October Horror Challenge #12: "Ouija: Origin of Evil"

I'm one of the few people who actually liked the original Ouija movie. It wasn't anything spectacular or anything, but it was a fun little supernatural cheesefest. But even people who didn't like the original movie have said that this sequel is good, so I was excited to see it. Again, it took a log time for me to check this movie out, but this year seems to be the year I finally get around to watching lots of movies I have put off for too long, so bring on the ghosts!

This movie has nothing to do with the original Ouiija movie, except for the Ouija board game, of course. In this movie, a mother and her two young daughters have a business running seances to con people out of their money by pretending to connect them with their dead relatives (though the mother seems to genuinely want to help people). You'd think being in such a business would give her a healthy respect for the occult, but she doesn't seem to have warned her daughter against messing around with the occult, but the teenage daughter messes arouhnd with an Ouija board at a party, and her younger daughter plays with an Ouija board at home, so they have access to the manual version of 976-EVIL at home. Great parenting, mom. Anyway, the younger daughter, Doris, makes a genuine connection with the spirit world that forms the basis of the rest of the plot, and it manages to be really creepy, too. Soon the spirit world starts to make a connection that seems to be hurting Doris, and it's up to her mother and her older sister, Lina, to try to help her before the spirits take her soul.

At first /i thought the movie was going to focus on the teenage daughter, Lina, because it kind of starts that way, but when it veers off and starts to follow the younger daughter, Doris, it definitely becomes creepier for that. There's something creepy about evil little kids that gets under my skin more than evil adults. Maybe it's the contrast of the innicence of youth with the encroaching evil that gets to me. The mother is played by Elizabeth Reaser, who also plays the character of Esmee in the Twilight movies. She has a lot more to do here, and she does a good job with her role. I felt for her, trying to raise two young daughters after her husband died. At first when her daughter starts communing with spirits she sees it as a good thing, but as time moves on she starts to realize that these ghosts are anything but friendly.

The ghostly effects in this movie are pretty standard, but they work for what they are. The rolled-back white eyes that indicate a spirit has taken over are freaky as ever here (stuff with eyes akways freaks me out). I was also impressed how this movie dared to be pretty downbeat and downright depressing st times. I like my horror movies mean-spirited, and this one is definitely in that vein. This movie isn't the best, but it was decent, and I definitely enjoyed it (watch out for that scene after the end credits! Is there an Ouija 3 in the cards?) I recommend this one to fans of supernatural flicks.