It’s no surprise that Mike Flanagan has become such a powerhouse in the horror genre. Even before the famed director became the go-to Stephen King adapter or traumatized audiences with his Netflix anthologies, he had turned a flimsy franchise into gold. In 2016, Flanagan developed Ouija: the origin of evila prequel to the much-maligned horror film released two years earlier. Although the film starred Olivia Cooke, who would later be celebrated in Dragon Housethe story was far from well received. In the story, a group of children exploited a dark evil because a spirit board told them to, and it brought them nothing but disaster.

Flanagan tackled this subject, but gave a fresh twist that touched the heart of many themes that would later arise in his work. Ouija: the origin of evil took place in the late ’60s and starred Elizabeth Reaser and Lulu Wilson, who would star in its acclaimed series. The Haunting of Hill House. But if it were still possible, Ouija: the origin of evil was just as traumatic as Hill House and even scarier than the original film.

Ouija: Origin of Evil had a more fascinating story

The first Ouija, upon its release, it was filmed and considered a typical paranormal film. As expected, a group of teenagers played with a spirit board and got more than they bargained for when they released a malevolent entity known as Doris. Mike Flanagan picked up this thread, illustrating the origin of the spirit board and the story of the family trapped there. However, in typical Flanagan fashion, this was not a simple story. Although he stuck to the broader beats of a medium who used his daughter as a channel for evil spirits, the director went much further than that.

When Ouija: the origin of evil began, it featured a family already in the throes of grief. After the accidental death of her husband in 1960s California, Alice Zander had to earn a living. She turned to something her mother had done to make money: fortune telling. Alice was not a true medium, however. She used the tricks of the trade and her two young daughters to convince clients that they were seeing real specters. The Zanders sold it all on their showmanship, which Alice said was a way to help them deal with their grief. Alice’s perspective on otherworldly events changed, however, after she incorporated a Ouija board into her act, leading to moments with truly terrifying ghosts.

Using magnets to guide the board, Alice planned to use the spirit board to spice up her act, but that became less innocent when her nine-year-old daughter began playing with the board in an attempt to communicate with her deceased father. It turned out that there was a real psychic in the family, but it just wasn’t Alice. Doris had a supernatural ability to communicate with the spirit board, doing so when no one else was there.

Desperate to speak to her father, she was an easy target for the malevolent spirits in the house. They convinced her that they were her father, encouraging her to invite darkness into her. Doris was soon consumed by the entities of the house and was intent on corrupting everyone else in the house, leading to chilling supernatural horrors that defy the best films of the genre. Even though the spirits knew intimate details about her husband and daughters, Alice had to face the cold truth: she was not speaking to her deceased husband. This led her to realize that her daughter was no longer Doris. One of the many dark souls who had taken hold of her was Marcus, a Holocaust survivor who had traveled to America to meet the same Nazi doctor who had terrorized him during the war.

Marcus was one of many similar victims who were tortured and buried within the walls of House Zander. The time they spent being tormented in the dark created turmoil in the house and eventually took over from Doris. Doris was capable of corrupting others who had committed horrible acts themselves. Despite their best efforts to fight it, the Zanders were no match for the evil brewing in the house. Doris was destroyed and the only way to stop her from corrupting others was to sew her mouth shut. This is more or less the story told in the original. Ouija history, but the underrated Origin of evil was full of much more heart and scares than its predecessor.

The main theme of Ouija is trauma

The main difference between Ouija and its prequel was the psychological horror that Mike Flanagan brought into space. Ouija had more general jump scares while Origin of evil traumatized audiences with comparable fears. The desire that Alice and her family had to communicate with Roger was ultimately their undoing. Alice had no proof that there was a world beyond this, but she had hoped there was. Doris, in turn, needed to move on because she could not understand the concept of death at that time. The Ouija board, meant to bridge the gap between the Zanders and Roger, was a gift, or so it seemed.

Alice and Doris were so consumed with grief that they would accept even the slightest evidence that they were talking to Roger, even if it was tangential. The only person who took this with skepticism, similar to what happens in a scary ghost hunting show, was Alice’s oldest daughter, Lina. In high school, Lina had other concerns and also wanted to forget the pain caused by her father’s death. Growing up in a home with a fake psychic also made her wary of evidence of ghosts and ghosts.

She sought help from Father Tom, who was an impartial figure and open to the possibilities of otherworldly events. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, he too was consumed by the house. The Zanders had invited something they didn’t understand because of the grief that overwhelmed them.

If there’s a metaphor for grief that hits home, it’s the plot of Origin of evil. Grief is not something that goes away with time. It can often be an insidious force that knows no boundaries and causes further damage, regardless of the good intentions in place. Flanagan will revisit these themes in his masterpiece series, The Haunting of Hill House and the vampire masterpiece, Midnight mass. Ouija: the origin of evil was a precursor to these shows, wrapped in a classic haunting story.

Ouija: The Origin of Evil Could Never Have a Happy Ending

By virtue of the way Oujia: Origin of Evil was born, the Zander family was never able to escape intact. Viewers of the first film already knew the big twist at the end of the film. Like the characters of Ouija I knew Doris was an evil entity whose mouth had to be closed to prevent her evil from spreading. The revelation that Doris was the evil entity and that her mother was trying to keep her at bay was a shocking horror twist at the end of the film.

Viewers of the original would already know that there was only one way for this to end. For Mike Flanagan’s part, there were many interesting subversions along the way that led to scares that audiences still remember. Even though it was obvious that Doris couldn’t be saved, there was a comfort that couldn’t be destroyed. The initial idea to shut Doris’ mouth actually came from her father, whose spirit was present in the film.

Lina had been so certain that the spirits were not Roger that she had not considered that he might still try to communicate with her. His mind had marked a sentimental doll he had given to Lina to look like a mouth being sewn shut. At the time, Doris insisted it was her father’s ghost, claiming he had mutilated the doll to stop the voices.

Her older sister didn’t believe her at the time because it seemed clear that Doris was already on the train to demonic possession. The presence of Roger’s spirit was a twist and the only form of hope for the family. Doris and Alice eventually see Roger, even though Lina continues to be trapped in the world of the living. To twist the knife even further, Flanagan, like some of his favorite horror films, ensured that no one would sleep after seeing his film. Lina survived the events in her home, but she was changed forever. Confined to an asylum, her doctors asked her where her sister’s body was. Completely disconnected from reality, Lina clearly showed obvious signs of corruption.

Lina even created a new spirit board with her own blood just to connect with Doris at the end. This brought the prequel full circle with the original film, as decades later, Lina is in cahoots with Doris’ evil entity. This movie couldn’t have ended any other way, but it’s still in Flanagan’s wheelhouse. Dark and desperate endings are usual, even in its most optimistic finales. There is always a deep sense of loss, even when there are heroic elements to the story. Flanagan is a master of these scares. Real-life horrors are always the most terrifying, a fact that the filmmaker always knows how to capitalize on.

Release date

October 21, 2016

Runtime

99 minutes

Suite(s)

Ouija