Deadly Messages

Now I'm looking this film up online to review I find that it was indeed 'made for TV' back 1985 (I had guessed that within the first few minutes of watching it!). That's normally a sign that you're not going to be getting much for your money - cheap sets, unknown actors and a lot of suspension of disbelief required to properly enjoy it. And, yes, it is all those things. But it's also got its charms!

It's about a young woman who finds an old ouija board and ends up getting the titular 'deadly' messages, which warn her of foreboding and lethal events ahead.

I haven't heard of anyone in the cast (I doubt the main villain from 'Robocop' counts as an 'A-lister'), the script is so-so and do be expecting anything in the way of special effects - there's both no need or budget for that. And yet I kept watching. I suppose this is an instance when you can tell the difference between a 'slow burning' story and a boring one. If this movie was just outright dull then the slow pace wouldn't lead to anything, whereas there was at least a decent attempt at crafting a genuine sense of mystery around the central character.

I actually wanted to know what was going on in her life and her past and I was glad I stuck with it to find out. You can't really judge 'Deadly Messages' against massive Hollywood productions - it's not in their league. But in terms of nice, easy-going little supernatural mysteries than you might happen to come across late night on TV, I have sat through much worse!

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!

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?

This is one of my favorite movies. I love watching it. I think Kathleen Beller is perfectly cast as the naive heroine.

The basic plot is that Laura Daniels, a young, single girl living with her lawyer boyfriend in converted hotel apartment building -- one day discovers an old Ouija board on the top shelf of a closet by accident. She decides to start asking it questions. And she starts getting strange messages from the board.

It appears, however, that the Ouija board's previous owner was murdered - and messages from beyond warn Laura that she may be next. All around her are quite dubious of her supposed messages from the beyond.

The movie captures your attention instantly. And there are wonderful character actors who later went on to greater TV fame playing roles in the movie.

I love that the wind howls, branches fall on cars and there are spooky odd characters along the way. And you can't go wrong with a mental hospital playing a role in a thriller! And I especially enjoyed the owners of the motel! Deadly Messages is a fun way to spend a lazy afternoon.

I watched this movie initially assuming it was just Lifetime fodder and it started seeming like such. However, the plot became more and more interesting later as the mystery unfolded. The writer of the movie has given an original and quite plausible explanation to what happens to the lead character. The only things that I didn't like were the inclusion of some stereotypes thrillers tend to fall into (e.g. disbelieving cops), and the final scene, which was unnecessary and threw off the flow. 9/10