The Dragons Have Taken Flight, The Long Wait Is At An End

Ouija (2014)

When their daughter unexpectedly kills herself, Debbie Galardi's (Shelley Hennig) parents move away, leaving their home in the care of Debbie's best friend, Laine Morris (Olivia Cooke).

Laine can't find it in herself to say goodbye to her best friend and so convinces a handful of other teens to join her in playing with a 'spirit board' (aka a ouija board) to try and contact Debbie. This is a game Laine and Debbie played as kids and she knows it isn't real, but just needs some form of closure.

However, when the gaggle of teenagers are gathered in Debbie's old house they do make contact through the board and when greeted with the message "Hi Friend", they believe they've reached Debbie. Unfortunately, they've actually connected with the ghost of a child murdered in the house decades earlier.

And, naturally, things spiral out of control from there.

There's a fairly decent backstory to the main plot of Ouija, but ultimately the film devolves into typical, trashy, teen pop horror because the writers fail to nail down any logic to the ghosts' powers and behaviour, instead letting them do whatever the filmmakers' think will generate a good jump scare.

Even the presence of the brilliant Olivia Cooke, who gets saddled with some contortedly corny lines that she manages to deliver with conviction nonetheless, can't save this effort from being all about the flash, rather than the substance.

Another wasted talent in the flick is Lin Shaye (of Insidious and other horror flick fame) who pops up as the batty sister of the murdered child; there's never any sense that she's doing anything more than reciting her lines.

It was also great to see Shelley Hennig again, a face I haven't seen since The Secret Circle disappeared off our TV screens several years ago (we have yet to be allowed to see the seasons of Teen Wolf where Shelley shows up).

However, while her fellow Secret Circle alumnae Jessica Parker Kennedy was owning it in Black Sails at this time, Shelley's role in Ouija - despite some unexpected appearances towards the end of the tale - isn't that rounded.

The film has its moments, but ultimately Ouija is a missed opportunity to craft a solid ghost story around the Victorian hokum of spirit boards.

If only more thought had been put into the internal logic of the piece and less on creating the next 'oh-so-clever' jump scare, Ouija could have elevated itself above its popcorn status into a decent horror film.

Thoroughbreds (2017)

Estranged childhood friends Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke) reunite in suburban Connecticut when Amanda's mum hires Lily to tutor her troubled daughter.

Emotionally-stunted Amanda is awaiting trial for animal cruelty, but Lily has her own secrets.

The two girls bond over Lily's contempt for her brusque stepfather, Mark (Paul Sparks), and they come up with a scheme to kill him.

The young women approach local hustler Tim (Star Trek's Anton Yelchin) to do the deed while both girls are away (Lily on a spa weekend with her mother, Amanda in therapy).

Of course, things don't go according to plan, and eventually Lily and Amanda have to take matters into their own hands.

Written and directed by Cory Finley, Thoroughbreds is an amazing piece of cinema. For a work heavy with gorgeously-mannered dialogue it whips along faster than a speeding bullet, belying its mere 88-minute duration to feel almost like a short.

Of course, much credit must go to its two flawless, charismatic leads - Split's Anya Taylor-Joy and Bates Motel's Olivia Cooke - who make this theatrically intimate, deliciously dark, character study look effortless.

Kudos also to the late, lamented, Anton Yelchin in his final film before his tragic death at way too early an age.

This trio of young talent would make the film worth the price of admission alone, but Finley's script is also tight and layered, without a wasted word or gesture.

It's an examination of friendship and sacrifice seen through a dark mirror, a twisted tale about guarded, emotionally-distant young women finding purpose in life.

One slight word of warning (the sort of thing that in a sane world wouldn't be necessary) is that in some places Thoroughbreds has been marketed as a comedy - it's not. Some of the banter between the leads is naturally witty, but overall I wouldn't even call this a dark comedy.

It's an indie drama centring on pitch-perfect performances from incredible actors.