Did any of us ask for a sequel/prequel to the film Ouija? This is a question I asked myself after watching the newly released Ouija: Origin of Evil. In thinking about why this new one was made, I was reminded how many times similar questions have been asked in the last decade. For if nobody cares, then why are we seeing a prequel to the terrible 2014 film? The film currently holds a 4.4 on IMDB, so I could maybe understand seeing the next installment to this film go straight to VOD or DVD. Why did the studio think that the world needed to experience the expanded Ouija universe? What is so special about horror movies that we tend to see more sequels and spin offs hit theaters than any other genre? Well, let me put it this way: If you had a chance to put $10 into an investment with a guaranteed return of $10,000 or more, would you do it? Yeah, I would too. Every single time.
Low budget horror movies tend to take on a lot less risk of return than any other movies, outside of Disney-owned properties such as Lucas Film and Marvel. In fact, I cannot think of the last horror film that got a wide release and did not make a profit. Seriously, google any horror movie that saw a wide release in the last 10 years, good or bad, and see if it came out on top. I doubt you find more than a few that didn’t at least make its budget back. With a significantly lower budget than your average action, rom-com and sci-fi thrillers, the executives are almost always guaranteed to see a return on their investment for some quick cash. Ouija, despite its awful reviews, made an astounding $98,000,000 profit. This trend may have started as early as Paranormal Activity (2007) or even The Blair Witch Project (1999). Both of which had a mere budget of $15,000 and $60,000 respectively. Combined, they both brought in a whopping $442,000,000 worldwide, not including their home video sales. That is an insane return on investment. They made the mistake with Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) by overblowing the budget with $15,000,000 and banking on the fact that it was a sequel instead of making it any good. It would only see an intake of $47,000,000 worldwide, which is still very profitable, but nothing even closely compared to the first one. Luckily the studios decided to sit on that franchise until of course the more recent release of Blair Witch. With Paranormal Activity, the studios took a different route and wanted to squeeze every dollar that it could out of that franchise. The 6th installment, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, is the most expensive with a $10,000,000 budget, and the least profitable with an intake of $78,000,0000 worldwide. For the 6th movie in a horror franchise, that is still a pretty solid return! I mean, can we blame studio executives for greenlighting 3-10 million-dollar projects with a chance to take in a large profit? This is not a trend that will come to an end any time soon.
The studios know exactly what they are doing. Horror movies make quick and easy money, and if marketed correctly, they almost always make a profit. The movie that truly drives this point home is Friday the 13th (2009). It is safe to say that this movie is not only the worst horror movie I have ever seen, but quite possibly THE worst movie I have ever seen and it made more than four times its budget back! We can expect to see more awful reboots and cheap attempts for jump scares down the road because they simply ride the gravy train.
This leads me to my next point. As for the quality of most of these low budget horror films, this is where it tends to be more risk than return for us as an audience. The last horror movie I saw in the theater that truly had me gripping my seat and holding my breath (pun intended) was Don’t Breathe (2016). It is safe to say that there might be one or two horror films each year that don’t end up being mere jump scares and clichés. Yet, it is hard to complain because we still pay the money to go see them no matter what the critics say. There is something about putting yourself through a tense and seat-gripping experience that is worth paying for and sharing that experience with friends and strangers in the dark.
As far as Ouija: Origin of Evil goes, it’s not half bad! Mike Flanagan really applies his talents to the craft of this movie as well as to the story telling. For a prequel to an awful, forgettable movie, this surprised me. Not great, but surprisingly surpassed my low expectations.
