Ouija

This movie was by no means a cinematic masterpiece, however can you really expect something of such high quality when the entire premise is based around a Ouija board that wreaks havoc upon a group of close friends.

Watching this film, my desire to watch a somewhat corny and predictable horror/thriller was achieved with ease. As someone who has been warned time and time again about the dangers of using supernatural means to attempt to contact the dead, I found this movie to be highly entertaining in a cheap-thrills kind of way.

If you are looking for a simple, cliché supernatural themed movie to watch with close friends for a movie night, I'd definitely recommend. This movie is neither terribly unbearable nor disgustingly gory, and as such I feel is relatively inoffensive to those who enjoy these themes in their movies.

In recent times, never has a horror film centered entirely around the Ouija board game, and perhaps for good reason - it is a bit too foolish to be believable.

Ouija boards have been utilized in horror films countless times before, as a last ditch effort to communicate with a disturbed spirit on the other side when a medium led seance is out of the question. 2014's horror film Ouija instead puts the cause and focus of the strange disturbances directly upon the game itself.

After one of their friends inexplicably is found dead in a suspected suicide, a group of friends turn toward her Ouija board in a desperate attempt to find answers and closure. When it appears a communication channel has been opened with the dead things take a dark and unsettling turn.

Stiles White co-writes and directs this painfully formulaic film. What audiences should expect to get from Ouija is your classic 'strange occurrences, oh no people dying, let's investigate to uncover the truth to hopefully appease the spirits'. While formulas typically exist because on some level they do work, this one has been bludgeoned to boredom inducing death.

Typically if a film is going to be this standard then some sort of redeemable part of it must shine through, either through stellar characters portrayed by undiscovered gems or uniquely gruesome horror scenes. Ouija is a film that opens incredibly weakly, like a rough cut that should have been a reshoot. Once the group of friends, led by up-and-coming horror queen Olivia Cooke, make contact through the Ouija board the terrifying scenes considerably improve but never prove wow-worthy and still border on cliché.

The most substantial error in the entirety of the film is the overall serious tone. The teenage high school students are all a bit too earnest when it comes to using a Ouija board. Stiles and his co-screenplay writer Juliet Snowden just really have no idea how to write realistically for teen youths. There is no humor or sarcasm, no sass and no disbelief when one of the friends approaches the other to use the Ouija board.

Teens, even in the event that one kills him or herself, use humor as a coping mechanism. if one of my friends said 'we need to talk to ____ on the other side' I would laugh in his or her face from the ludicrous nature of the proposition.

Further everything that propels the story forward in Ouija is a bit far-fetched. Most of the teens are incredibly serious about dental hygiene, with several scenes featuring them flossing. The adults all must have minored in Paranormal Occurrences and How to Deal with It. Overall Ouija was not scary and the extenuating circumstances surrounding the plot were laughable at best.

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"Ouija: The Devil's Board" is first of all a stupid movie, and only then not scary. That is, not even creepy. But the saddest thing is that Stiles White does not even try to bring at least a piece of some soul into this dull action. It is worth noting that continuing to successfully scare audiences in theaters for so many years is not an easy task, so the value of people like James Wan in cinema cannot be underestimated. His own enthusiasm, all the things Stiles White lacks.

So, the Ouija board is a wooden board that serves to communicate with spirits. It should be noted that this fact is disputed by many critics, and it was originally invented as a game in no way connected with mysticism. In the film, everything is positioned completely differently. With the help of the board, you can really communicate with the spirits of the dead, as usual, often evil and disgusting looking. This is what a group of teenagers did one evening.

Instead of creating a mysterious creepy atmosphere, White relies solely on cheap scary moments, the complete inadequacy of the characters and a couple of plot twists stolen from Astral. What to do if strange things happen in the house? Lie to a friend and stay in it alone. What to do if the lights suddenly go out after a session with ghosts? Split up and go check the counters. "Weegee" in a sense can be considered a parody insofar as it exploits the templates and clichés of horror films. It is literally assembled from parts of other horror films.

At the same time, it's amazing how Hasbro not only allowed the use of their game, but also undertook to partially sponsor the film. After all, no one in their right mind and solid memory will go to buy an Ouija board after watching a White film. Although the movie is not scary, it is unlikely that anyone will want to experiment on themselves. But what is most interesting is that you can buy such boards in a regular toy store and play with them as much as you want! Great Christmas present, huh?

As for the atmosphere of the film, they decided to make the film just very dark. The premises are often lit with a single flashlight, which means that it is almost impossible to see anything other than the frightened faces of the actors. Huge space for imagination and savings on the budget at the same time. Yes, and the film was shot in a school standard way, not elegantly and rudely.

The absence of any music is striking, because it is well known how cleverly the soundtrack sometimes saves horror. It not only helps to build up the atmosphere, but also simply contributes to the smooth flow of the action. Again, everything that Anton Sanko does not do.

The film is not saved by the excessive dramatization of the plot, which is forgotten in time by both the characters and, apparently, the screenwriters, when the so-called "tense" moments require it. This gives a little more space for the actors to show that they can cry and suffer and be scared. And their work is to be commended. Olivia Cooke is by far the best thing that happened to Weegee. However, in this case, the film is more like a museum exhibition of five guys demonstrating what nature has endowed them with.

The most amazing face to pay attention to in the credits is not even producer Michael Bay, but Jason Bloom. It seems that he still misses the target every time, misses also happen. And then he missed quite a lot. "Weegee: The Devil's Board" is a disastrously incompetent film that tries to ride on Halloween-themed "boo" moments, like the unexpected appearance of a guy behind his girlfriend's back. News reports are scarier to watch. However, the main thing is that neither efforts, nor attempts, nor love are noticeable in the film. Pure robbery of the audience.

After the death of her best friend Debbie (Shelley Hennig) that committed suicide, Laine (Olivia Cooke) brings her sister Sarah (Ana Coto) and convinces her friends Trevor (Daren Kagasoff), Isabelle (Bianca Santos) and Pete (Douglas Smith) to perform a séance using a Ouija board. However they unleash evil spirits that threat them.

"Ouija" is unoriginal movie even in the title since there are many "Ouija" movies. I do not recall how many movies that I have seen with the same storyline, where a group of teens or even adults that use a Ouija board or a séance to accidentally awake evil spirits. The story is boring, the acting of Olivia Cooke is weak for a lead actress and the screenplay does not help. The plot point of this forgettable movie does not have anything special. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Ouija: O Jogo dos Espíritos" ("Ouija: The Game of the Spirits")

A door closing. An eye changing colour. Another door closing. If any of these things frighten you, you'll still find Ouija boring.

The acting is wooden (even from the usually good Olivia Cooke), every plot development is telegraphed and predictable, and the whole thing reads like a first draft full of placeholder dialogue.

After watching it, I was completely unsurprised to find that half the film had been re-shot and the last 20 minutes completely added from scratch.

It's a film with no scares, no good dialogue, no interesting ideas, nothing at all. It's completely and totally vacuous.