Ouija

80s horror films are remembered fondly for being fun and over-the-top, but most were fairly unoriginal, gratuitous and campy. Witchboard is special because its not a sequel or a ripoff of anything, isn't made for horny teens or punk rock sadists and it has a genuine interest in the scary subject matter - the occult. Director/writer Kevin S. Tenney would explore demonic possession with more fun and splatter with "Night of the Demons" years later on a bigger budget, but Witchboard is a good preface as its more believable, emotional and mature. I wish it was more exciting at parts but this is an independent horror film with limited means. Anyway its a good contribution to the horror genre for its time and it holds up better than many others.

This is one of those movies that proves that you don't need a huge budget to make a quality horror film, or any film for that matter, but we are talking horror here. I had read many years ago that this film was made for less than a million dollars and even in 1985 that is chump change. But this film is so pure with it's suspence that you would think it was done by a major Hollywood studio with a ten million dollar budget.

When a witchboard is discovered it is at first played for fun. But then it becomes an obsession and it takes over the life of the woman that talks to it. A spirit named David is a little boy that may or may not be the spirit that is possessing the Witchboard and sometimes he is nice and other times he is down right nasty. There is also a great horror villains name in this film, Mal Veder, almost sounds like Darth Vader's distant cousin doesn't it?

What Witchboard does so well is it pays attention to detail and it pays attention to what made some of the great horror movies did. And what this manages to do is treat the camera like it is his best friend. The camera lurks mysteriously behind it's actors and beside them and above them and everywhere else. And what this does is it gives you the illusion that there is someone or something there, and that is the beauty of this film, you don't know if it really is someone or something there. This is great homage to some of the greats like Carpenter and Hitchcock.

Witchboard is a great 80's horror film and I like it for the fact that it is much more concerned with atmosphere than stupid blood and guts and unneccesary gore. 90's horror should watch films like this and use the same techniques to scare us. Blair Witch may have watched this but films like the Haunting and I Know.... and Idle Hands sure didn't.

This isn't Shakespeare, but as far as Ouija board movies go, it was decent. You get some kills (not gory enough) some boobs, some 80's hair and fashion, and a whole lot of homoerotic tension between the two leads (unintentional). But it adds up to a quick moving, decent little cheesy horror movie. Not amazing, but not the worst thing you can see.

After her ex-lover shows off a ouija board at a party, Tawny Kitaen finds it at the apartment and tries it out herself. She thinks she is contacting the same shy spirit, but it soon becomes obvious to the audience that some other, malevolent spirit is speaking with her.

I freely admit I am not fond of straight-up horror movies, with their jump-scares and characters who can't see the obvious dangers that beset them. This one, however, has a good story arc, decent actors (Kathleen Wilhoite as a funky spiritualist is very amusing, until she gets killed by the evil spirit). I suppose I could have done without the moving shots that show clearly there's a mild fish-eyed lens in operation, but it's a pretty good genre piece.

This is a surprisingly competent horror movie, and it is certainly better than most other films of the same genre. That having been said, since very few horror films work for me, it should come as no shock that I found this one to be nothing more than an average movie. It did generally keep me entertained, and there were some clever moments in this film, but the momentum did not last all the way until the end, and so I'd say that it falls a little short of being "good".