In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Sunday 6 November 2016

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL [2016]

30 years after Transformers: The Movie, Hasbro finally produces a film that doesn't suck...and it's the prequel to one of the worst movies of 2014.
Director Mike Flanagan's Ouija: Origin of Evil follows a widowed mother & her two daughters who struggle to make ends meet as hosts of phony séances.  It's when the youngest daughter starts getting Aidan Keller creepy that they realize they have actually summoned something with a bit of a grudge.
Like The Conjuring series, Flanagan has a knack for..ahem...conjuring up some pretty creepsome period horror films, dated title cards, reel change signal dots and olde tyme framing & camera trickery.  The build-up is exquisitely timed with some nice jump scares and a surprisingly fleshed-out dramatic pull.  There's absolutely nothing here you haven't seen before but Flanagan does it all with such finesse it really doesn't matter until the watered down finale...but I've almost come to accept there's very few horror films that have a satisfactory conclusion.

3½ vivid descriptions of strangulation out of 5

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