To start with, this movie looks amazing. It’s set in 1967 and everything looks like it but with modern film technology made to look like 1967. Ouija: Origin of Evil does exactly what you’d expect from the tin, given that it is the story of a widowed psychic (fraud at that, but IMO, that goes without saying) with two daughters, one a teenager and the second a middle schooler. The thing is, it does these things very efficiently. The director is the same as for Hush and it shows. The man clearly knows his horror.
There’s nothing new here. What it does, it does really well. And I guess someone needs to make the good core genre movies. But part of me longed for a distinctive point of view. I have been spoiled by Get Out and its ilk. This is something that Charlie Finlay tried to get into my head during Clarion; there’s a core to every writer and they need to be able to get it out on the page if they want to be recognizable for their work. And with this challenge, I’m starting to notice the same for directors. And not to toot my own horn, but I think I’m at about where Mike Flanagan is; I’m competent (the Finn in me wants to downplay that but I’m gagging her for the duration) and I really know the genres I like to write in, but that’s about it. I don’t know yet where to find the Core Nina that would make my fiction really stand out in a slush pile. But I’m getting there. And honestly, I’m curious to see if Mike Flanagan does, too.
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