Thursday, November 10, 2016

OUIJA THE ORIGIN OF EVIL

Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Starring by: Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Annalise Baso
Production: Blumhouse Production, Hasbro Studio


I never expect Ouija will come with sequel, it clearly told how it ends from the beginning. So that’s why I was curious to know how they do the continuity from the previous to Ouija, The Origin of Evil and what is the twist to go there.

It turned out happened in 1967 at Los Angeles when a widow named Alice work out as fortune teller in order to make living for her two daughter, Lina – the eldest – and Doris – the youngest – with some excuse of what they’re doing was only to help people who desperate and need an answer from spiritual thing. The truth is Alice trick people cleverly with her equipment so it looks like she had contact to spiritual world naturally.

When Lina encounter Ouija board from a party, she suggest her mom to combine the reading with it. Lina agreed and makes modification with magnet to do so. While doing the preparation, unknowingly she made contact with spirit name Marcus who possessed Doris then. Lina ends the game without saying goodbye and that broke the rules of ouija. Do you still remember the rule? Never play it alone, never play it on the graveyard, always end it with saying goodbye…

After that night Doris acts strangely, she contacts a number of spirits with the board which she plays all by herself and one of the spirits was her father, who lead her to secret compartment on the basement that contain a pouch of full cash inside. When she gave the money to Alice as prove that she actually speak to Roger, the three have Ouija session and found out the planchette of glass moves on its own in front of their eyes. Alice thrilled to see many questions that only Roger would know the answer were answered correctly and begin to belief that they’re in contact with another world. So she keeps Doris home to learn more to built channel into psychic reading.     

Lina who’s being disturbed by Doris’s change bring the paper that wrote fluently in Polish by Doris to Father Tom. The priest reveals the paper as journal of Polish immigrant who has been kept in the basement of the house and it explains how he died when being captive there. He decided to meet Doris and asked to contact his deceive wife, Gloria. During the session he studied that Doris actually not contact with Gloria but read his thought and repeating what in his mind while he’s questioning about her occult performance but some evil spirit definitely take control of Doris so he suggesting exorcism to Alice and Lina.

After Doris killed Lina’s boyfriend, Alice and Lina bring the Ouija board to the basement in order to destroy it. Before they throw the board to the furnace to burn it, Father Tom discovers skeletal remains that left behind in the wall of the basement so they realize that they’ve been using Ouija board in a graveyard all this time and it explain all about the journal whom written by Polish man. The priest was being attack by Doris after he possessed by spirit that make Alice and Lina had to run upstairs.

Upstairs, Lina and Alice find the board restored on the table and both captured by Doris. The spirit of Roger recalling the moment when her dolls’ mouth was stitched up and that’s the only way to shut the spirit inside Doris…that she had to sew her sister’s mouth to calm the spirit’s voices and stop it permanently.  Lina went downstairs to confront Doris that restrained their other. She managed to sew Doris’s mouth and explain to Alice that it was necessary to stop the spirit but Lina got possessed a while and stab Alice to death.

Two months later, Lina was being held by mental hospital for the conviction of murdering her mother. She’s interviewed by doctor who’s trying to determine what happened but disoriented Lina was unable to answer what happened to Doris’ body, only saying that Alice was wrong, and they were not alone. Later in the ends of post credit scene, it shows elderly Lina remains in the asylum and receive a visit from someone that claim to be her niece…and that’s how the twist of continuity goes…

Well, it really quite remarkable storyline they did here and besides that Mike Flanagan make good job about the picture as well. The movie surely taking by digital camera as they used nowadays but in order to make the film looks like something that filming in 1967 he built image effect at the post-production. You could see every 20 minutes the black dot appears in the upper right corner of the frame and the frame composition he used really reminds of how old filmmakers composite their films.

Too bad that magnificent technique he made turned a little bit flaw because Flanagan forgot to take notice of previous film because Ouija in 2014 stating supernatural event that killed Alice and Doris happened in a year of ’40 or ’50, instead the prequel choose 1967 as the year of the beginning… 

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