Cliche after cliche pile up in this dull and un-scary franchise wannabe
The pull of the Ouija board has proved all too irresistible over the past few years with numerous franchises employing its creepy shorthand to spell out imminent doom. It’s certainly a tension-builder but, as any teenager will tell you, very rarely equals the forbidden fun of actually playing the game.
Ouija: Origin of Evil is the wholly unnecessary follow-up to 2014’s hit Ouija and adds very little to the growing sub-genre although the origin story does present a well done and atmospheric retro feel. We are in 1967, and grieving widow Alice Zander (Reaser) is holding séances for equally grieving widows and widowers desperate to contact their departed loved ones.
Sisters Paulina (left) and Lulu
Alice says her service provides “comfort” but it’s all an elaborate scam in which her two young daughters, Lulu and Paulina, do the smoke and mirrors off-stage. However, when their mother buys a Ouija Board to add to what is becoming a jaded act, the elaborate pretence begins to become morbid reality.
The performances are all solid but the best thing here is Lulu Wilson as Doris, the nine-year-old daughter who turns out to be a lightning (frightening) rod for lost souls malingering in the basement. She is a spot on mix of sinister and sweet in the role and turns in a kind of PG-rated Linda Blair impression. At one point, little Lulu watches a film about alleged axe murderer Lizzie Borden. Chortle.
The best thing here is Lulu Wilson as Doris
However, a sappy subplot involving teenage daughter Paulina (Basso) and her prom date is just a cliché too far in a movie that makes rather too much of its references to The Exorcist, Poltergeist and Carrie.
Not so much horror by numbers as horror spelt out slowly in letters, maybe they should have used that Ouija board to make contact with some ideas of their own.
Alan Corr @corralan
