wwejournalist

Much like everyone else here I chose to watch this thinking it was part of the Ouija franchise, which actually weren't too bad for what they were. It definitely is NOT, and it doesn't take long to realise.

Ouija: A New Beginning toes the line of falling into the 'so bad it's good' category, but much like in every other area it falls short of that too.

The acting is terrible, and I mean terrible. There isn't a good performance in the whole thing, although to defend the cast slightly they aren't given a lot to work with in the first place.

For example at one point a guy finds a LITERAL dead child while out for his morning run, and just nonchalantly rings someone to tell them.

The special effects are drama school, but the sound design is the real horror show here.

The music doesn't feel right, the audio is often muffled, and dramatic stings play for absolutely no reason.

A car drives down the road - dramatic sting. The waitress arrives with some food - dramatic sting. Someone blinks - dramatic sting.

I think the production company purposefully made it seem like this was a prequel to the second Ouija film (which was a prequel in itself) to trick people into watching.. and I'm ashamed to say it worked.

Please, don't fall victim to the same fate and give this one a miss.

This is a difficult one to review, because while I was fascinated as I watched it, it also left me ultimately unsatisfied.

First off, Michael Maloney's performance is superb. At first I wasn't sure, but as you learn more about the character (or characters should I say) his performance goes from bizarre to downright stunning. To be able to switch as he does is a real skill and he pulls it off to perfection.

Miranda Nolan plays her part well too, unfortunately the same can't be said for Suzanna Hamilton who hams it up at every opportunity.

The story is intriguing and there are twists and turns aplenty, enough to keep you engaged the whole way through... and then it just sort of ends... and in a really unspectacular way.

If you have an interest in films like Shutter Island, The Voices or Split you might get something out of this one.

This might be the worst 'film' I've ever seen, and given I've worked my way through a large part of Amazon Prime's catalogue that's saying something.

Yes I've seen worse in terms of production values, this is all shot using relatively good equipment (although the sound is terrible in places) but it's the content that is REALLY the drizzling s**ts.

A daughter who treats her mother like garbage both before AND after she breaks her back in the opening scene.

Long drawn out massage scenes cut with nonsensical flashbacks/hallucinations about a mummy (just so they can put it on the cover.)

Lou Ferrigno getting top billing in the opening credits only to be in the film for around a minute at most.

It's just all terrible. I struggled through to see if it got any better, it didn't.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this. I wonder if anyone at Amazon actually watches this garbage before they decide to put it on their platform.