It will all make sense at the end

OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL Running time: 1hr 39min Starring: Annalise Basso, Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson Directied by: Mike Flanagan A HAUNTINGLY old-fashioned atmosphere infuses Ouija: Origin of Evil, a superior prequel to the 2014 horror film which used the parlour board game as its inspiration. Set nearly 50 years earlier, with its visual style evocatively rendering its period setting, the film delivers a satisfying quotient of scares before lapsing into genre clichés.

Taking place in 1967, the story concerns the Zander family, including widowed mother Alice (Elizabeth Reaser); teen daughter Paulina (Annalise Basso); and 9-year-old Doris (Lulu Wilson).

Alice runs a fake medium business out of her home, using her daughters as confederates to help fool her bereaved clients with illusions simulating contact from the dead. The financially struggling single mother doesn’t think of herself as conning her clients, but rather comforting them in their time of need.

One day Alice comes home bearing “a new prop” in the form of a Ouija board. That Alice isn’t entirely cynical about her vocation is clear when she makes a half-hearted attempt to contact her late husband using the board, with disappointing results.

But the board soon proves itself a genuine conduit to the spirit world, with Doris becoming possessed by an entity that has malevolent intentions. Writing copiously in Polish and undergoing disturbing physical transformations, the situation attracts the concern of Father Tom (Henry Thomas), the principal of her Catholic school. Director/screenwriter Flanagan ( Oculus, Hush) slowly ratchets up the tension, foregoing a heavy reliance on cheap jump scares (not that there aren’t a few). Infused with psychological complexity and nuanced characterisations, it alters only in the final section, featuring a demon looking like a renegade member of Blue Man Group and a backstory involving the Holocaust that feels unearned.

Reaser and Thomas provide unexpected depths to what could have been schematic roles, and the younger performers are even better. Basso vividly conveys her character’s teenage angst, and Wilson is impressive as the possessed little girl who becomes increasingly frightening.

The visually sumptuous film, featuring Michael Fimognari’s autumnal cinematography and Patricio M Farrell’s perfectly vintage-looking sets and costumes, actually appears to date from the period in which it’s set. The clever credit sequences, employing the old Universal logo and inspired by Ouija board graphics, are another plus.

The film certainly works as a stand-alone story, but fans of the 2014 predecessor should stick around through the end credits, when the narrative connection between the two is revealed in a short sequence featuring veteran horror film actress Lin Shaye. – Hollywood Reporter