Film Review: Familiar Spirits Gives New LIfe to ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 25, 2016 - 9:26am

CHICAGO – Like many of the creatures or villains it inspires, the horror genre has been slowly decaying for years now. In a time of reboots and tired sequels, 2016 has shown us glimpses of future promise by revisiting elements of the past. Flanagan continues this hot streak, one he helped create with “Hush” earlier this year, with the prequel “Ouija: Origin of Evil”.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Mike Flanagan is slowly becoming a welcome force in the horror genre. He grabbed our attention with the visual mindfuck that is “Oculus”. His visual style is an art form all its own. Done in an almost Del Toro style, Flanagan loves playing with form and tone in an unconventional way. He finds the beauty in the darkness, the humor in the horror, and the humanity in the inhumane. Aside from successfully recreating the aesthetic of the 60’s in “Ouija: Origin of Evil”, he also channels that decade’s filmmaking style by having a retro title card, film burning transitions and the use of mostly practical special effects over CGI.

The strongest characteristics of Flanagan’s films are how real and relatable the characters come across. He manipulates many horror tropes for his own purposes, but he never turns his characters into unbelievable caricatures that react to events with poor decision-making. One of my biggest complaints with horror films is when the characters act as if they have never seen a film where what is happening to them rings familiar. An example would be any contemporary film where people facing a group of cannibals that came back from the dead act as if they’ve never heard of a zombie before. Flanagan respects our intelligence (and his characters) enough not to waste our time with idiocies like those. His characters are fully aware of the situations they are in and react like any one of us would in the situation.

“Ouija: Origin of Evil” opened everywhere on October 21st. Featuring Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso, Lulu Wilson, Henry Thomas, Parker Mack and Doug Jones. Screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Jeff Howard. Directed by Mike Flanagan. Rated “PG-13”