FILM · 2016 · USA
Ouija: Origin of Evil
20 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
20 Interesting Facts About Ouija: Origin of Evil
Interesting Facts (15)
- #001
To heighten the retro feel, director Mike Flanagan opened the film with Universal's 1963-90 logo, designed for MCA Inc. by Universal Title and Optical.
- #002
Mike Flanagan has said his first cut ran 130 minutes and that 40 minutes came out of the final version: Doug Jones's scenes as the devil's doctor were trimmed or cut entirely, Chelsea Gonzalez's scenes as Gloria were removed, and Kate Siegel had at least 2 more scenes, including another visit to Zander and a scene drowning her father.
- #003
The house in this film is the same one used in another horror movie, Lights Out (2016).
- #004
The family breaks all 3 of the board's rules during their séances: they play alone, a graveyard is involved and they never say "goodbye."
- #005
Mike Flanagan says he wanted the film to look as if it had been made in 1971, using vintage lenses instead of Steadicam, old-style scene transitions and zooms, plus simulated touches like dust on the negative, slight distortion in the soundtrack, reel jumps and split diopter shots (with foreground and background both in focus).
- #006
The real Hasbro Ouija board doesn't carry the 3 rules shown in the film.
- #007
Scenes in the trailer but missing from the film include Jenny drowning her father, Doug Jones as the doctor slowly turning around and the heavily promoted shot of Doris giggling in the doorway.
- #008
After the first cut, director Mike Flanagan and producer Jason Blum felt the ending wasn't strong enough and that the final scene with Lin Shaye was confusing. They reshot for two days in Los Angeles, bringing back Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso and Lulu Wilson for a longer, more emotional version of Alice's death and new mental hospital scenes with the doctor (now played by John Prosky). The Lin Shaye scene was moved after the credits because audiences thought it was linked to the "Insidious" films.
- #009
This prequel to the 2014 film takes place in the same house, 50 years earlier. Lin Shaye's character from the first film, Paulina Zander, is played here as a teenager by Annalise Basso, and the stitched-mouth ghost "Doris" is played by Lulu Wilson as a living girl, with Elizabeth Reaser as her mother. Apart from Lin Shaye, the actors who played these ghosts before (Sierra Hawkins, Sunny May Allison and Claudia Katz Minnick) were all replaced.
- #010
Lulu Wilson took over Doris from Sierra Hawkins, who played her in Ouija (2014); Heuermann was hired as Wilson's stand-in.
- #011
It's one of three Mike Flanagan films released in 2016, along with Hush (2016) and Before I Wake (2016).
- #012
Unusually, the film was shot with anamorphic lenses (which would give a 2.66:1 frame) and then cropped to the much narrower 1.85:1.
- #013
- #014
Around the 9-minute mark, Lina sneaks out to a friend's house, which is the same house/set used in the series Kova (2015).
- #015
Look closely at the bottom left corner of the Ouija box lid and you'll see "Baltimore MD."
Production Story (2)
- #016
The film was shot digitally, but director-editor Mike Flanagan added touches in post to make it look like it was shot on film, including the 'cigarette burn' marks that flash in the top right corner about every 20 minutes, which once signaled projectionists to change reels.
- #017
Critics liked it much more than the first film, yet it made a lot less: $81 million on a bigger $12 million budget, against the poorly reviewed original's $103 million on $8 million (blamed on weak marketing and bad trailers). That put Platinum Dunes and Blumhouse off making more films and turning Ouija into a franchise.
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #018
The film is dedicated to John Yarbrough (credited as J. D. Yarbrough), transportation coordinator during principal photography, who died before it was finished.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #019
Besides the footage missing from the trailers, scenes of Chad Heffelfinger and Nina Mansker as ghouls were cut even though they're in the credits, and most of Chelsea Gonzalez's scenes as Gloria were removed too.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #020
EASTER EGG: the mirror from Mike Flanagan's earlier film Oculus (2013) is in the corner of the basement.
Related pages
- The Haunting of Hill House — Ouija: Origin of Evil comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work