The latest horror film to hit the box of office is the Universal Pictures supernatural thriller, Ouija. The film, directed by Stiles White, follows a group of four teenagers who dare to awaken the dark powers of a spirit board and are then forced to face terrifying fears.
The movie opens with an eerie scene of a young teenage girl named Debbie who takes the Ouija board and throws it into the fireplace. She is soon joined by her friend who comes to pick her up to take her to their high school football game, though the mood instantly shifts when Debbie decides to stay home.
While sitting at the kitchen table eating leftovers she hears unusual noises that lead her to her bedroom where she finds an untouched Ouija board laying on her bed. The finding terrifies her, leading her to hang herself.
Her friends are shocked by the news and unable to rest with the thought that Debbie did this to herself. When watching homemade videos she filmed, her best friend Lane stumbles upon a video of Debbie playing the Ouija board by herself, a game-breaking rule that is said to curse those who do.
Lane returns to her home to find the Ouija board and later convinces three friends to play with her, in hopes of looking for answers leading into the true cause of Debbie’s sudden and tragic death.
When the four friends are answered by a spirit, Lane looks through the window of the planchette only to see unfriendly images of dead people coming her way. This startles the entire crew and soon they all flee, but this isn’t the last time they awaken the dead.
After witnessing “Hi Friend” typed on computer screens, etched into a wooden desk or written on a wet car door window, the four turn to the table to call back to the spirits they’ve awakened.
As the story goes, they awaken the spirits of a family that resided in the home prior to Debbie’s family and after visiting a mental institution are informed by one of the sisters that they must find a closed off room in the basement and free her sister whose mouth had been sewn shut by her superstitious mother only to later discover they must burn the body and the Ouija board at the same time to stop the tragic deaths of their fellow friends.
The film is oversaturated in poorly planted scares with a shaky and under developed plot that seems to be an endless cycle of playing the Ouija board game only to witness another friend suffer a tragic death.
Overall, the film is poorly constructed and while the introduction scene is captivating and instantly grabs your attention, it is quickly lost in the almost humour cycle of repetitive events.
