Call me superstitious, religious, or just plain crazy, but I’ll never, ever play with a Ouija board. Like, ever. Luckily, different rules apply to seeing horror films on the subject, and with Halloween just around the corner, Ouija: Origin of Evil does a solid job of scratching that scary movie itch this season.
Origin of Evil and its predecessor, Ouija, both stand on the shoulders of a long history of film giants showcasing the boardgame as a conduit for the other side. That history reveals exactly why I’ll never touch a Ouija board (nope, ain’t no way). Whether it’s Micah playing with a board that moves on its own and catches fire in Paranormal Activity, Claire seeking to invoke a spirit in What Lies Beneath that only angers her husband who then tries to kill her, or Reagan using a Ouija board to speak to Captain 
Howdy in The Exorcist before being possessed by a demon, there’s really never a scenario in which someone scoots a little triangle across an alphabet and thinks, “You know, I’m really glad I saw that through.”
But while you have probably seen it in a ton of scary movies, you may be unaware of the super fun history of the Ouija board itself. Allow me to illuminate the true origin of the Origin of Evil (aka originception). The “talking boards” actually date all the way back to the popular spiritualism movement of the late 19th century. At a time when it was totally normal to chat with the dead and wait for them to respond yea or nay through knocks on the walls, the alphabet board offered a more efficient and delightfully complex means of communication. It was the veritable iPhone upgrade of its day.
But it wasn’t until 1890 that the Kennard Novelty Company secured a patent for the board after the company’s enterprising founders traveled from Baltimore to Washington and “proved” to a gullible patent officer that the game’s technology truly works (seriously, check out the history—where they got the name “Ouija” is even more fascinating).
For nearly a century thereafter, the Ouija board persisted like David Bowie pre-Ziggy Stardust, bell bottoms before Abba, or sepia-colored glasses pre-Elton John: sort of around, occasionally enjoyed, but forever changed in the mid-1970s. When The Exorcist was released in 1
973, the Ouija board became a symbol of pure evil, and ever since, horror film buffs have pledged, “Never ever.”
The Origin of Evil plays with this history just enough. Set in the late 1960s, the film opens with a séance that quite smoothly outlines the main characters. Mom Alice has trained her daughters—teenage Lina and pre-teen Doris—to help her carry out a scam business. But they endear themselves to us when we learn that Alice’s husband died tragically, leaving her to struggle to make ends meet, and when we hear her explain how she’s really in the business of helping people move on.
As they tend to do, one of those darned alpha-boards enters stage left and royally messes everything up. Life isn’t quite the same after Lina tinkers with a Ouija board late one night with friends, and as it turns out, it’s little Doris who becomes the true conduit for the other side.
Doris starts writing alone in her room, talking funny, and messing with Lina’s favorite dolls. The plot traipses along, meandering through side stories about forbidden love interests, the now-booming séance business, and struggles at school. Of course we eventually learn exactly who is behind the board and why, and if you’ve seen Ouija (I honestly can’t recommend in good faith that you do) there are also a few “aha” moments that connect it all together. Overall, the plot leaves a lot on the table. Or the board, rather.
The acting also leaves much to be desired. Mom Alice is far from remarkable, and little Doris is teeth-grittingly bad at times, a classic child overactor. Lina is definitely the one exception, and Annalise Basso really strikes that delicate balance between innocence, fear, and coming-of-age in this film, even when the dialogue as written fails her.
But despite the ho-hum plot and meager acting, the scales still tip in this film’s favor. Why? The scares, people. The scares. Director Mike Flanagan really perfected his recipe here. He took the monster’s creepiest features from the short film that inspired Lights Out, sprinkled in those fantastic looming background scares I love, and wrapped it all up in that twisted, “anything could happen” vibe from that scratchy VHS tape featured in The Ring. And the cherry
on top? More Polish language references—my favorite. Bottom line: Flanagan’s concoction works.
In addition to the scares, what throws this movie over the edge and into the “fun to watch” category is the retro fashion and funky décor, plus those great mini-nods to spiritualism and the true history of the talking board.
If you desperately need things like solid acting or satisfying plot resolutions in your films, Ouija: Origin of Evil may not be the one for you. But honestly? You probably could deduce that from the title alone. And double honestly? What are you doing watching horror films anyway? For the rest of you fearsome filmviewers, if you’re in it for the thrills and the throwbacks, don’t miss this one.
SpecialK Verdict: Forget pumpkin spice everythings, cozy sweaters, and seasonal comedic spoofs, and see this cheesy-yet-chilling horror film—it captures just what the true Halloween spirit is all about.
Ouija: Origin of Evil opened Friday October 21.
Never miss a review — sign up for email updates to the right, or like The Parsing Haus on Facebook!
2 thoughts on “Ouija: Origin of Evil [Review by SpecialK]”
Comments are closed.