A girl plays with an old Ouija Board, and is later found dead in her own home, supposedly having killed herself. One of her closest friends is not convinced that she committed suicide, and suspects that something else must have caused her death. Desperate to find answers, she finds the old Ouija Board and convinces her other friends to play with it inside the dead girl’s home. When they get in contact with what appears to be their deceased friend, they soon discover that something is not right…and that certain things should never be played with.
A spirit board is often simply referred to as a Ouija Board, with the word Ouija actually being a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. Despite being considered a very “dangerous” thing to play with, often being represented as a supernatural version of a “Russian Roulette” in horror lore, this thing has been sold as a regular toy for years. It has even had a “girly” version of it with pink casing sold at Toys ‘R Us. And to my knowledge, none of the toy manufacturers have ever had any lawsuits won against them due to children getting possessed, or mayhem breaking out in people’s home due to spirits invading their privacy. So, make of that what you will.
Now, this movie does have a decent idea for a horror story, considering that the Ouija Board has often just been used as a prop in horror movies, without having much relevance otherwise. Unfortunately, it does become very formulaic very quickly, and it becomes one of those horror movies you’ve already seen multiple times before. The performances are okay though, and it was a nice treat to see Lin Shaye (from the Insidious movies) play a little role here.
Ouija is the type of horror movie that runs a very basic formula: strange death, friends seeking answers, friends getting killed off one by one after messing with things they shouldn’t have messed with. However, as a teenage horror-popcorn flick it does alright, I guess.
Director: Stiles White
Country & year: USA, 2014
Actors: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Bianca A. Santos, Douglas Smith, Shelley Hennig, Sierra Heuermann, Sunny May Allison, Lin Shaye, Claudia Katz Minnick, Vivis Colombetti, Robyn Lively, Matthew Settle, Afra Sophia Tully
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt1204977/
Related post: Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
