6/10
Slow-burning, character-driven, if conceptually-questionable horror with a colourful 1960s style but some ropy visual effects.
25 February 2018
'Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016)' takes almost an hour for the various elements to come together into something that starts to seem scary, with the sinister stuff sticking to the periphery until an exposition scene that marks the start of the scare-filled final act, and the ending seems to rush itself along to a predetermined conclusion in a way which suggests the filmmakers weren't quite sure where their narrative was heading until they decided they had to tie it in to the first instalment (which I haven't seen due to its reputation as one of the worst horror films of recent years) in a meaningful way. Still, this is a visually interesting and character-driven horror feature that is well-directed and doesn't rely on jump-scares to entertain its audience. It is styled to look like a film from the 1960s, complete with the old universal logo and intermittent cue marks, so it stands out from the crowd with a colourful texture not often seen in today's colour-corrected world, though some of the visual effects end up looking a little bit ropy at times perhaps more so because they stand out from the otherwise analogue aesthetic. There's still the niggling sense that the concept isn't entirely sound, though, considering it is based upon a Hasbro-owned board-game that shows up and somehow coincidentally causes the spirits, which have supposedly been in the house for a long time before the board, to start to show themselves. 6/10
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