Ouija 2: Origin of Evil review – Sparsely-used jump scares and engaging performances make this horror film a good choice for Halloween
As Oscar Wilde says, people become violent when they’re surrounded by hideous wallpaper.
Perhaps that’s why so many horror films these days are set in the late 60s against a horrifying backdrop of flocked curtains and flicky hairdos. That’s where this prequel to 2014’s Ouija travels to, anyway, right back to the supernatural board game’s heyday.
Widowed mother Alice enlists her daughters’ help conning the bereaved by running a fake séance business from her dining room. This seems a bizarrely exploitative enterprise for a woman who recently lost her husband in a car crash, but hey ho, someone’s got to pay the mortgage. Until, lo and behold, someone – or something – else does.
A spirit claiming to be Dead Dad shows angelic youngest daughter Doris where a butt-ton of cash is hidden in the basement using a oujia board Alice has recently incorporated into the act. Only, it isn’t Dead Dad, it’s a weird long-limbed demon covered in sticky tar with an Edvard Munch scream mouth, and he wastes no time climbing inside poor little Doris and wearing her like a glove.
For a while, she does only mildy creepy things like whisper really fast in people’s ears (pictured above), but once sister Paulina finds a list of extremely informative letters stashed under her bed, she gets a local priest involved and things gets progressively worse.
Clearly, the plot is insane; the ouija board premise is forgotten after the first half an hour – even if I told you Nazis were involved, you still wouldn’t be able to guess where it was going. Despite this, the two young girls turn in engaging performances and its screamy jump scares are surprisingly sparse and thoughtful.
If you’re looking for originality, you won’t find it in Ouija 2. But if you’re looking for a Halloween horror flick that’s as dark as it is daft, then you could do a lot worse. And the wallpaper really is hideous.