If you’re looking for something light to ease you into the Halloween season, then look no further. “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” released Friday, is a prequel to the 2014 movie inspired by the decidedly spooky board game and hits all the bases of classic horror without being too scary. Director Mike Flanagan plays into all the right elements of suspense, yet falls short on jump scares and special effects.
Set in Los Angeles in 1965, the story follows a single mother struggling to support her family after the death of her husband by offering her services as a medium, which turn out to be nothing more than common scams.
Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) and her daughters, teenage Paulina “Lina” (Annalise Basso) and 9-year-old Doris (Lulu Wilson), seem happy enough. But it’s evident that the girls are still having an extremely difficult time coping with their father’s death. Doris especially, as she is teased and bullied at school, finds solace in the fact that her mother’s work helps people find “closure,” however false it may be, with the death of their loved ones.
And this is where the trouble begins. Young Doris becomes entranced with the Ouija board her mother buys as a prop for her work, and soon begins to make contact with spirits, eventually becoming possessed in a scene that could be pulled straight from “The Exorcist,” special effects quality and all.
The monster in the movie — a twisted, smolderingly black demon figure — isn’t particularly gruesome, and neither are the effects applied to Doris, which come off as rather elementary for a movie that so expertly creates suspense through a strong score and beautiful cinematography.
After her possession, Doris becomes even more attached to the board, even going so far as to assist her mother with readings, impressing clients left and right. However, big sister Paulina isn’t so keen on her sister’s newfound skills, which also include suddenly being able to write in cursive … and in Polish.
The principal of the girls’ Catholic school, Father Tom (Henry Thomas), notices the change in Doris and an uncomfortable, sexual-tension laden dinner-date scene to discuss the girls between Alice and Father Tom ensues. The Catholic school trope is more than a little overdone, and the movie as a whole could have done without the awkward tension of that scene.
Father Tom’s presence soon becomes essential, however, as Doris grows more and more out of control. It’s revealed that the Zander home is tied up in Nazi war crime history, and harbors secrets of dark, twisted experiments and murder deep in its foundation. The elaborate exposition scene that follows this revelation seems overdone; the plotline could definitely do without the Nazi storyline, which feels played out, unnecessary and a bit oddly placed.
The special effects don’t get better with the climax, either, and overall it seems that the movie is trying to accomplish too much at once in terms of plot and character development, and thus suffers on the scare factor front. There’s more of an overall sense of suspense and creepiness rather than true horror. With a PG-13 rating, this isn’t too surprising, but for true horror lovers, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” probably won’t get the job done.
However, the movie makes its mark in terms of the characters. There’s no clear (human) villain in the family. They’re all just victims of fate and monsters, and by the end, the only thing you can feel for the Zander family is empathy.
Wilson does a superb job portraying Doris’ pain after the death of her father and endless taunting and teasing, and doesn’t make her seem malicious, but rather, vulnerable. Basso’s older sister character is the perfect balance of rationale and reason that the storyline needs.
Overall, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” has a solid plotline, and the cinematography, casting, score and period-specific clothing and props, despite the lack of truly scary material, blend together to make a seamless viewing experience. But if you’re looking to be shaken to the bone over Halloween weekend, don’t drop your dollars for it.
Thank you so much for this. I was going to take my daughter who I haven’t seen in 5 years to go see this after I picked her up from the airport, but now I realize it would not have been a good thing to do. I would love to meet with you for coffee sometime to discuss this further as I was a film studies major at Berklee College of Music in 1969.
It’s time that Michael Fimoognari be recognized as one of the best cinemographers on the market right now. Most people that don’t watch horror movies won’t be familiar with his work. But Fimognari is as talented as they come. He shot a movie called “Visions” last year that just blew me away, the movie itself was okay, but the whole experience was its cinematography, every frame of Fimognari’s shot is like a well crafted painting.