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Posted : 1 year, 12 months ago on 9 May 2022 10:29
I didn’t care much about ‘Ouija’ but since this prequel was directed by Mike Flanagan and since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I didn’t remember much about ‘Ouija’, except that it was pretty lame. I was in fact pretty sure that there was basically no connection between the two movies. It’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was actually taking place in the same house and some of the characters were even actually returning. Anyway, Flanagan did a fine job here, even if he didn’t focus too much on the Ouija board after all. Indeed, in fact, it could have been easily removed and the whole story would still have worked. Anyway, the mood was neat, the end-result was actually pretty creepy and I have to admit that, even if I wasn’t scared sh*tless, I was definitely pretty spooked though. On top of that, even if the characters were not very developed, the Zanders were charismatic enough and I actually cared about what they were going through. Flanagan also uses very often the same actors with all his movies and miniseries (Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel) and they were all fine here. Even Annalise Basso, who wasn’t a Flanagan regular, did deliver a solid performance. Eventually, the only thing that didn’t really work out for me was when they tried to explain what was actually going on (which had eventually nothing to do with the Ouija board) which was rather convoluted and not really interesting. However, it was still rather impressive how much Flanagan managed to achieve with some seemingly hopeless material, especially if you would compare his work to the borderline abysmal previous instalment in this franchise. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a homerun, it was still a solid horror feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
Ouija: Origin of Evil Reviews
Ouija: Origin of Evil review
Posted : 5 years, 9 months ago on 30 July 2018 10:09
I had as much hope as one can be expected to conjure up for a big studio project about a board game when I saw the first Ouija film. Still, I somehow got even less than my low expectations dictated would be reasonably acceptable. Despite this response I went into the follow-up, Ouija: Origin of Evil (a prequel), with some vague hope that it would at least be slightly improved. This hope came courtesy of the man helming the project, Mike Flanagan.
In the last handful of years Flanagan has directed a brilliant and refreshing home invasion movie called "Hush" and, later, one of the best Stephen King adaptations to date in "Gerald's Game". This garnered much good will in my book and gave Ouija: Origin of Evil a fighting chance.
While the use of the titular occult witchboard is really horror trope by now it has rarely been used to great effect in the past. Unfortunately, this ends up being yet another casualty to be heaped into the bunch. The movie ends up being little more than a transparently weak attempt to emulate the vastly superior Conjuring films with it's retro setting and gradual affliction of the inhabitants of a home after an ominous event triggers the activity. However, it garners none of the credibility of those selfsame flicks and instead feels like a gimmick (complete with digital cigarette burns).
Everything seems to be to prim and proper to come off as realistic and the effects and scares are far too visible and cliched to build tension or to remain believable. While Wan made negative space and pacing a white knuckle experience in The Conjuring, Flanagan airs everything out in the open and expects us to respond to silly effects and entities torn straight out of Wan's universe. Some are downright laughable in how ineffectually rendered they are. And overdependence on CGI also greatly mars the film's ability to send chills down the spine.
Now, you might say I'm just being biased toward one product or the other. I'm the first to admit that Origin of Evil is a superior product to it's predecessor but it is far to much a pastiche of cliches and standards from superior films to stand out on it's own. On top of that it seems like what it is exactly...a studio film.
That is not to say that the deck was stacked against Flanagan by nature of the material being so familiar and trope heavy. Paco Plaza took virtually the same scenarios and circumstances and made "Veronica" in 2017 and proved that you can make something so familiar incredibly good and effective.
In the end, Ouija: Origin of Evil is an abject failure in almost every sense of the word. I could see some of the elements working on their own or in other circumstances but the product as a whole is downright forgettable and, worse, laughable. Watch "Veronica" instead if you want this idea done horrifying justice.
In the last handful of years Flanagan has directed a brilliant and refreshing home invasion movie called "Hush" and, later, one of the best Stephen King adaptations to date in "Gerald's Game". This garnered much good will in my book and gave Ouija: Origin of Evil a fighting chance.
