Ouija: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
After Debbie (Shelley Hennig) suddenly dies, her best friend Laine (Olivia Cooke) attempts to contact her using an antique Ouija board she finds in Debbie’s room. When the curious teen begins asking the board questions and stumbles upon the mystery of her friend’s death, Laine discovers a resident spirit calling itself DZ, and eerie, inexplicable events begin to follow her. The group of friends digs deeper into the history of Debbie’s house and are shocked to find that Debbie wasn’t the first victim—and won’t be be the last if they don’t figure out how to close the portal to the spirit world they’ve opened.
I know that in this day and age it’s hard for Hollywood to come up with original premises and ideas so when I heard that they were making this film my first thought was that they would be basically remaking Witchboard without actually remaking it (does that make sense?). Then I thought about it and pretty much any film having to do with the Ouija board is going to feel like it’s been done before except this is the first one to be made with the actual Ouija name in the title. The film has it’s good share of jump scares which is always good for a horror film and thankfully the story isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’m not going to lie, it had an ABC Family or CW kind of feel to it. Maybe it was because of the actors (and it’s performance wise because I thought they were great) being in those kind of shows in the past and being a little too fresh faced. Yes, it is somewhat predictable in spots but there are a few twists here there that will make it a bit fresh. Even with it’s predictability I still think that we’ll end up seeing a sequel to it sooner or later. 6/10
Special Features:
The Spirit Board: An Evolution – A brief history on the Ouija board that includes clips from the film.
Adapting the Fear – A feature that takes a look at the challenges of bringing the story of a board game to the big screen.
Icon of the Unknown – Another feature on the game board with interview snippets from the cast and crew.
