‘Oculus’ Director To Summon Spirits With ‘Ouija 2’
Even though the horror flickOuija, inspired by the spirit board that has been said to allow users to speak to people in the afterlife, wasn’t a massive hit at the box office last year, it stillpulled in $100 million worldwideon a budget of just $5 million. That made it profitable enough for Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Platinum Dunes and Hasbro to move forward with a sequel,which was announced back in January.
The first movie was absolutely terrible, and thepaltry 7% on Rotten Tomatoesreinforces that. However, now there’s a chance that the sequel could be better with withOculushelmerMike FlanagandirectingOuija 2. Plus, one of his stars from the aforementioned superior psychological horror flick is coming with him.
THRreports Flanagan is on board as director afteralready being part of the productionas co-writer with hisOculuswriting partnerJeff Howard. In addition, actressAnnalise Bassois also coming with Flanagan. Basso played a young version of Karen Gillan inOculus, and since there were quite a lot of flashbacks in the movie, she was a pivotal part of the movie.
Beware ofspoilersfrom the firstOuijamovie from here on out (even though it’s a movie that spoils itself by not being very good).
The first movie centered on five teenagers (Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Douglas Smith, and Bianca A. Santos) who gather around a Ouija board to reach out to a recently deceased friend. Of course, they end up being haunted by a mysterious supernatural force that starts picking them off. While the main character believed the board to be destroyed at the end, it reappeared in her room, prompting a scream and a cliffhanger.
However, this new sequel doesn’t sound like it will utilize any of the characters from that story. InOuija 2, Basso plays a young girl grieving the death of her father, and we’re betting that when she tries to contact him with the Ouija board that all hell breaks loose again. Didn’t we just see this in the plot ofInsidious: Chapter 3though, just with a daughter wanting to reconnect with her mother?
Anyway, here’s hoping that adding Flanagan, who constructed a very original and compelling psychological horror movie inOculus, to theOuijaformula actually shakes things up enough to make this kind of familiar story more interesting than its immediate predecessor and all the stories that came before it.
