After a slow month, I'm hoping to pick things up this month. I've been stressing a bit after getting behind on bills once again, but I'm making some changes that will hopefully help if I'm not too late in making those changes. It has been enough of a problem for me to lose a little sleep over it all. Anyway, enough about my problems. Since I will be making a change to my cable and internet soon, I wanted to knock out the last few remaining movies on my DVR. I have one to watch that won't be reviewed, one I will be reviewing at my other blog, and the last film which I just finished watching was Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016).
Set in 1967, Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) is running a seance business out of her home after her husband passed away in order to make ends meet to support her and her daughters. The seance is nothing but a scam, with Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson) helping out. Alice doesn't see it as ripping people off but giving them some peace of mind and closer. While out shopping, Alice spots the ouija board game and decides to buy it as a prop for the seance. As she sets it up to move on its own with magnets, Doris begins answering the questions that Alice asks it from upstairs, even though she can't hear her mother asking them. Doris then begins to use the board on her own and believes that she is talking to her father. Alice watches Doris and asks questions that she believes only her husband would know and gets the correct answers. Alice believes Doris has a gift and has her use it to communicate with the dead in order to help clients. Whatever Doris is talking to, it isn't her father and it isn't very nice.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil was co-written by Jeff Howard and Mike Flanagan, who also directed. This movie surprised a lot of people because it is considered to be a prequel to the 2014 film. Even though that film was considered a success because it did well at the box office, not many people seem to like it nowadays. I didn't find it to be a too bad of a film, as you can read here if you want. This one takes a slightly different approach though. Instead of a focus on teen characters, the focus is more on Alice and her family. It is a nice change, as too many horror films try to make the focus on teen characters in order to bring them in. Not that I have anything against teens, as was all used to be one. I am surprised with myself that it took me so long to get around to watching this movie. I'm a big fan of Flanagan and heard nothing but good things about it when it was out in theaters. Not sure why I missed it at the time, probably didn't have the extra money, but I know it has been out for a while now on DVD. As I said, Flanagan and Howard come up with some interesting characters here. It is kind of bad that Alice is taking money for something that isn't true, but she seems to be doing this for a good reason. After all, she knows first hand what it is like to lose someone and not have a chance to say important things. We do see her refuse money because Lina goes off script and scares a guy pretty badly, even though Alice is about to lose their house from being behind on payments. This makes her likable, along with her two daughters. The story is a bit of a slow burn, allowing us to get to know the characters some before evil things start to happen. They actually do tie into what happens in the first film, but you don't need to watch it, or remember it, before seeing this film as only the end credits scene has anything that ties directly with the first film. I was pretty surprised at how Ouija: Origin Of Evil ends on such a downbeat. I'm not complaining about that, but I was just expecting it to end that way. It looks like all will end fairly well at least, but it doesn't. The only thing I didn't care about this movie was some of the special effects, which I will get into next.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil isn't a gory or even a bloody film. Some of the subject matter in a little gruesome, but outside of that there isn't anything as far as effects. What we do get for effects has to do with Doris' eyes turning blind white and her mouth opening in unnatural ways. I could have done without the mouth effect just because it looked silly way more than scary. There is also a CGI looking ghost that shows up for at least one scene. The acting was very well done. Lulu Wilson comes through again with an outstanding performance. There were times when I thought she was acting a bit too sweet at times, but I wondered if that was more from Flanagan wanting that. Wilson can be creepy when she wants to be though. I also really liked Elizabeth Reaser and Annalise Basso. I really liked that Reaser's character was level headed. She didn't appear to panic and tried to think things through. Henry Thomas plays the part of Father Tom, who becomes an important person towards the end of the film.
There is a small cast that Flanagan works with here, but it felt like there should have been a larger cast at times. It would have been nice if Flanagan had expanded on the cast just slightly. Like when Lina gives some papers to Father Tom to be translated, we hear from Father Tom that the lady that translated them was very disturbed by the papers. It would have been nice to have a scene where this lady explained this to Father Tom instead of being told about it. Instead, we get a scene where a couple of boys are picking on Doris, which one of them pays for it. It is an alright scene, but it goes nowhere and we never see Doris use this "power" again. While Ouija: Origin Of Evil has some problems, it was still a very well made film with a good story as well. It is a slight slow burn, but it was still exciting where it needed to be and when. If you haven't given this film a chance yet, you really should. Flanagan is putting out some great films right now. Some consider this one to be his weakest so far, but they still like it. I for one loved it and I'm excited to see what he comes out with next.
