Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Review of OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL: The Prequel Prevails

October 31, 2016




Back in 2014, there was a film entitled "Ouija" inspired by the board "game" for communicating with the spirit world by Hasbro Bros. Despite its box office success, the critics panned it. The trailers for this new Ouija film had been very good, that I knew I had to go watch it. Its local screening just had to be perfectly timed for Halloween, and so my son and I went in the cinema that night in full anticipation to be scared and entertained.

It was 1967 in Los Angeles, a young widow named Alice Zander made a living by telling fortunes and hosting séances that she meant to comfort here grieving clients, even if in reality they were actually only cleverly staged by Alice with the help of her daughters Lina and Doris. Upon Lina's suggestion, Alice buys a Ouija Board as a prop for her business, but only after outfitting its planchette with magnets. However, Alice accidentally arouses a dark and tormented spirit which never left her family alone since then, especially young Doris.

Unlike the petty millennial characters in the first film, this prequel actually had a central family of characters with whom we could empathize. Elizabeth Reaser may have played an imperfect mom Alice with a shady business, we saw that her caring for her kids was sincere. Annalise Basso may look too mature to be high school sophomore Lina, but we still were able to connect with her concern for her distracted mother and transformed younger sister. 

Best of all, Lulu Wilson was just so charming as the little girl possessed by the evil spirit, she was really the best performer up there on screen. We have seen creepy kids in many horror films come and go, but this girl was really riveting here. She had a screen presence like a young Reese Witherspoon. When she was describing how it felt to be strangled to death, the whole audience may have grown goosebumps just listening to her. 

It was great to see Henry Thomas again in a marked role as the school principal and priest Fr. Tom Hogan. Yes, that is little Elliott of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" all grown up at 45 years of age. In any case, his awkward dinner scene with Mrs. Zander (all glammed up in red) in the swanky restaurant just sent all sorts of wrong vibes. 

Since I watched the first film after the prequel second film, I essentially watched the first film as a sequel. Connections between these two films were well-established. It was set in the same old house with the "graveyard" basement. The characters will still be violating the rules of the game, despite the many times these rules were repeatedly enumerated. There were still those same disturbing images of the stretched-out open mouth screams as well as the even more disturbing images of the stitched up mouths. There will again be a hanging scene from the same staircase. 

I did not think the first film was really all that bad, but the second film was so much better and richer in material. However, the story and even the personalities of the three Zander ladies seemed to have shifted between episodes, particularly that of Lina. But then again, she did spend decades in an asylum by the time Lin Shaye (the same creepy lady in the "Insidious" films) played her in the first film. The carefully detailed recreation of Los Angeles in the late 1960s in terms of set and costumes was also remarkable in this prequel.

Despite the typical horror cliches, writer-director Mike Flanagan managed to improve on the idea of the original film, and succeeded to create an engaging and entertaining formula for a horror film that was great to watch with a skittish audience in a movie house. We knew that when a character looked into a mirror long enough, something will appear behind her. We knew that when a character looked through the lens of the planchette (the window to the "other side"), she will see a spooky image. Yet those big startle scenes were so perfectly timed and executed, they still got us shocked to jump out of our seats, and that was such good fun. 8/10.


19 comments:

  1. oh my gosh! Judging by the poster alone, I know that this movie will kill me. Great thriller especially for the month of November.

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  2. Seems like a scary movie. Perfect for Halloween! :P

    I'm not much of a horror movie fan, though. :P

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  3. Oh my! Looks scary!~ So, what's the origin of evil?

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  4. This is something I would love to watch. I does look scary and there's so much mystery in Quija.

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  5. I've watched the Filipino version of this, and it is scary. I am curious how they justify the story.

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    1. Actually I had also watched the Filipino film called "Ouija" starring Judy Ann Santos with Jolina Magdangal. My review is somewhere in this blog. :-)

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  6. I'm a great fan of horror movie and this one seemed to be an interesting one to watch. I miss shouting with friends while watching horror film. This will certainly be on my list of movies to watch.

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  7. Creepy kids in movies are well, just plain creepy! Lol. It was a toss between Ouija and Doctor Strange last Tue for me. Of course, I chickened out and picked the latter even if I like horror flicks because it was the LFS & I know I'd have nightmares.

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  8. Ahh I can't! I can't watch this at all. For scary movies, I just usually read the plot on Wikipedia. Lol.

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  9. Hi have a co-worker who was able to watch this. She keeps telling everyone that she regretted watching this because everywhere she goes, she thinks that the child is following her. lol

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  10. Hasbro Bros are same people who manufacture Hasbro toys? I didn't know about this movie and it's first movie either...I hardly watch horror films. The poster looks scary.

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    1. Yes. That is the same Hasbro. There have been movies inspired by their board games. This one is the first one that the critics liked. :-)

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  11. I don't usually watch horror films. Not that I'm totally afraid, but, yes, they can make you scream at times. I try to shut off these kinds of scenarios in my head so that I don't feed my imagination with creepy things. :-)

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  12. I watched this movie last Tuesday in SM Cinema and really great for me to stay until the end. Yes, the first film was quite good but the second has the edge in terms of excitement.

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  13. Oh my God! The poster itself looks so scary and not sure whether i will be keen t go for it.

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  14. Whoa I think this is another horror movie that will hit me hard. I easily get scared even if it's a horror cliche.

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  15. I like scaring myself thats why I watch a lot of horror movies and after that I couldnt sleep and will end up sleeping 4 in the morning. Lol

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  16. I wasn't in the mood for horror. Hence decided to give it a miss. But I usually trust what you say about films :)

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  17. I am not a huge fan of horror films but your review is appreciated. I will share this to a friend.

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