Ouija 2: Origin of Evil review

Set 50 years prior to the first Ouija film, Ouija 2: Origin of Evil introduces us to a sweet, little 1960s family with a penchant for taking money in exchange for speaking to the dead. Of course, the entire practice is a dupe and the two children of the house, the eldest, Paulina and youngest, Doris, help their mother, Alice, con customers into believing the spirits of their dead family members are visiting them from the other side. It isn’t a particularly original concept, but one that certainly sets the scene for some heart-stopping scares that, at one point, did cause me to fall clean off of my seat.

The real trouble begins when Alice brings home a ouija board to use as a prop for the family business which – as you may have guessed – lures actual dark spirits out from the shadows, and into the poor unsuspecting body of innocent Doris. Props to the actress behind Doris’ character, Lulu Wilson, for really carrying this film. Her Damien-esque portrayal comes to a head during her lengthy, uncut monologue in which she intricately and flawlessly describes how it feels to be strangled. Lulu single-handedly delivers the majority of scares in the film, and the official trailer certainly doesn’t give her presence the justice it deserves.

It took me a while to work out where I recognised Alice, played by Elizabeth Reaser, from but eventually realised she was involved in ‘The Twilight Saga’. Her performance in Ouija 2 wasn’t too far off the vampire trilogy – not a lot of flavour and the same facial expressions for ninety minutes. In saying that, though, she wasn’t really given a lot of opportunity to shine. Father Tom, played by Henry Thomas, deprived her of the opportunity to play the hero despite the fact it would have made for a much more original story without the predictable recruitment of a priest. Thomas’ character didn’t really bring much to the storyline other than a cliché, and I would’ve liked to have seen Alice play more of a part in ‘The Final Showdown’.

Thanks to the abundance of out-of-the-blue scares in this film, I did spend a lot of the movie peering out from behind my hands which, in my opinion, is a good sign. I’d been expecting a whole lot of cheap thrills and not a lot of storyline, but was surprised to find a plot that was moderately captivating and genuinely quite scary. The only downside to this was that I lost a lot of popcorn, most of which my neighbour gained.

Unfortunately, predictability is a trademark of modern horror movies and this one hasn’t really escaped that fate. No new ground was covered but it did keep me on the edge of my seat – so I’d recommend this to anyone who loves a good fright, but isn’t that fussed on originality. As far as sequel/prequel horror movies go, it doesn’t have the same “Good-Luck-Sleeping-Tonight!” gift that ‘The Conjuring 2’ gave cinema-goers, but it is an entertaining watch nonetheless.

Reviewed by Ashleigh Davis.

3 stars

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