“Ouija: Origin of Evil” isn’t the type of movie that inspires
much confidence of quality: the prequel to a critically reviled, low-budget
horror movie (that’d be 2014’s “Ouija”) based on a Hasbro board game is not the
most promising of pedigrees. But if there’s ever definitive proof of how much a
skilled director can bring to the right material, this is it.
Filmmaker
Mike Flanagan (“Oculus” and the nifty home-invasion thriller, “Hush,” which you
can — and should — currently find streaming on Netflix) delivers a legitimately
creepy horror flick that’s dripping with wit, style, and imagination. With
Halloween mere days away, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” makes for a fantastic way to
get into the spirit of things.
The film is
set in 1967 Los Angeles, where a widowed mother, Alice (Elizabeth Reaser), runs a medium business out of her suburban home,
performing séances and offering mystical guidance to bereaved customers. Her
two daughters, teenager Lina (Annalise Basso) and 9-year-old Doris (Lulu
Wilson), give her behind-the-scenes assistance.
Early on,
her youngest expresses some doubt over the ethics of their family business, but
Alice is quick to reassure her daughter that they’re not scamming innocent
people. They’re doing good, using their skills to offer their customers comfort
and help them find some closure. Sometimes it just takes a little extra
showmanship to help them accept things. Besides, Alice desperately needs the
money to support the family.
When Lina
suggests her mother liven up the act with a newfangled Ouija spirit board
that’s caught on with her friends, Alice decides to give it a go. But when
trying out the new prop, she inadvertently taps into something truly
supernatural and evil (the “Ouija” films remain an odd product tie-in — these
stories are unlikely to convince someone that bringing the game into their home
is a smart idea). A malevolent spirit seems to grab a hold of Doris, and it doesn’t
seem intent on letting go without a fight.
Like James
Wan with “The Conjuring,” Flanagan doesn’t seek to reinvent the genre with
“Ouija: Origin of Evil,” he seems more interested in giving audiences a
sterling example of its possibilities. The amount of craft displayed in every
frame of the film is a joy to discover — the pleasure is truly in the details.
The production design from Patricio M. Farrell and costumes by Lynn Falconer
are spot on, and the film is filled with inventive period details, not just in
the design and look of the film, but in its presentation as well.
The film
opens with retro studio logos and an old-fashioned title card, complete with
copyright date. Flanagan incorporates some De Palma-esque
split diopter shots (where objects in both the extreme foreground and extreme
background are simultaneously in focus), and even adds in “cigarette burns” to
the corners of certain frames to signal the projectionist of a reel change (if
there were still reels to change — everything is projected digitally in
multiplexes these days).
Unlike
something like “Grindhouse,” which employed similar vintage filmmaking
techniques as winky parody, here those little touches
never call attention to themselves. If you’re not looking for them, they’d be
easy to miss. But utilized this way, they add to the film’s authenticity and
immersive quality, and the soft, slight cinematography by Michael Fimognari completes the effect.
The
performers are given real characters to play, thanks to a strong screenplay
from Flanagan and Jeff Howard. All three of the lead actresses deliver
empathetic performances, so we truly feel concern when terrible things start to
happen to them. Lulu Wilson’s performance is particularly impressive; she
doesn’t fall into the horror genre’s typical “creepy children” problem, where
in order to find a kid who can appear suitably creepy, filmmakers sometimes get
stuck with one who’s never quite convincing when asked to appear normal.
Wilson’s transformation from cherubic, sweet-natured little girl to instrument
of death is completely convincing. And terrifying. Henry Thomas offers
excellent support as Father Tom, the parochial school principal who takes an
interest in the girls’ well-being after he notices Doris’s increasingly odd
behavior.
Based on its
trailer, I’d been worried about the amount of computer-generated effects used
in the film. CGI is frequently a death knell for the fright potential in horror
films: whatever tension has been built up almost always dissipates once
directors decide they have to show their monsters, often through unconvincing
CGI. Thankfully Flanagan chooses to use these effects sparingly, more often
letting veteran creature actor Doug Jones portray the entities.
These less
showy decisions are typical of Flanagan’s directorial restraint. “Ouija: Origin
of Evil” is relatively bloodless, even with its PG-13 rating, the film could
clearly have gotten away with more if it wanted to. But Flanagan is extremely
conscious of what he’s showing us, choosing to leave most of the action to our
imagination, trusting that our minds are capable of scaring us far more easily
than pixels.
Check back on Friday for
additional film coverage, including reviews of “Denial” and “Miss Hokusai.”
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
