Low-key horror auteur Mike Flanagan (Hush, Oculus) puts in unexpectedly solid work with Ouija: Origin of Evil. I can’t vouch for the film’s efficacy as promotional material—”it’ll possess your entire family with vengeful wraiths!” seems like a turn-off — but as Halloween viewing, it more than serves its function.
Produced under the auspices of wildly uneven low-budget horror factory Blumhouse, Flanagan’s film tackles the absurdity of being the second feature-length movie based off a dang Ouija board in admirable fashion. I have not seen the first Ouija and I feel confident in saying I do not need to: life is short. You could die any time. This is probably the only Ouija-based movie you need.
Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard, who also collaborated on 2013’s Oculus, turn their lugubrious mission — make a prequel to a movie no one gave a shit about — into a lively period piece set in 1967 Los Angeles. From the old-school Universal logo and title card to the fake cigarette burns in the upper-right of the frame (the film was shot digitally), they work hard to conjure a defiantly retro vibe; this extends to their investment in quiet character development, which makes the film’s eerie first half an engaging slow burn.
Like Oculus, which was more interested in going reality-fuck for reality-fuck with the nuttiest Korean horror movies than maintaining any coherence, Ouija: Origin of Evil gets a bit lost in the weeds at its schlocky climax; if the first film’s Wikipedia page is to be believed, this is because it’s tying off the necessary knots to function as A Prequel. Still, the last 20 minutes aren’t a failure so much as they simply aren’t as effective as they could have been, given the strength of the rest of the film.
Flanagan’s regular DP Michael Fimognari constructs an authentically vintage look for the film, all soft lighting and showy deep focus shots: scenes play out in single camera moves and make untrendy use of staging and depth. Look for how he shoots a conversation taking place in a car: not through shot/reverse shot cutting but through a camera outside the vehicle, which tracks around as necessary. It’s impressively thorough work; only the film’s aggressive color grading feels firmly 2016.
But we’re here for the spooks, right? The jolts? The jumps? Ouija: Origin of Evil has its fair share, some of them subtle and some of them loud as hell. Flanagan’s approach here is similar to James Wan’s The Conjuring (2013), which has bizarrely secured a place in the modern horror canon by being not awful (and, it must be said, because of Patrick Wilson’s sideburns) — catchy period detail, restraint where necessary, and basic filmmaking smarts.
Ouija: Origin of Evil
3 of 5 stars
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Starring Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Annalise Basso, and Henry Thomas
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2016.
