EveryHalloweena movie studio manages to capitalize on audiences wanting to go see a horror movie to go along with the theme of the holiday. This year, it is once again Blumhouse with a prequel to their 2014 horror flickOuija. With the release date drawing near, Universal Pictures has just released the second full-length trailer forOuija: Origins of Evil.
The trailer made its way ontoYouTubeon Thursday and if you weren’t already sold on the movie, this trailer probably won’t change your mind. On the flip side, if you were already sold on the idea of another movie in theOuijauniverse, this latest trailer probably knocked your socks off. The movie takes place in1967, decades before the events of the firstOuijaand centers around a mom and her two daughters who pick up an Ouija board to help scam clients for their phony seance business. Things start to go awry when the youngest daughter Doris (Lulu Wilson) becomes inhabited by an evil spirit. That’s what you get for scamming nice folks out of money.
This new trailer forOuija: Origins of Evilrecycles a lot of the money shots from theprevious trailer, but it does feature a decent chunk of new footage. The first movie heavily relied on a by the numbers formula for horror, and this movie also seems to have a lot of common tropes in it. There were a couple of cool things to note. The classic Universal logo and the use of “Time of the Season” byThe Zombies, just to name a couple, however, the highlight was no doubt thecreepy speechgiven by Doris at the end of the trailer, where she is talking in great detail about what it is like to be strangled to death, which was punctuated by the million dollar smile and the line “goodnight, Romeo.” Seriously, that was messed up.
Despite the fact thatOuijawas, to say the least not a beloved movie, as it currently has a dreadful 7 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a very poor 25 percent audience score, it did very well at the box office. The movie made $103 million worldwide from a reported budget of just $5 million. So, it makes a lot of sense that Universal and Blumhouse would want to do a sequel. Say what you will about the quality of many of the movies that Blumhouse makes, they definitely know how to turn a large profit from a very small budget. The studio did take a slightly higher risk withOuija: Origin of Evilthough, as they increased the budget by 20 percent to $6 million. Hold onto your wallets, everyone.
Stiles Whitedid not return to directOuija: Origin of Evil. Instead, Blumhouse brought onMike Flanagan, who actually has a really good track record with horror movies. His moviesAbsentiaand the Netflix exclusive (also from Blumhouse)Hushwere both critically very well-liked, and he also directedOculus, which brought in $44 million on a $5 million budget.Flanaganco-write the script for the movie withJeff Howardwhich starsDoug Jones,Henry Thomas,Elizabeth Reaser,Lulu WilsonandAnnalise Basso.Ouija: Origin of Evilhits theaters on October 21. Be sure to check out the new trailer for yourself below.
