And I thought The “Paranormal Activity” series was stupid. Nope! We have a new winner for garbage Halloween films, “Ouija.”
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Bang! Bang! Bang! Racket … we need more racket to scare the audience! This is director Stiles White’s (“Knowing” and “The Possession,” ugh) logic behind scaring the audience effectively. And you know what? It didn’t work one single bit.
In fact, if anything, it made the actors look even stupider than they already were. From the moment “Ouija” began you knew that you were going to be sitting through a major snore fest.
Half of the film is just blundering product placement for that ridiculous Ouija board. Please come buy this. You know you’ll like it. It’s the game to die for …
If only that was the truth for this film: After the recent death of Laine’s (Olivia Cooke) dear friend Debbie (Shelley Hennig), she decides to invite all of her buddies (Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Bianca A. Santos and Douglas Smith) over to hold a séance in honor of Debbie.
So Debbie apparently committed suicide because of this Ouija board and Laine thinks it would be a great idea to still communicate with it? … Bravo Laine.
On top of the unintelligent cast is the lack of scares and the kiddy PG-13 rating. Universal Pictures only did this to bump up their box office moola. It’s also a cheap scheme to get all of the middle schoolers to see their so-called “scary” Halloween movie … lame.
The part that’s really frustrating about this movie is the lack of scares. White thinks making loud noises will make the audience jump, but instead it makes the movie less serious and more laughable.
An effective scary movie uses suspense, tension and dramatic/eerie music to draw the viewers in. There’s also lots of striking camera movements/angles to keep us on the edge of our seats until the scares come naturally, not forcefully.
“Ouija” does none of this and ends up recycling far superior horror films. This board, as well as the movie, is best left on the shelf.
It receives one out of five.