Film Review: Ouija: Origin of Evil – 7/10

‘Do you know what it feels like to be strangled to death?’

For those not in the know, Blumhouse Productions are the film production company behind the recent horror renaissance, responsible for Sinister, The Purge, and Get Out among others. Not every Blumhouse film meets with critical acclaim however. 2014’s Ouija was a huge box office success whilst also being reviled by critics everywhere.

It is no surprise then that it has taken a while for the sequel to become a word-of-mouth hit. Director Mike Flanagan has already produced some of Blumhouse’s most memorable movies in the shape of Oculus and Hush, as well as the Stephen King adaptation of Gerald’s Game for Netflix, so his attachment to Ouija: Origin of Evil instantly adds an air of gravitas that was certainly missing from the lacklustre original.

It’s 1967. Film is grainy but gorgeous. The space race is reaching it’s zenith. Characters are clumsily talking about it in order to assure us that it is, in fact, 1967. In a typically massive house (everyone in horror movies lives in huge old houses that normally contain a rocking horse or an old Indian burial ground), a widow and her two children scam unsuspecting punters out of their hard earned dollars by conducting fake seances. When a Hasbro Ouija board enters the fray, things start to get weird very quickly.

The ’60s setting is certainly no accident with Flanagan using antique filming equipment and rustic cinematography to give the impression of a genuine period piece. The master director manages to make Origin of Evil a clear homage to horror classics such as The Exorcist while still producing a film that feels fresh and innovative.

One of the (many) issues with the original film was the acting. In the horror world you can either have ridiculously attractive 26-year-old’s playing teenagers or proper actors doing proper acting. Rarely both. Origins of Evil emphatically employs the latter with all three female leads doing a great job. Kate Siegel is Mike Flanagan’s muse and his wife (having starred in many of his films), she appears again here, but it is Elizabeth Reaser in the matriarchal role who really shines. Annalise Basso also impresses as the inverse ‘final girl’ and relative newcomer Lulu Wilson rounds off a realistic and compelling on-screen family unit.

Origins of Evil isn’t a classic and isn’t even Flanagan’s best work but it is another chapter in the Blumhouse book of horror that has helped to ensure that we are currently living through a golden age of horror movies. Long may it continue.

EDIT – this article has been lost down the sofa since last Halloween and is finally getting it’s debut outing here. Hence the reason there is no reference to Mike Flanagan’s most famous work – The Haunting of Hill House.