My Review of Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016)

 

Written by Mike Flanagan And Jeff Howard

Directed by Mike Flanagan

Alice: "Where is she?"

Father Tom: "She's part of the walls now. And she told me the most wonderful, awful things."

Yesterday I wrote a review for the fairly mediocre Ouija movie, so it was time to give the better received sequel/prequel movie another go. Low and behold, here we are.

The antagonists in the first movie were the ghosts of Alice and Doris Zander with Paulina being confined to an institution. This movie explored that family's origin with the Ouija board in great detail.

Starting the movie off, it seemed like matriarch Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) was just coasting along with her customers, posing as a medium. She had her daughters Paulina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson) somewhat aiding her grift. Then the arrival of a certain board made Alice's job a bit too real for everyone's liking.

Notably with Doris being used as a vessel to communicate with the spirits, including the Zander patriarch, Roger (Michael Weaver). Doris's attachment to the spirits was definitely enabled by Alice getting in over her head but it was Paulina who was more freaked out by the whole thing.

Throw in a concerned priest named Thomas Hogan (Henry Thomas) and you've got something that slightly veered into The Exorcist territory with various possessions, dead boyfriends (poor Paulina) and a family that ultimately had the majority of its members killed, courtesy of Lina.

Yup, Lina's more or less the sole survivor in this movie, but considered that I've already seen the first movie, I already knew this. I do think this one did it's best to try and humanise both Lina and Alice a bit more while playing up the sheer creepiness of Doris being possessed by the spirits in the movie.

- Kate Siegel popped up briefly at the start as Jenny Browning, the daughter of Mr Browning (Sam Anderson). She's a gold digger.

- Post credit scene showed the older Lina (Lin Shaye) getting a visit from a woman claiming to be her niece.

- Standout music: Mike Lacey's You Gotta Move Me.

- Chronology: 1967 Los Angeles for the majority of the movie and 2014 for that post credit scene.

Ouija: Origin Of Evil certainly delivered a better movie than it's predecessor. It's sharper, better focused, more effective with it's scares and it nicely fleshed out the tragedy of the Zander family.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Ouija (2014)

 

Written by Juliet Snowden And Stiles White

Directed by Stiles White

Laine: "I just want to stop whatever is happening. My friends are dying."

Keeping with horror this weekend, I went and caught this divisive one from over a decade ago. To be fair, I'd previously watched it's sequel/prequel years ago but here goes.

Anyways, you've got friends, Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig/Claire Beale) and Laine Morris (Olivia Cooke/Afra Sophia Tully) play with an Ouija board as kids, when they weren't being interrupted by the latter's sister, Sarah (Ana Coto/Izzie Galanti). Of course they were using it for trivial questions.

Then the girls became teenagers and a spooked out Debbie tried to burn the Ouija board, only for the board to remain perfectly intact. As for Debbie, she ended up getting possessed and killed herself. Debbie's death of course would drive the main plot for this movie.

Mostly because Laine knew there was something off with her best friend's demise and along with Sarah, Isabelle (Bianca Santos), her boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff) and Debbie's boyfriend, Pete (Douglas Smith), she was determined to get to the bottom of it. What better than to use the Ouija board in order to get some answers.

At first it seemed like the group was communicating with Debbie but it was quickly revealed to be another spirit named Doris Zander (Sierra Heuermann) who was a victim of her mother (Claudia Katz Minnick). Then there was the older version of Doris's sister, Paulina (Lin Shaye), who ended up being more foe than friend.

The rest of the movie spent time with Isabelle, Pete and Trevor all getting killed with Laine in protective sister mode to save Sarah. It's something that she just about managed to do along with freeing the right spirits from their supernatural burden. 

- The movie underwent massive reshoots, including Erin Moriarty's character removed and suggestions from Mike Flanagan. 

- The tagline "Keep telling yourself it's just a game" was used to promote the Ouija game.

- The first Ouija board came out in 1890 but this movie seemed to imply it was before then.

- Chronology: Present day in an unknown American town.

Ouija was an okay look at the infamous board and the horrors that surrounded it. It's not a great horror by any stretch but it's not quite a disaster area either. Mostly mediocre though.

Rating: 5 out of 10