'Oddity's Damian McCarthy reveals the origins of his Wooden Man

There is something special sitting at the heart of Oddity. In a swirl of horror subgenres, this Irish gem offers murder, vengeance, folklore, and more. But at its core is a creepy collectible known as the Wooden Man. 

"It starts with the object," writer/director Damian McCarthy told Mashable in a Zoom interview, when asked about his inspiration point for Oddity. "I remember reading about Guillermo del Toro years ago, talking about his writing process. He said he really always started with a really strong image, and then almost builds out the story around that." This device has served the Irish filmmaker well; his previous feature, the supremely spooky Caveat, involved a toy bunny with human eyes. For his follow-up, McCarthy focused on a "mishmash of stuff" including a haunted desk bell, an abandoned glass eye, and the Wooden Man. 

In a unique opportunity, this reporter sat in Mashable's New York studio with the Wooden Man at my side during our interview.

Look for our video to get a sense of this experience — and read on for more about Oddity's sure-to-be iconic creature. 

The Wooden Man was born from legend. 

In Oddity, the Wooden Man is presented as a peculiar present from a blind medium named Darcy (Carolyn Bracken) to her widowed brother-in-law Ted (Gwilym Lee) on the one-year anniversary of her beloved sister's murder. A full-sized carving in the shape of a screaming naked man, the Wooden Man is an instantly arresting figure, creeping out Ted's new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) — though that doesn't stop Yana from probing his open maw with her fingers and exploring the holes drilled in the back of his skull. 

Oddity as a whole was made up of elements McCarthy "cherry-picked from horror tropes." The Wooden Man was inspired by Jewish folklore of the golem, a large clay figure who can be brought to life through rituals to do the bidding of its creator. McCarthy was also drawn to horror media where dolls come to life, citing The Twilight Zone, Child's Play, and Annabelle. But the most influential movie may have been The Wicker Man. 

"The Wicker Man is a good one," McCarthy said of the 1973 folk horror classic, "Because it's like, what would be your tool of revenge — or your weapon — be if you were a witch? What folklore are you using?" He was also drawn to how the film refuses to spell out its logic to the audience, a move he employs in Oddity. "There's stuff in there that's never really explained. Like, what are these rituals? Or how does this work? It's a little bit like with the holes in the back of [The Wooden Man's] head." While items will be plucked out from the wooden golem, their meaning remains mysterious. "It's just, it hints at something else that's going on. You know, there's some ritual or something has been performed off camera in the last week… It's folklore. And it's witches. None of it needs to be explained [as long as you] create the sense that somebody knows how this stuff works." 

The Wooden Man was sculpted over Zoom. 

Referencing the video conferencing we were doing for the interview, McCarthy noted his collaboration with art director Paul McDonnell — credited as Oddity's Wooden Man designer — happened "just like this."

McCarthy explained, "We didn't have much time." So he sent some drawings to McDonnell for reference. From there, McDonnell sculpted the dream of the Wooden Man into clay, with McCarthy giving notes over a live feed. 

"He was sculpting on camera, and it was me going, 'Okay, cut off his nose. Okay, put his nose back on.'" McCarthy said of the process, noting that because of the time crunch, "it was really done in a one-take kind of design, which is crazy when I think about it for how well it turned out. But that's really down to Paul's talent." 

Key to this creature's fearful effect is his countenance, frozen in a silent scream. "Having him screaming was always going to be a big [priority]," McCarthy said, noting the pose tied to the film's eerie sound design and the possibilities this sculpt would offer. "We did spend the most time on, that day, how to get that frozen scream right. Because the way he looks, it just meant when we sat down to sound-design it, we were just wide open for possibilities in terms of how he can sound and what's coming out of him. It was a little bit rushed. But it all worked out great."

Also crucial to the Wooden Man's look was a sense of texture. "We never wanted to make him smooth, or look like [he had] been sanded in any way," McCarthy said, "When I was just first trying to get my head around what he looked like, it was going to be more like something like the Green Knight or, you know, the Ents in The Lord of the Rings, covered in ivy and bark." 

While the final look offered more simplicity and less greenery, McCarthy found this reflected the creature's connection to Darcy, whose supernatural sensitivity is tied to touching cursed objects. "It was all about the texture of him," he said, later noting of the figure sitting next to this reporter, "Look at that on his chest; he's all knots and things, like this is timber." 

In fact, his nipples are made of knots in the fake wood grain. 

The Wooden Man demands respect. 

When the big day came to bring the Wooden Man on set, McCarthy knew he had no reason to worry. Rushed or not, his creature was here, whole, and horrific. Recalling that moment the Wooden Man arrived, he said, "This is going to work because he does look like a definite presence in the room. Wherever I shot from, he was great." 

Cast and crew shared McCarthy's awe, drawn to touch the Wooden Man — though never roughly. "He's quite cool to the touch," the writer/director noted. 

Under our studio lights, I touched the skin of the creature as McCarthy looked on from the Zoom call, and I can confirm. His skin is cool to the touch, even in a hot room. 

As the film toured festivals, fans also had the chance to get up close and personal with the Wooden Man, as this perturbing prop would be set up for photo ops. "People were very respectful of it and taking pictures with it, but never, you know, wrapping it in a headlock or anything," McCarthy shared. 

Could the Wooden Man return? 

Fans of Caveat thrilled to see its creepy rabbit featured on the shelves in Darcy's oddity shop. So, does that mean the Wooden Man might pop up in another McCarthy movie? "I don't have any plans for it at the moment," McCarthy confessed. But he went on to note another Oddity character who might reappear down the road.

Darcy and her oddity shop could inspire other tales of terror, full as it is of intriguing tchotchkes. "She's quite an interesting character. Could she have popped up for a scene if you were making another horror film where a guy needed something — a haunted object in his house that needed appraising? That, for me, [would] be kind of fun."

Don't expect a formal McCarthy Cinematic Universe. 

As noted in my review of Oddity, McCarthy uses recurring imagery, cast members, or character names cross over from one film to another. For example, Oddity includes a character named Olin (Tadhg Murphy) who has a glass eye, while a past short film of McCarthy's is called "How Olin Lost His Eye." This could-be origin doesn't match the story in the feature film — but don't call it a retcon. 

"It's all stuff that interests me," McCarthy explained. 

He went on to express a frustration with Hollywood's dedication to churning out elaborate cinematic universes. "I'm a bit tired of the whole universes and everything connecting," he said, adding, "I think it's just been overdone." He models his self-references to those in Quentin Tarantino's movies.

"Some of his films had these very loose connections with a surname, like the Vega brothers from Pulp Fiction to Reservoir Dogs. But it's never made a big deal of it. I like that kind of thing. Are they connected in some way? Are they the same? Could they possibly be in the same world? I think that [ambiguity] is more fun than going, 'This is definitely a callback to [something else]' or 'This is setting up the next thing.' I find it more interesting. It's like, yeah, they're connected because they're written by the same person."

I suggested these commonalities are less shared canon and more fingerprints of the same imagination. "That's a really good way putting it," McCarthy said, concluding later, "I'd probably be slow to make direct sequels or prequels or anything like that. But the little connections, the fingerprints of imagination seems a nice idea."

Oddity opens in theaters July 19.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.