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Film
Ouija

Ouija: Tedious, Unimaginative Horror

  • Bianca A. SantosDaren Kagasoff...
  • Horror
  • Stiles White
reviewed by
Marija Loncarevic
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Ouija: Tedious, Unimaginative Horror

Sinking the already-shaky horror-genre deeper into further oblivion, Ouija – based on a popular spirit-summoning board-game from the 1890’s – is, unfortunately, nothing to get excited about. 

Written and directed by Stiles White – along with the penning support of Juliet Snowden – the story is centred on best friends, Laine (Cooke) and Debbie (Henning), who, ever since they were young girls, loved to indulge in a childish and seemingly harmless play using the Ouija board.

Several years later, however, Laine is shocked to learn that Debbie has killed herself and even more surprised to learn that – after visiting her home – that there is evidence of Debbie playing with the Ouija board all by herself; a big no-no in the world of spirits and magic. In order to get to resolve the mystery surrounding her death, Laine calls upon the help of her sister, Sarah (Coto), friend, Trevor, (Kagasoff) and Debbie’s boyfriend, Pete (Smith), to play with the Ouija board and summon Debbie’s spirit.

However, things turn upside down when they accidentally end up summoning an evil spirit who, unlike Debbie, wishes to spread harm upon the group. Now, Laine, who brought everyone into this mess in the first place, needs to find a way to shut the portal – between earth and the life beyond – before it’s too late.

Although the idea of turning a popular board-game into a movie doesn’t sound all that ridiculous and the material seems generally interesting, there just isn’t enough imagination or character in Ouija to make it worthwhile. Lacking depth and character, the film relies a little bit too much on the jump-scare tactic and the lack of suspense and tension only adds to its weak attempt to create a frightening horror experience.

Adding salt to the wound, the characters are just as weak thanks to the poorly-scripted material. Cooke leads the way as the only character of note and the relatively new face won’t have harmed her future prospects.  The rest of the cast, unfortunately, simply don’t register and ultimately fail to convey a single genuine emotion.  

Ouija  is tedious, unimaginative and seemingly uninterested in elaborating and expanding on its own source material.

Like This? Try

The Unborn (2009), The Purge (2013), Horseman (2008)

360 Tip

Ouija is actually pronounced 'wee-ja', contrary to the popular 'wee-gee'. 

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