By Xander Lundblad

It’s that time of year when everyone loves watching horror movies and getting scared. However, whoever is tired of watching the same old horror movies, should look no further than Ouija: Origin of Evil.

Some are probably thinking, the first movie received terrible reviews, so why would I see the sequel? That would be a mistake in judgment. You don’t need to see the first movie to see this (I didn’t), and if you are just looking for some scares, it provides throughout and has an interesting story.  

The movie takes place in the sixties and involves the Zander family, made up of widowed mother Alice (Elizabeth Reaser), and two daughters Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson). They have struggles with money and paying the mortgage, so they bring people in for fake spirit readings. Lina is clearly frustrated with their life situation, is very troublesome, and screws up a reading out of frustration. She sneaks out to a party that night and she finds a Ouija board. Her friends see and they start playing until being caught by their parents. On the way to school, the next morning they go to a store and they see a Ouija board. Lina convinces her mom to buy it to make her readings more convincing.

After they buy the Ouija board, they start to play with it and Doris seems to have an attraction to the spirits (she knows the answers to the questions asked on the board).  She can communicate with her late dad, and shows the mother how to talk to their dad on the Ouija board, which convinces her it actually works.

The middle and end are full of terrifying plot twists. Doris progressively gets more possessed as the movie continues and makes the movie creepier. This leads to a better movie of course. The movie throws in its jump scares at appropriate times, and makes the pacing of the movie great. The end is really suspenseful and leaves viewers hooked, but I feel it could have clarified things more as I was a little confused in the climax of the movie. The acting was satisfactory throughout too, and I was definitely convinced by the image they portrayed. Overall, it was a very good horror movie. Although it could have made a little more sense at times, it is still a fun film that you should go into with an open mind, but do prepare yourself for some scares.

Rating: 4/5 stars