4 out of 5 Creepy little girls are the best!
Set in 1967, Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) is running a seance business out of her home after her husband passed away in order to make ends meet to support her and her daughters. The seance is nothing but a scam, with Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson) helping out. Alice doesn't see it as ripping people off but giving them some peace of mind and closer. While out shopping, Alice spots the ouija board game and decides to buy it as a prop for the seance. As she sets it up to move on its own with magnets, Doris begins answering the questions that Alice asks it from upstairs, even though she can't hear her mother asking them. Doris then begins to use the board on her own and believes that she is talking to her father. Alice watches Doris and asks questions that she believes only her husband would know and gets the correct answers. Alice believes Doris has a gift and has her use it to communicate with the dead in order to help clients. Whatever Doris is talking to, it isn't her father and it isn't very nice.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil was co-written by Jeff Howard and Mike Flanagan, who also directed. This movie surprised a lot of people because it is considered to be a prequel to the 2014 film. Even though that film was considered a success because it did well at the box office, not many people seem to like it nowadays. I didn't find it to be a too bad of a film, as you can read here if you want. This one takes a slightly different approach though. Instead of a focus on teen characters, the focus is more on Alice and her family. It is a nice change, as too many horror films try to make the focus on teen characters in order to bring them in. Not that I have anything against teens, as was all used to be one. I am surprised with myself that it took me so long to get around to watching this movie. I'm a big fan of Flanagan and heard nothing but good things about it when it was out in theaters. Not sure why I missed it at the time, probably didn't have the extra money, but I know it has been out for a while now on DVD. As I said, Flanagan and Howard come up with some interesting characters here. It is kind of bad that Alice is taking money for something that isn't true, but she seems to be doing this for a good reason. After all, she knows first hand what it is like to lose someone and not have a chance to say important things. We do see her refuse money because Lina goes off script and scares a guy pretty badly, even though Alice is about to lose their house from being behind on payments. This makes her likable, along with her two daughters. The story is a bit of a slow burn, allowing us to get to know the characters some before evil things start to happen. They actually do tie into what happens in the first film, but you don't need to watch it, or remember it, before seeing this film as only the end credits scene has anything that ties directly with the first film. I was pretty surprised at how Ouija: Origin Of Evil ends on such a downbeat. I'm not complaining about that, but I was just expecting it to end that way. It looks like all will end fairly well at least, but it doesn't. The only thing I didn't care about this movie was some of the special effects, which I will get into next.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil isn't a gory or even a bloody film. Some of the subject matter in a little gruesome, but outside of that there isn't anything as far as effects. What we do get for effects has to do with Doris' eyes turning blind white and her mouth opening in unnatural ways. I could have done without the mouth effect just because it looked silly way more than scary. There is also a CGI looking ghost that shows up for at least one scene. The acting was very well done. Lulu Wilson comes through again with an outstanding performance. There were times when I thought she was acting a bit too sweet at times, but I wondered if that was more from Flanagan wanting that. Wilson can be creepy when she wants to be though. I also really liked Elizabeth Reaser and Annalise Basso. I really liked that Reaser's character was level headed. She didn't appear to panic and tried to think things through. Henry Thomas plays the part of Father Tom, who becomes an important person towards the end of the film.
There is a small cast that Flanagan works with here, but it felt like there should have been a larger cast at times. It would have been nice if Flanagan had expanded on the cast just slightly. Like when Lina gives some papers to Father Tom to be translated, we hear from Father Tom that the lady that translated them was very disturbed by the papers. It would have been nice to have a scene where this lady explained this to Father Tom instead of being told about it. Instead, we get a scene where a couple of boys are picking on Doris, which one of them pays for it. It is an alright scene, but it goes nowhere and we never see Doris use this "power" again. While Ouija: Origin Of Evil has some problems, it was still a very well made film with a good story as well. It is a slight slow burn, but it was still exciting where it needed to be and when. If you haven't given this film a chance yet, you really should. Flanagan is putting out some great films right now. Some consider this one to be his weakest so far, but they still like it. I for one loved it and I'm excited to see what he comes out with next.
4 out of 5 Creepy little girls are the best!
