Ouija: Origin of Evil

If Annabelle: Creation is any indication, making a prequel to a subpar horror that takes place some time before cell phones is a great way to get a better product. Granted, that road was originally paved by Ouija: Origin of Evil a prequel to a crappy movie based off a board game. Of course one always wonders if lowered expectations softened critics hearts or if Origin of Evil is actually a worthwhile horror movie.

Taking place in 1967, we're introduced to Alice Zander, a single mother with two daughters that works as a medium. However, business isn't as great as it used to be, and soon Alice is coaxed by her daughters into purchasing and possibly incorporating a new board game, Ouija, into her readings. But it soon becomes clear that something has reached through the game and bonded itself to Alice's daughter Doris...and it's not friendly.

So surprising absolutely no one, Origin of Evil is a steep improvement over its predecessor. Granted when the first film was a jump-scare dependent slasher film with no entertainment value, that was a low bar to cross. However, much like The Conjuring films, Origin of Evil does an excellent job at delivering dread-drenched atmosphere with some well timed jump scares.

Admittedly the film is fairly uneven. The first act is quite familiar but does a good job at setting up the scares to come. As I mentioned, the mother works as a medium, but does so primarily through a series of elaborate gags and reactions to her customer's questions. Regardless this lays the groundwork for the inclusion of the game and the mother's enthusiasm even when Doris starts to act strange. Not only because this is a new element to her business, but she also wants to believe there's a way to contact her deceased too young husband.

The second act is easily the film's strongest as Doris clearly begins making a turn for the worse and potentially more murderous and her sister tries to get help and plead with her mother to do something about it. There's a lot of good jump scares and fun set ups like Doris creeping out her sister's suitor or her odd method of watching television. Lulu Wilson, who also stars in Annabelle:Creation gives a phenomenal performance transforming back and forth between childish and malicious.

The second act also introduces one of my favorite characters which is the Father Hogan played by Henry Thomas. Aside from being very smart, and delivering one of the best horror movie expository monologues ever, I liked how even-handed his portrayal was. He's kind, but not creepy (he shows no physical interest in the single mother). Smart and brave, but not superhuman. Overall he's just a good guy that's trying to help the best he can.

If the movie does stumble, it's in the third act when all the fireworks start going off. It's all creepy stuff, but it also went through a checklist of horror movie finale pet peeves including: overexplaining the villain but somehow not telling us enough, making references back to the last movie that we have no real way of remembering, being really unclear about the methods for beating the villain, undetermined power set for said baddie etc. I doubt fans of the genre will care, but I've seen enough of these recently to get a little tired of it.

Though reliant on modern horror tropes, Ouija: Origin of Evil still has enough creepy moments and atmosphere to recommend.