all disappear.

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Well before he let the dog out. She was already being messed with. I'm surprised no one has said this yet. But when she shows him the dog the first time she calls it "dog" and says it has no name. When the dog is barking just before being let out of the cage, she screams and calls it "Mason" as in their family dog.

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The entire movie was a plothole - no background story on the mirror and who the hell were all those people.
No explanation for anything. it sucked.

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Your whole argument is a plot hole. The sister rambled on for about 10 minutes about the background story of the mirror. How much more do you require? And for anyone with half a brain cell it was blatantly obvious that these "people" are all those that the mirror killed. I mean I thought they made it pretty obvious when the sister was one of the "people" right at the end. It was all explained. Now that I explained it to you in more detail, did it still suck? It's fine if you didn't like it. Just don't make up reasons.

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The mirror doesn't eat dogs or anything else. It doesn't need to consume anything to boost its powers. That is her perception of how the mirror works and she was wrong.

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I think the dog was legitimately released by Tim as the mirror would have been too weak to control people right at the start, Caley never refers to the dog being consumed she simply states "I guess it took more from the dog than we thought" as though it was eating the dog while they were arguing but Tim released it just in time. You hear the dog yelping while they argue, Tim tries to argue that Caley is scaring the dog but then after they see the mirror's effects on the cameras and plants Caley's "I guess it did take something from the dog" line makes more sense.

The dog wasn't yelping from being upset, it was having it's life drained while under the sheet.



Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov

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