I’ve got to be honest with you guys, straight out, I did not like this film. In fact, it may be my least favorite film so far this year. I’m going to unpack it and talk about what works and what doesn’t as it deserves the same treatment as every film I review, but this was a very difficult one to make it through.
After the release and mild success of the 2014 film OUIJA, we’ve seen a major uptick in new movies dealing with the mysterious Ouija board. This past year we’ve even seen the release of a sequel to that aforementioned film called OUIJA ORIGIN OF EVIL. This far superior (by like light years) sequel even managed to crack my top five this year. Check out that review in here. We’ve also seen the release of, OUIJA SUMMONING, a couple sequels to the OUIJA EXPERIMENT, and countless others. Ouija: The Insidious Evil is the latest in a string of these.
Ouija: The Insidious Evil follows Hannah, played by the stunningly beautiful Emma Eliza Regan, as she returns home to live with her father who she resents. When attempting to piece together what happened that caused her mother’s death, Hannah and her friends stumble upon a Ouija board at the world’s creepiest antique shop. As you can imagine, Hannah starts asking things of the board and things get messy.
The film starts off with a wraparound story which made me think I was about to start watching an anthology film. However, once I got to about 45 minutes into this 80 minute film, I realized this one full story. The wraparound characters pop in every so often just to remind us that they’re there and to comment on the “craziness” of Hannah’s story.
The wraparound was only the beginning of my problems. The film looks and feels very amateurish from the moment Hannah’s story starts. A lot of shots and framing just didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t sure what this film was trying to be. By the time I got into the story of the film, I realized this was going for straight melodrama. That’s not particularly an area of interest for me in terms of how I like my horror movies.
As we follow Hannah’s story, we meet her friends who she works with at a cafe. One of them, Alice, is played by actress Dominique Swain. I didn’t even recognize her at first. She grown up quite a bit, and her performance here is probably the best in the film. We learn that her character is a bit of a sexpot in an awkward and hard to watch scene in which she has sex with a customer in a backroom.
There’s even an insane subplot about one of the guys at work having a crush on Alice. He wishes she would stop sleeping around and fall in love with him. I don’t really know what purpose this subplot adds to the story. I guess considering the film is going for melodrama, it helps fill out the stories of Hannah’s friend group.
We also learn that Hannah’s boss at work is a big jerk, and knowing this is a Ouija movie, guess what happens to him. This is the level of predictability once more of the horror elements come into play. In fact, the horror seems pretty tacked on with the filmmakers seemingly more interest in the drama in Hannah’s life as she tries to figure out her mother’s death.
The story wraps up pretty neatly and quickly once the gang figures out how to defeat the evil of the board. We then of course, return back to the wraparound which adds on the necessary end stinger.
Overall, I can’t really recommend this film. I went in with no expectations, but I just couldn’t get into the piece. There are some bright spots in the film in the form of Emma Eliza Regan and Dominique Swain. They are quite good in the film. Regan particularly carries the film well. You can’t take your eyes off of her. I want to thank the filmmakers who were kind enough to send along the film to review.
1/5
