TheLittleSongbird
'Ouija' moderately drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews here. Yet another film seen recently unfortunately, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Ouija' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is really nothing to recommend other than Olivia Cooke trying her best and actually being pretty okay.Unfortunately, 'Ouija' is shot and edited so poorly, looking like a school project shot on a shaky camera or a phone by an unsteady hand, and the drab and overly-dark colours. It was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness and the lighting is far too dark and a lot of the time inappropriately so.Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates and are overdone.Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the elsewhere lumbering, awkward and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on.Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both incredibly poorly done.A lot of 'Ouija' often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. Most of those attempted in fact are very contrived and will make one roll the eyes than jump. The film often fails to make sense, is very by the numbers and there is no imagination.There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting and much of it absurd. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden, with an all over the place visual style, and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the non-existent chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random. This is very dreary and amateurish stuff that fails to be scary, interesting or easy to follow, with the deaths being un-creative, too easily foreseeable and lame in execution.In conclusion, very poorly done. 2/10 Bethany Cox
Jackson Booth-Millard
I had heard the title for this scary movie a number of times, it was only after seeing the trailer for the sequel, Origin of Evil, that I decided to watch it, despite being panned by critics. Basically childhood friends Laine Morris (Afra Sophia Tully) and Debbie Galardi (Claire Beale) used to play with an Ouija board, now in the present day, Laine (Olivia Cooke) throws the board in the fire, burning it. However, the board reappears in Debbie's room, she is possessed and hangs herself, Laine and her boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff), younger sister Sarah (Ana Coto), friend Isabelle (Bianca A. Santos), and Debbie's boyfriend Pete (Douglas Smith) attend her funeral. After the wake, the five friends find the Ouija board, Laine suggests using it communicate with Debbie's spirit, strange things happen during their session, including Pete smashing his head into the mirror. Soon after, the friends start finding the phrase "hi friend" (a message communicated during the Ouija board session) written in various places, including in a car window, on a tunnel wall, on a desk and on Laine's computer. Thinking it is Debbie communicating with them, they have another board session, but they realise they have actually come into contact with another spirit of the house. Laine looks through the board's planchette and sees the image of a little girl with her mouth sewn shut, the girl warns her mother is coming, then she sees an old woman, and the group flee. Laine later learns that Debbie found the Ouija board in her attic and played with it alone, then Isabelle is possessed and killed, she smashes her head and cracks her skull open on the bathroom sink. Laine and Pete decide to investigate the house, in the attic they finds photographs belonging to the previous residents, and searching the family history, they find out the little girl, Doris (Sunny May Allison) went missing, her mother was suspected of the disappearance. Laine finds Doris's now elderly sister, Paulina (Insidious's Lin Shaye), committed to a psychiatric hospital, she explains that her mother was a medium, and used Doris's as a vessel for the dead to speak through, the mother went mad, stitched up Doris's mouth, and killed herself. Paulina tells Laine about a secret room in the house, where she must find Doris's hidden body and unstitch her mouth in order to banish the mother. The remaining friends return to the Galardi house, Laine finds the corpse and cuts the mouth stitches, Doris's spirit appears to chase the ghost of the mother away, but shortly after, Pete is possessed and is killed at home, appearing as a ghost with his mouthy sewn shut. Returning to Paulina, Laine realises the old woman intentionally lied, Doris is actually the evil entity, the mother was trying to stop the friends summoning her with the board. The Morris's grandmother, Nona (Vivis Colombetti), advises the sisters destroy Doris's body and the Ouija board at the same time, Trevor is then killed, being possessed and thrown into the swimming pool, filled with plastic wrapping, he is trapped and drowns. Laine and Sarah return to the Galardi house cellar, Sarah is captured by Doris and prepares to sew her mouth shut, but the spirit's attention is drawn by Laine playing with the Ouija board. Doris attempts to possess her, but Debbie's spirit appears, helps save Laine and defeat Doris, her body is thrown into the furnace, and Laine throws the Ouija board. The paranormal activity is over, but in her bedroom, Laine finds the planchette has mysteriously appeared, she looks through its glass hole, the picture fades to black, it is unclear if she saw anything. Also starring Matthew Settle as Mr. Morris, Robyn Lively as Mrs. Galardi, Claudia Katz Minnick as Mother and Morgan Peter Brown as Young Sarah. Everyone has tried having a seance in some way at some point, for fun or for reason, this film is based on the Hasbro "talking board" idea, unfortunately it is full of flaws, the contrived shocks are minimal, there is little gore and imagination with the deaths, and the story is predictable, that popular seance question "is anybody there?" could easily be aimed at the audience, let's hope the sequel is better, a pretty boring horror. Adequate!
