“Spirit, can you hear me?”
– Alice Zander
SYNOPSIS: In 1967 Los Angeles, a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their seance scam business, inviting an evil presence into their home. – via IMDB
I must be very honest and open with the fact that I have not seen any other Ouija movies at all, but was interested in checking this out because of Mike Flanagan. I am really conflicted about his work because it can be really good, but it can also be really blandly normal, so I was interested to see where this would land.
Well, let’s start with I don’t get the high ratings this movie gets. I really, honestly don’t. The movie is a mess. Truly it is. Initially it starts and it is interesting and constructed pretty well, and it is engaging and has an interesting premise, what with a mother using her daughters to manipulate people about the great beyond. This is all good, and seems to be what you want. However, it swiftly moves in another direction, and it is not nice.
The story is actually really weak, and the longer the movie goes on, the more terrible and soft it becomes. The movie putters along with ridiculous logic and all, but come the third act? It completely devolves. Moves from “okay” territory to “absolutely absurd”. Not a good thing, nope. Ugh, what a waste!
The performances were alright, but sometimes they were terribly unconvincing. I was pleased that the movie did not force the jump scares the whole time, and the movie was shot quite well, so it looked and sounded good. But yeah, it just falls apart. There are some decent things going for it, and then there are some major issues.
Ouija: Origin of Evil is a mixed bag all round. The story flimsy as hell, but it looks good, and is carried by performances that are alright, but not brilliant. It started with great atmosphere, then fell apart. There are worse movies to waste your time on (just look at the Chop and I soldiering through those Amityville movies), but this is not something I would highly recommend, or something I would be rushing to watch again.
Dearest JB,
I kind of still want to see this because it doesn’t look horrible, but my hopes are low.
Love,
SSC
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Kind PSC,
Keep them low, it might help immensely for this.
Love,
IJB
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Yesssss I was afraid of this. I didn’t think it looked that good but was surprised by some of the positive things I have heard. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time.
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Yeah, I was also pretty cautious about it, but checked it out anyway. Totally wasn’t worth it.
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I totally agree. What was with all the hype for this movie? Not only that, but it ended up on a lot of “best of” lists. No… just no.
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I am glad we are totally in agreement here Ryan. Sheesh, what a waste.
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Watched this last week and am on the same page with you Zoe. Can’t quite see all the praise for this to be honest.
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Definitely gets way more credit than it deserves. It’s times like this when I am sure the praise stems purely from the name attached to the project, not the content itself.
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I’m glad I didn’t waste my time. Kind PSC,
Keep them low, it might help immensely for this.
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Ugh, this really was quite a mess, even though it could have done better. Skip it.
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