Set as prequel to the awful 2014 movie, Origin Of Evil is another in the growing number of possession tales which seem to be littering the horror genre. This is not a bad thing if done well but, as we seen to our detriment in the original film, if done poorly it all ends up as a mess of jump scares and generally bad acting. Where does this one sit? Probably somewhere in the middle but let me break it down.

Set in 1967 we meet the struggling Zander family who are still coping with the loss of their patriarch and with financial issues growing ever more desperate the mother, Alice (Elizabeth Reaser) decides to enhance the spiritualist con they have set up by adding a Ouija board to the proceedings. However unbeknownst to her this prop has a far bigger impact on the scam than expected as youngest daughter Doris (Lulu Wilson) immediately seems to have a connection with the board and can communicate with the spirits with ease and leads to an increase in business as word spreads about how ‘real’ their sessions are. When Doris claims that she can speak with her dead father Alice is wholly behind the girls claims as she can seemingly answer personal questions correctly. Eldest daughter Paulina (Annalise Basso) is not so sure as she sees a dramatic change in her sister that her mother is blind to. Once she approaches a priest, Tom Hogan (Henry Thomas) for help it becomes apparent that there a lot more going on that initially realised. As the battle to save Doris escalates so does the danger to the family and anyone else who threatens to get in the way of the malevolent spirit.

Although this is essentially a subtle advertisement for the Hasbro owned Ouija board it is not a terrible movie with director Mike Flanagan, who also brought us the underrated Hush earlier this year, doing a good job of keeping the intrigue levels high. The retro feel of the movie is captured excellently and for a tale which has been done so many times before there is enough originality and surprise to keep you on your toes. The set up and purpose for the actions of those involved feel genuine and the clever use of the innocence of the daughter being juxtaposed with her transformation as the evil takes over is a nice touch, even if it is a little akin to what happened to Regan in The Exorcist. There are no loud bursts of music accompanying the jump scares which was refreshing and made them much more effective as there was a sinister feel to them given the subtler approach and there are some very clever dialogue scenes.

Lulu Wilson does a great job as the possessed girl, her facial expressions spoke volumes and her smile was both beaming and sarcastic at the same time. There was also a superb scene with Paulinas’ boyfriend Mikey (Parker Mack) which will give you the shivers in how such a calm speech can have so much threatening context. The rest of the cast played their parts well, even if they were playing second fiddle to Doris, but the performances were strong enough that you still feel interested in the characters by the time things begin to take a turn for the worse. The exception would be Henry Thomas as Tom Hogan. It’s not the actors fault, as his whole plot line felt tacked on and the relationship between him and Alice just did not play out well. Although he has a great scene towards the end the use of a priest character just didn’t sit well with me alongside the rest of the movies content.

The movie itself is not without its issues either. It’s a very slow build up with an excellent middle piece let down by a weak ending so you need to stay with the movie as it builds up the tension and back story before the best parts of the film kick in and that may put some people off. The ending is probably the most disappointing of all as it felt cheap in comparison to the rest of the film and became very clichéd in contrast to some of the more surprising turns the movie took earlier on. Also, having seen the first film I knew where they were going as soon as it took the first step along that path and that ruined the last third of the film for me.

Overall it’s a better than average attempt to kick start life into, what I can only assume will be a series of films around this tale and it has managed to keep an air of respectability to this years resurgence of sorts in the horror genre but its more creepy that scary and is saved by the performance of young actress who, if this performance is anything to go by, could have a big future.

DJ Speaks Movies Rating: 6 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2016