Written by Juliet Snowden And Stiles White
Directed by Stiles White
Laine: "I just want to stop whatever is happening. My friends are dying."
Keeping with horror this weekend, I went and caught this divisive one from over a decade ago. To be fair, I'd previously watched it's sequel/prequel years ago but here goes.
Anyways, you've got friends, Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig/Claire Beale) and Laine Morris (Olivia Cooke/Afra Sophia Tully) play with an Ouija board as kids, when they weren't being interrupted by the latter's sister, Sarah (Ana Coto/Izzie Galanti). Of course they were using it for trivial questions.
Then the girls became teenagers and a spooked out Debbie tried to burn the Ouija board, only for the board to remain perfectly intact. As for Debbie, she ended up getting possessed and killed herself. Debbie's death of course would drive the main plot for this movie.
Mostly because Laine knew there was something off with her best friend's demise and along with Sarah, Isabelle (Bianca Santos), her boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff) and Debbie's boyfriend, Pete (Douglas Smith), she was determined to get to the bottom of it. What better than to use the Ouija board in order to get some answers.
At first it seemed like the group was communicating with Debbie but it was quickly revealed to be another spirit named Doris Zander (Sierra Heuermann) who was a victim of her mother (Claudia Katz Minnick). Then there was the older version of Doris's sister, Paulina (Lin Shaye), who ended up being more foe than friend.
The rest of the movie spent time with Isabelle, Pete and Trevor all getting killed with Laine in protective sister mode to save Sarah. It's something that she just about managed to do along with freeing the right spirits from their supernatural burden.
- The movie underwent massive reshoots, including Erin Moriarty's character removed and suggestions from Mike Flanagan.
- The tagline "Keep telling yourself it's just a game" was used to promote the Ouija game.
- The first Ouija board came out in 1890 but this movie seemed to imply it was before then.
- Chronology: Present day in an unknown American town.
Ouija was an okay look at the infamous board and the horrors that surrounded it. It's not a great horror by any stretch but it's not quite a disaster area either. Mostly mediocre though.
Rating: 5 out of 10