Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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NOVEMBER 16-22, 2016 UCW 23 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Prequel? Ouija: Origins of Evil (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Ouija was a ridiculous, poorly written, clichéd, D-Level, badly-acted piece of garbage. Ouija: Origins of Evil (99 minutes) is a slightly less ridiculous, marginally better written and acted prequel, which managed to surpass the original in almost every way. Not that it's amazing. If you want to be scared, there is plenty here to be scared of — you just have to get past the overuse of terrible CGI effects. In 1967 Los Angeles, Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) is a scam artist, bilking the bereaved and bereft for $5 a pop to communicate with their deceased loved ones. She's a latter day Theresa Caputo! Objectively, this makes her an appallingly terrible person and abysmal parent. However, my perspective on her character totally changes when I find out that she only wants to comfort people, earn money to pay her bills and keep her daughters in Catholic school. Oh wait … no it doesn't. I still hope the ghosts get her first. Really, the worst part is how she involves her daughters in the scam. At least Nancy from Weeds tried to keep her kids out of the drug dealing business for a season or two. Anyway, times were tough; it was the '60s. The music was marvelous, the equal rights — not so much. Poor Alice is days away from losing the expensive house that she could have tried to sell any time since the death of her husband. Perhaps the history of the secret Nazi basement torture room depressed the market value? Her oldest daughter, Paulina (Annalise Basso) is experimenting with alcohol and occult-based family board games. Her youngest daughter, Doris (Lulu Wilson) is experimenting with contacting the evil dead and freaking out her older sister's boyfriend with descriptions of strangulation. Remember those nonsensical, made-up Oujia board rules from the first film? They get revisited here, and, of course, our heroes manage to break each and every one of them. After Paulina suggests incorporating the game into her mother's spiritualism business, Doris starts to play with the much-fancier-than-I-remember Ouija board. You know Alice, if you were on such a tight budget, maybe you could have watched Stranger Things and made your own with Christmas lights and paint, like Winona Ryder did. It worked out great for her! Doris makes friends with unseen beings who may or may not be any of the following: her father, the demon from Insidious, the witch demon from Paranormal Activity or a case file from Ed and Lorraine Warren, related in some way to the events in the original film. Seriously, at this point I was struggling to find any kind of connection to Ouija, apart from the house and the Ouija board. Then, a priest gets into the act. And, apparently, Alice is trying to hook up with him. To sum up: an emotionally unstable mother exploits her grieving children with her illegal business and pursues relationships with unavailable/inappropriate men. I am sure her story will have the happiest of endings. I watched it alone, and my heart definitely skipped a beat or two. But, the scares were slow to start, and the introduction of convoluted backstory added little to the impact. The filmmakers played it smart by keeping the spirit (or whatever) hidden, appearing in the corner of the screen and via mirror shots. They built up some authentic dread (harder to do than you think), only to waste it all on bad CGI that somehow managed to appear more fake than the rejected footage of Regan spiderwalking in 1973's The Exorcist. There is an after-credits scene, though you won't miss much if you give it a pass. Now showing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910 484-6200. Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry VOL. 16 FREE to Residents, Businesses and Organizations throughout our Community. Welcome to Radio & TV Stations 18 Month Calendar WINNERS! UP & CO M I NG W EEKLY 'S Local Festivals County Libraries Area Health Facilities Schools Public & Private Parks & Recreation Universities & Colleges Frequently Called Numbers Town of Eastover City Welcome Mayor Nat Robertson Interim Chamber President Darsweil Rogers President FACVB John Meroski Cumberland County Commissioner Marshall Faircloth Live Theatres Museums & Galleries Local Annual Events Town of Hope Mills & Hope Mills Chamber Cumberland County Schools Dr. Frank Till Expires 1/31/17 $i. 50 Drinks. $i. 50 Drinks. $i. 50 Drinks. $2.00 before 6:00 p.m. $3.00 after 6:00 p.m. $1.00 extra for 3D MOVIES Movie Monday: $1.50 All Day(Holiday or 3D movies excluded) Buy one get one free! Buy one get one free!