Also saw Ouija: Origin of Evil, the prequel to the mediocre Ouija, both movies based on the Hasbro product, both movies assuring us that if we buy their toy, we will be cursed and haunted. Moichandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!
Ouija (the original) was a pretty bad, very generic horror movie that was full of dumb, dead teenagers and a bare-bones generic plot with repetitive non-scary jump scares. This new movie gives us the back-story to the original. Set in 1967. it tells the story of the people who became the spooky haunts in the first. Here we have a mom and her two daughters who run a sham psychic service for gullible people. To liven up her presentation, she buys this hot new toy, a Ouija board, and her youngest immediately gets possessed, exhibited real psychic powers, so they put her to good use in their business. And then things go wrong and they realize she’s haunted by EVIL spooks (who’d have thunk it!).
Half of this movie is kind of interesting with a neat time period and location – and in that it’s not just full of dead teenagers, that’s a plus. A widowed mother and her two daughters is a trio of characters that already exhibits more thought and creativity than the original had for its full run-time. There are a handful of cheap jump-scares but the movie tries to go for more a mood, not throwing things at the screen and blaring scare music every time it wants us to be scared. I just wish it worked. I didn’t find this movie scary but I respect its attempt to do something different. It’s definitely a better movie than the first one.
The problem is that the second half is pretty generic and takes the wind out of the movie. Plus I didn’t buy the acting from the little possessed girl. She was supposed to be eerie but I thought she was over-acting and not convincing. Based on the surprisingly good reviews for this flick, they all think she does a good job and maybe that’s the key. I didn’t buy her so I didn’t buy the movie.
So there you go. I respect that this is a better and much more ambitious movie than the crappy original flick. It doesn’t happen very much that the producers course correct their franchise and they did a good job here. The first half was good but the second half fell apart so I can’t recommend it. However, since the reviews are so strong, it’s quite possible that it’s a better movie than I’m giving it credit for. If you are a horror movie person, maybe it’s worth checking out.
Score: 70