Ouija: Origins of Evil is one of the many movies that reflect an awful homewrecking that starts off with what everyone thinks is “nothing but a game.”

Ouija, released in late 2014, received poor reviews, getting 7% from Rotten Tomato. The prequel, Ouija: Origins of Evil, was released on October 21, 2016, showing how the lives of families were ruined by a simple game.

Although the film is categorized as horror, the beginning plot is very quirky. Mother of two, Alice Zander, played by Elizabeth Reaser, gets help from her daughters Lina Zander, played by Annalise Basso, and youngest Doris Zander, played by Lulu Wilson, in her scam business revolving around helping families interact with their deceased loved ones.

One evening, oldest daughter Lina gets picked up by her mom after being caught partying at a friend’s house, which just so happened to involve the group of teens playing with a Ouija board. On the ride back home, Lina spitefully suggests her mother to add a Ouija board to their scamming “act.”

On a trip to the shops, Alice takes her daughter’s advice and buys a board out of curiosity. The family of three quickly opens it up and begins to interact with their dead father and husband. Little did they know they were opening a portal which would then lead to the youngest, Doris, to start experiencing the unexplained.

After opening the board, Doris started doing strange and miraculous things such as writing in polish and waking up in the middle of the night. Lina soon came to realization that Doris was no longer herself due to the use of the board. Their mother refused to think anything bad of it and used Doris’ ‘powers’ to form her once scamming business into real spiritual sessions.

Of course there has to be an ironic aspect to all horror movies and in this case, aside for their chaotic talking to the dead lifestyle back home, Doris and Lina attend a catholic school. The school’s head priest finds it odd that Doris is turning in work that’s beyond her capability and after the priest accuses her mom of helping, Doris says it’s someone else helping her, someone in her house.  

The priest sets up dinner with Alice to discuss Doris’ response to how she’s getting help on her homework. Alice explains to the priest what she does for a living, or in other words, how she interacts with the deceased.  She then invites the priest over for a reading, which he takes up a couple days later. Alice, the priest, and Doris sit at the Ouija board contacting with the pastor’s late wife. That’s when things become stranger; such as Doris’ voice changing and speaking with a voice similar to the pastor’s passed wife.

The priest, Alice and Lina, discuss the odd events occurring to Doris and come to a conclusion that she’s been possessed by an evil Nazi doctor, who built the house. They realize that the Zander’s have always been watched and surrounded by the evil spirits. After discussing Doris behavior, they come out to see she’s nowhere to be found, later finding her in a secret room in the house, which was once the lair of the Nazi doctor where he tormented his “patients.”

Skipping over all the jump scares, which attribute to the suspense of the mother’s possessed ten year old strapping her in their homes secret torture chamber, Lina gets help from her deceased father’s ghosts, who they find out also haunts their home after he passed due to injuries of a car accident.

Everyone’s life then depended on Lina, whom wasn’t very productive considering everyone died but her. Doris, the priest, and even her mother, who she stabbed when she was possessed by the evil being that was once in Doris, all died due to the spirits.

The movie ended with a scene of Lina at a counseling appointment in the psych ward she now lives in, not having any memory of her family dying.

The movie was generally good and should be considered watching if you want a film with a bit of humor, while also having a quality sinister plot. Even if you didn’t enjoy the 2014 version, Ouija: Origins of Evil might change your thoughts on these cliche themed movies.