Ouija Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie and the main reason I wanted to watch the damned thing in the first place was because I’m actually interested in the sequel/prequel by Mike Flanagan, probably one of the best horror directors at work nowadays, but I wanted to watch this first installment before. Well, as expected, it turned out to be pretty weak, I’m afraid. Apparently, the makers actually really struggled during the production and about 50% had to be reshot 4 months before the release date which is never a good sign. I have to admit that the concept had some potential though as there is something really creepy about Ouija boards. However, I believe also that it would better worked for a short movie. Indeed, the concept did seem to be too limited to work for a full length feature like this one, even if the running time was even below 90 mins. In my opinion, they seriously stretched out the material and, as a result, it did feel kind of creepy for a while but, soon enough, it became a basic ghost tale mixed up with a rather tedious slasher flick. The fact that the group of friends involved was just so uncharismatic didn’t help, I guess, and I’m not surprised that, except for Olivia Cooke, I had never heard of any of them before. On the other hand, they were not helped by the poor material that they were provided. Eventually, the biggest achievement of this movie was that, right now, I’m wondering even more how Mike Flanagan eventually managed to handle this material since his sequel has a much better reputation than this failed franchise opener. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, it was still a rather weak horror flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you’re a die-hard fan of the genre.

Wow, that was an hour and a half I'll never get back. Dumb from the beginning, I knew it wasn't going to get better when I laughed out loud at the ridiculous and predictable first death. Disjointed, boring, confusing. I found myself wondering if I should make myself finish watching, or just give up. I chose wrong.

Additionally, at the very end, it mentioned Hasbro studios and that it was based on the game, "Ouija" by Hasbro. That might have been the best part of the movie.

Dear Hollywood will you please quit putting Lin Shaye in everything I want to see! I do not like her and that all started with her in Dead End! Anyways this is the first film directed by writer Stiles White whom I only liked his The Possession film from 2012. I remember seeing the trailer and wanting to see this immediately. This was actually pretty boring unfortunately and all of the death scenes lack any enthusiasm. This really lacked charisma and was totally lackluster. I found myself constantly checking the time and waiting for something exciting to happen. The acting was decent though except for the kids in the beginning. Things only get somewhat interesting a few times like with the twist in the ending. There was at least one jump scare for me anyways, but the rest of it was pretty predictable and cliche. The only character I found the least bit interesting was Pete (Who had the lamest death as they didn't even show anything really happen except for the stitches). This is not worth checking out at all. It was a waste of ninety minutes. It had potential but failed at reaching it. It was greatly disappointing. Also after watching this whole thing I'm thinking I either watched the wrong trailer or I was thinking of another film. The scene I was looking for never happened so either it's in an unrated version or it was never in this film. It's too bad though it might have been better.