I’m so happy it’s Horror Month on the blog. Not so happy that this week’s film features incredibly creepy children, but you can’t win ’em all. At least we’ve got some fab ’60s style to go along with it.
The Film:
Ouija: Origin of Evil
The Premise:
Evil originates. Through a Ouija board. In the 1960s.
The Ramble:
Alice is a 1960s mom trying to make ends meet–so what if that involves tricking people into believing their deceased relatives are communicating to them from beyond the grave? As far as I’m concerned, Alice earns every penny as she’s put some serious creativity and intense detail into the whole endeavor.
Since the death of her husband, Alice is raising moody and extremely skeptical Lina, along with the younger Doris, who desperately wants to reconnect with her father.
One evening, Lina and her rebellious friends bust open the liquor cabinet and use a Ouija board to talk to the spirits of the dead…spooky! Despite Lina’s eye rolling, the group is genuinely freaked out until they are interrupted by the arrival of parentals. After a stern talking to, Alice concedes that Ouija is all the rage and decides to add it to her skill set.
Meanwhile, Lina has agreed to attend the Homecoming dance with her friend Mikey. When Mikey comes over to walk Lina to school, Alice gives him a stern talking-to and makes sure he understands how short his lifeline will be if he hurts Lina in any way.
At school, Doris is tormented by a couple of nasty little boys. The head of their school, Father Tom, manages to earn some major points with Alice when he intervenes and cheers up Doris. Though there seems to be something between Alice and Father Tom, it’s too bad since he’s married to the church and such.
As she practices with the Ouija board, Alice makes the rookie mistake of using the board alone and doesn’t say goodbye to the spirit. Things get eerie when Doris begins responding to Alice’s questions from the 2nd floor of the house…creepy! Even worse, Doris completes homework in beautiful cursive with the help of her “friend.”
Though skeptical at first, Alice begins to believe Doris is able to speak to the dead when she claims her father is communicating with her, providing details Doris couldn’t possibly know on her own. After finding a hidden stash of money and saving the house from foreclosure, Doris and her new talent prove very lucrative indeed.
However, it should surprise no one when Doris gets even more fucking creepy, using her mind to turn a bully’s mean prank against him, describing in detail to Mikey what it’s like to die by choking to death, and sewing a doll’s mouth shut to stop the voices. Give that child over to the state, lady.
After Lina brings Father Tom’s attention to letters Doris has mysteriously written in fluent Polish, the priest visits the house in the guise of connecting to his deceased wife. What this Ouija session reveals is the frightening and rather confusing truth about who is really reaching out from the other side.
How many will still be on the side of the living by the time the credits roll?
The Rating:
3/5 Pink Panther Heads
This isn’t a bad film, but doesn’t strike me as particularly memorable. Initially quite watchable, the amount of time spent on setting the scene becomes tedious after a while. Even though we spend a lot of time with our main 3 characters, I still didn’t really care about what happened to any of them.
I do love a period drama, though, and the ’60s details are absolutely gorgeous. Doris is ridiculously creepy, but it’s not enough to hold the film together.
The Pink Panther Snipes Again 