Ouiji: Origin of Evil

OK, so I have to come clean and admit that I have never seen a Ouija board in real life.  I was in the right era as a kid, but not the right frame of mind and would've assumed they were completely fake.  Knowing what I know now, I'd avoid them for a completely different reason 😬.  But this review isn't about me, it's about this movie.  Although maybe it should be about me because hopefully I'd rate myself higher than a C-.

Let's talk first about what's good, and why it's not a D.  Its fun. I did not see the first Ouija film, but heard mixed reviews as well as that the prequel (Origins) was better. I liked the characters.  They were relatable and sympathetic, reminding me a bit of the dynamic from Queen's Gambit, except spookier.  Much spookier.  The cold open seance scene was good, even if the twist was obviously predictable .I thought it set the characters up as likable, and when the family got introduced to the board, I was hooked. There were a couple memorably great scenes that were clearly Mike's doing, particularly Doris (youngest) giving a terrifying monologue about what strangulation feels like and then turning to stare at a test pattern on TV  which was excellent. Also the very sudden, zero-to-sixty reveal of the black demon thing  was maybe legit scary.

Plot spoilers ahead, although most of the plot is so painfully obvious that I'm not sure I need the tags.

The initial haunting of Doris (the youngest) was "tropey" at best but I didn't mind. The old classic "bed sheets pulling themselves down" made me thing this was going to be a slow burn, but it kindof raced forward through a bunch more unoriginal plot devices: Doris was super possessed, that handsome priest would need to do an excorcism, school bullies getting shown up, dreaming your mouth is sewn shut, living in an obviously haunted house, etc. After that, it started to get really stupid. Mom chained up, Lena sewing her mouth shut (foreshadowing!!), the bent-neck boyfriend, and more. Woof.  

Aside from an unoriginal, predicable plot, all the adult actors were also pretty bad and the only people who were any good were the child actors, in particular the youngest. Cinematography was decent, but marred by the obvious post-production addition of the cigarette burns on the film which just seemed like they weren't taking it very seriously.  Which is good, because if this is what you create when you take it seriously, you should consider a new career.  But hey, it was pretty fun for what it was so it saves the C.