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The Legend of Ochi centres around young Yuri (Helena Zengel – News Of The World), who lives on an island with her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe – The Phoenician Scheme), and likes reading about beasts and demons.
Nearby are cute, ugly creatures – the Ochi – and since Dafoe is playing yet another character who’s completely hatstand, he goes hunting them, wanting Yuri to join in, giving her a knife, which he got from HIS first hunt from HIS Dad. However, he has his reasons, given that they kidnapped her mother and thus, his wife, Dasha (Emily Watson – Midas Man).
This definitely owes a debt to Gremlins, since Yuri chances across a smaller Ochi, and a Gizmo-like creature, but it’s injured and she wants to help it, as she’s not like her Dad. There’s a tender scene where she brings him home, gently passing her pet blue caterpillar to it, resulting in the Ochi placing it on another plant, so they find a common bond.
The Legend of Ochi is a very likeable movie, with gorgeous landscapes, and closing music sung by the Ochi – since we learn singing is how they communicate – I saw this twice, in order to get a better handle on it, and overall, it’s worth a watch, but even at just 95 minutes, it’s intriguing, but doesn’t really go anywhere, and is quite a slog, and very slow-moving.
I also found Yuri’s dialogue is a bit muffled early on, so I’ll need to check it out a third time at home in due course, and put the subtitles on for that bit.
I also wondered in which country is this set? It feels pseudo Eastern European. Turns out, the whole film was shot in Romania, but the town within the film is unnamed and fictional.
As an aside, the aspect ratio for this film is 1.66:1, so a bit narrower than the traditional 1.85:1. I don’t know why – albeit being an A24 film, where they do things differently, there – but at least it’s better than the stupid 2.00:1, like Babygirl, which ends up being windowboxed on most cinema screens.
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.
The Legend of Ochi is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 95 minutes
Release date: August 1st 2025
Studio: A24
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 6/10
Director: Isaiah Saxon
Producers: Traci Carlson, Richard Peete, Isaiah Saxon, Jonathan Wang
Screenplay: Isaiah Saxon
Music: David Longstreth
Cast:
Yuri: Helena Zengel
Maxim: Willem Dafoe
Dasha: Emily Watson
Petro: Finn Wolfhard
Ivan: Răzvan Stoica
Oleg: Carol Borș
Vlad: Andrei Antoniu Anghel
Gleb: David Andrei Bălțatu
Pavel: Eduard Oancea
Tudor: Tomas Otto Ghela
The Ochi: Paul Manalatos (voice)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.