Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Directed by Mike Flanagan
In 1967 Los Angeles, a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their séance scam business and unwittingly invite authentic evil into their home. When the youngest daughter is overtaken by the merciless spirit, this small family confronts unthinkable fears to save her and send her possessor back to the other side.
4 connections found
View:
4 films that influenced Ouija: Origin of Evil
What critics say influenced Ouija: Origin of Evil
For at least an hour, Oculus director Mike Flanagan approximates the patient, genre storytelling and atmospherics of The Conjuring sequence.
Indeed, there have been so many similar supernatural films of this ilk in recent memory, from 2011's " Insidious " and its sequels, to 2012's " Sinister " and its sequel, to 2013's " The Conjuring " and its sequel, to 2014's " Annabelle ," to 2016's " Lights Out ," a slight whiff of the commonplace has begun to permeate each new entry, no matter how well they are done.
Flanagan isn't the only filmmaker treading this path of late; indeed, taking the Ouija series in this direction clearly owes much to the success of The Conjuring , its spinoff and sequel.
Flanagan has some fun with the '60s setting, putting fake cigarette burns like the ones you might find on old film reels every 20 minutes - but the movie still doesn't quite match the period feel of an old-time horror movie as well as "The Conjuring" and its sequel did.
The rest of the time, however, the movie is an exercise in pedestrian storytelling with minimal tension, and feels a bit like The Conjuring lite.
Like The Conjuring and the many immersive spook-house thrillers inspired by it, Origin of Evil demands and rewards attentiveness, inviting scrutiny of its frames, study of its negative space.
Elizabeth Reaser is “Origin of Evil”’s token overqualified performer, playing Alice, a widowed occultist living in 1960s suburban L.A. whose seances are — shades of Peter Jackson’s “The Frighteners” — a total scam.
Indeed, there have been so many similar supernatural films of this ilk in recent memory, from 2011's " Insidious " and its sequels, to 2012's " Sinister " and its sequel, to 2013's " The Conjuring " and its sequel, to 2014's " Annabelle ," to 2016's " Lights Out ," a slight whiff of the commonplace has begun to permeate each new entry, no matter how well they are done.
Mainstream audiences may be confused by the complicated plot shifts, that are mainly dumped late in the third act after a lengthy ham-fisted exposition scene which brings back memories of the laughable Vincent D’Onofrio “Bughuul” scene from Sinister .
For at least an hour, Oculus director Mike Flanagan approximates the patient, genre storytelling and atmospherics of The Conjuring sequence.
The prequel brings in the “Oculus” and “Before I Wake” team of director and co-writer Mike Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard .
We open in Los Angeles in 1965, where young widow Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) lives with her two young daughters, rebellious high-school sophomore Paulina (Oculus’ Annalise Basso) and innocent 9-year-old Doris (Lulu Wilson).
After striking critical and commercial gold with intriguing horror flicks such as Oculus and Hush , it seemed odd for the filmmaker to take on the studio-mandated sequel to an unremarkable horror franchise based on an age-old Hasbro toy.
In Ouija, the backstory of present-day events introduced us to a doomed family of three from the past: a single mother, Alice ( Elizabeth Reaser , whom Mad Men fans will recognize from yet another ’60s nostalgia trip), and her two children, teen Pauline (the wonderful Annalise Basso , who previously worked with Flanagan on his smart, if somewhat overrated, horror film Oculus) and Doris ( Lulu Wilson ), a beatifically blond child who serves as a throwback to Poltergeist’s Carol Anne in a largely open-mouthed performance.
Director/co-writer Mike Flanagan (of the excellent Oculus and Hush), who had nothing to do with the original, brings some dark new ideas to the table.