Deadly Messages

The other day i was having some beers you know having a good time then the next night had a bad hangover so i thought i will watch a movie and a saw deadly messages in my TV book. It's about this woman who comes across a Ouija board in her apartment so her friend start using it and then the other woman comes back went up the fire ladder only to see her being murdered. The cops thinks she's going crazy about the deadly massage's from the Ouija board her boyfriend does not believe her so she goes out to find the truth about her past that she forgot. Anyway i wont spoil the rest of the film in case people not seen it yet. But overall it was a good TV film worth watching 6/10

In DEADLY MESSAGES, Laura Daniels (Kathleen Beller) finds an old Ouija board in her closet, and is soon being stalked by a knife-wielding maniac. As the story develops, we realize that there's much more going on than just a simple slasher film.

This is an interesting made-for-TV movie. It's a definite thriller, but it also has heavy doses of supernatural / psychological horror. So, it could be viewed as either or both. There's a lot of mystery involved as well.

Ms. Beller has a genuine knack for this sort of tele-terror, making the best of her morphing role. Dennis Franz plays what amounts to a dry run for his -then future- role on NYPD BLUE. Kurtwood Smith has what amounts to a cameo role as the top cop on the case.

Formula movie and you can pretty much figure the plot and who is who from the beginning. However it is well acted and with out an excess of gore.

After forgetting her key and not being able to get her room mate to answer the door of a third story apartment, Laura Daniels is gutsy enough to use the fire escape. You guessed it she witnesses a murder. Naturally with out clues the police do not believe her. Things start to snow ball as Laura plays with a Quiji board, and figures out she is being stalked. The whole thing would be over in 15 minutes if anyone would believe her. And there are plenty of `Stay in the Car' type scenes. The only thing I guessed wrong was there were no scenes with jumpy cats. Hopefully it will one day come out on DVD.

Deadly Messages, originally titled Ouija, was a made for TV movie which aired in 1985 on ABC

Cindy (Sherri Stoner, appropriately named for the part) erotically strokes the Ouija Board. Sprouting mumbo-jumbo about contacting the dead.

Formula movie and you can pretty much figure the plot and who is who from the beginning. However, it is well acted and without an excess of gore.

After forgetting her key, Laura Daniels( Kathleen Beller) and not being able to get her roommate Cindy to answer the door (Phone) of a third story apartment, Laura Daniels is gutsy enough to use the fire escape. You guessed it she witnesses a murder. Naturally without clues the police do not believe her. Things start to snow ball as Laura plays with a Ouija Board, and figures out she is being stalked. The whole thing would be over in 15 minutes if anyone would believe her. And there are plenty of 'Stay in the Car' type scenes. The only thing I guessed wrong was there were no scenes with jumpy cats.

Are we sure this is the end? Is anybody there?

On the outside, DEADLY MESSAGE appears to be one of those play-it-safe US TV movies of the 1980s, a mildly supernatural thriller about a woman who has the power to communicate with the dead thanks to a handy ouija board. However, this is only a minor sub-plot of the film, which turns out to be something else entirely: a unique combination of false identity drama, a chase thriller, a murder mystery, and a psychological mystery. It's unwieldy and not entirely successful, but the combination of elements means that it's a lot better than I'd expected.

There are huge flaws here, not least a cheat twist ending which means the viewer has no way of solving the mystery beforehand due to information being kept from them. On the other hand, the cast is solid, including heart throb Michael Brandon as the romantic interest and the tag-team of Kurtwood Smith and Dennis Franz as cops. Kathleen Beller is more sympathetic than most as the heroine, mixed up in one of those "is she mad?" style plot lines.

Amid the clichés, I was amused to notice that this film is heavily inspired by THE TERMINATOR, which was released to cinemas a year previously. An entire sub-plot involves the main character being stalked by a killer who wears sunglasses and a leather jacket and who appears to be unstoppable in sequences which bring to mind the Arnie flick. Hell, they even drafted in THE TERMINATOR's Brad Fiedel to do the soundtrack!