Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway

Witchboard 2: The Devils Doorway (1993) is a movie I recently watched on YouTube. The storyline follows a young woman who moves into a new apartment and starts receiving messages through a Ouija board from a former occupant of the apartment. It become clear that the ghost in the apartment wants revenge for something that happened to her while there. As people start dying around the rental building the young lady starts investigating the history of the apartment and ghost.

This movie is directed by Kevin Tenney (Night of the Demons) and stars Ami Dolenz (Pumpkinhead 2), Laraine Newman (Coneheads), John Gatins (Real Steel) and Julie Michaels (Road House).

While this is an early 90s movie it does have an 80s feel to it. The storyline, acting and dialogue is very uneven with some scenes feeling awkward, especially those involving the old boyfriend. Ami Dolenz in this was smoking hot. The horror elements were also uneven, though I will say the scene on the poster was perfectly executed and a well done jump scare. The end was predictable and fairly cliche.

Overall this is a very average addition to the genre that's just okay but worth a viewing. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

The un-needed sequel to the 1986 horror film, "Witchboard", is about Paige (Ami Dolenz), a young woman who has just recently broken up with her boyfriend and moves into an artist loft apartment to try and take a break from things. While moving in, she discovers a Ouija board in the closet and for fun begins to play with it, and she ends up contacting the spirit of a former tennant who was murdered there. Then people within the apartment complex begin to die in strange ways while Paige tries to uncover the spirit's real identity.

"Witchboard 2" pretty much models the original, but with a few more scares here and there. A sequel really wasn't needed, it's basically a rehash of the original film. Although, I found the hippie landlord (played by Laraine Newman) hilarious. It was pretty mediocre. I'll give it half and half. 5/10.

Much like the original, this is a reasonably entertaining film, but still nothing to brag about. I'd say that this was a little silly, even by horror film standards, but unlike most horror movies, I wasn't ever bored while watching this. However, like all other horror films that I have seen, this movie isn't scary, and the story isn't nearly interesting enough or funny enough to overlook this problem. This film was a decent time killer, but if you're looking for a good movie, try something else.

Witchboard 2

This movie has plenty of entertainment stuffed into it's 90 minute running time, but it isn't too scary. Witchboard 2 is about Paige, who moves into an artist loft apartment after leaving her boyfriend. While moving in, she finds a Oujia board inside a closet, and just for fun, begins to play around with it. But you can't play with a Witchboard as Paige soon learns, when she contacts the spirit who claims to be a former tennant of the apartment complex who was murdered. Then, people in the complex begin dying in weird ways, and Paige must uncover the spirit's true identity before it destroys her.

The actors here aren't too bad, and Laraine Newman is hilarious as the eccentric landlord. This film has some 'jump' sequences that jolt you, but no real horror to scare you with. The movie also has a good mystery to it. Good for horror fans, and not cheesy at all. Don't expect a super-cheapy movie, it isn't that bad. 8/10.

Paige Benedict is a wannabe artist who moves into a large apartment loft and discovers an Ouija board in the closet. After trying it out she starts receiving messages from the other-side by the previous tenant Susan Sidney. Who claims that she was murdered. Paige suddenly gets caught up into finding out what happened to Susan, but along the way people start dying off by strange occurrences.

Well I've never seen the original, but there's no relationship between the two films that makes you have to seen them in any particular order. I was expecting something quite secondary, but Kevin Tenney's 'Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway' was a mostly fun and harmless little piece, which was competently directed with some nice inventive flourishes. While, it's not hard to figure out what's eventually going to happen (though the final twist got me) and the pacing can lumber along with long talky spells, but there are definite features that make up for these aspects. Tenney makes the most out of his budget to cook up some strikingly atmospheric camera-work, tautly effective music score, credible special effects and a humdrum script filled with some biting humour. There are some well staged action scenes that have energy and the edgy deaths are mildly inspired. Although they are rather tame. False jump scares are evident, but never fall into the cheap variety. It tries to be creepy in its set-up, but I found it to be too silly to be so. Laughable in patches, but it never gets overly cheesy. Although there are some totally unlikely (if moronic) plot developments in the script that will raise eyebrows. One thing that got on my nerves was the constant use of sounding out every single letter and letting us know what it spells when Ouija board comes into play. Sure I can hack it every now and then, but all the time. No way! At least we had a blond hottie doing it for us. Tenney sure does tease the viewer with the gorgeously dainty Ami Dolenz. Her perky performance is surprisingly good. Those looking for a bit of flesh will be highly disappointed. Laraine Newman is amusing as the flip-out hippie landlady. The beautiful Julie Michaels was fine as Susan. Timothy Gibbs, John Gatins and Christopher Michael as bawdy landlord were okay.

It's a decent enough time-waster that has a certain quirkiness and stylish feel to it all.