While the use of the titular occult witchboard is really horror trope by now it has rarely been used to great effect in the past. Unfortunately, this ends up being yet another casualty to be heaped into the bunch. The movie ends up being little more than a transparently weak attempt to emulate the vastly superior Conjuring films with it's retro setting and gradual affliction of the inhabitants of a home after an ominous event triggers the activity. However, it garners none of the credibility of those selfsame flicks and instead feels like a gimmick (complete with digital cigarette burns).
Everything seems to be to prim and proper to come off as realistic and the effects and scares are far too visible and cliched to build tension or to remain believable. While Wan made negative space and pacing a white knuckle experience in The Conjuring, Flanagan airs everything out in the open and expects us to respond to silly effects and entities torn straight out of Wan's universe. Some are downright laughable in how ineffectually rendered they are. And overdependence on CGI also greatly mars the film's ability to send chills down the spine.
Now, you might say I'm just being biased toward one product or the other. I'm the first to admit that Origin of Evil is a superior product to it's predecessor but it is far to much a pastiche of cliches and standards from superior films to stand out on it's own. On top of that it seems like what it is exactly...a studio film.
That is not to say that the deck was stacked against Flanagan by nature of the material being so familiar and trope heavy. Paco Plaza took virtually the same scenarios and circumstances and made "Veronica" in 2017 and proved that you can make something so familiar incredibly good and effective.
In the end, Ouija: Origin of Evil is an abject failure in almost every sense of the word. I could see some of the elements working on their own or in other circumstances but the product as a whole is downright forgettable and, worse, laughable. Watch "Veronica" instead if you want this idea done horrifying justice.
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Ouija: Origin of Evil review
Posted : 7 years, 6 months ago on 8 November 2016 06:11
So the first one sucked pretty badly. I didn't even understand why they made another one. The trailer was interesting though and it did look quite different to that of the first. I was pretty skeptical about this. To my surprise I hear it's actually fairly good and kind of redeems the failure of the first one. Mike Flanagan also wrote and directed Oculus and Hush. The latter being quite excellent. Jeff Howard has also written with him on these works. So I decided to go ahead and check it out. Let us hope it's as good as I have heard.
Oh nice I love the addition of the old school Universal Studios logo! So that was loads better than the first one. It shares some similar ideas from the first one while creating a bunch of fresh additions to the lore. I thought it was actually pretty creepy. It didn't even seem like there were jump scenes and just actual scares. It's a somewhat slow build, but it works for this story. The last few scenes were pretty good and crazy. There is another scene at the end of the credits, but it really doesn't do much. It just connects both movies.
The acting was pretty good. I liked the characters a lot. I felt that the girl who played Doris was excellent. She really pulled off creepy and adorable when she needed to. It seems that casters are actually finding decent kids these days. Annalise Basso was great as Lina. She is loads better than the awful and painfully annoying Lin Shaye.
Overall this was a huge step up from the previous film. The scares are better. The acting is better. I really felt for the characters and the stuff they were going through. The characters weren't needlessly stupid. It has some fresh ideas mixed up within familiarity. You don't really need to see the first one to watch this either. In fact I implore you to skip that one and just see this one.
Oh nice I love the addition of the old school Universal Studios logo! So that was loads better than the first one. It shares some similar ideas from the first one while creating a bunch of fresh additions to the lore. I thought it was actually pretty creepy. It didn't even seem like there were jump scenes and just actual scares. It's a somewhat slow build, but it works for this story. The last few scenes were pretty good and crazy. There is another scene at the end of the credits, but it really doesn't do much. It just connects both movies.
The acting was pretty good. I liked the characters a lot. I felt that the girl who played Doris was excellent. She really pulled off creepy and adorable when she needed to. It seems that casters are actually finding decent kids these days. Annalise Basso was great as Lina. She is loads better than the awful and painfully annoying Lin Shaye.
Overall this was a huge step up from the previous film. The scares are better. The acting is better. I really felt for the characters and the stuff they were going through. The characters weren't needlessly stupid. It has some fresh ideas mixed up within familiarity. You don't really need to see the first one to watch this either. In fact I implore you to skip that one and just see this one.
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