Need something aside from your looming midterms to scare your pants off? Look no further. Ouija: Origin of Evil is the film for you.
Horror movies are generally not my thing. There are so many clichés to them—séances, exorcisms, demons, children that turn evil, dark scenery, and the list goes on. So on point with this, Ouija is two hours of everyone’s favorite horror elements. Yet given the season, Ouija is also the perfect way to keep the Halloween spirit alive.
Set in the 1960s, the film follows the main character, a cute, innocent-looking blond girl named Doris. In the aftermath of her father’s passing, her mother has taken up phony fortune telling where Doris often watches her mother stage sessions with the dead to scam her clients for a pretty penny. She even participates with her older sister at times. On a whim, Doris’s older sister buys a Ouija board and encourages her mother to incorporate it into her acts. Everything seems to be progressing well, until Doris begins to play with the board on her own and the supernatural tendencies begin to show. One day her mother accidentally contacts a real spirit, Marcus, who possesses Doris. It doesn’t take long for the family to realize the Ouija they’ve been playing with as a fake for all this time is actually real and the consequences are going to be life-altering.
Soon enough, it’s revealed that their house itself may be haunted, and as Doris repeatedly shows elements of possession, the plot darkens and seamlessly thickens.
Directed by recognized horror-film maker Mike Flanagan, Ouija: Origin of Evil is an effectively creepy film perfect for your after-Halloween weekend.