Review of Ouija (2014) by Patrick L — 01 Apr 2015
"There is more suspense in a Hungry Hippos game compared to this cheap supernatural horror movie".
Movie Review: Ouija.
Date Viewed: November 2 2014.
Directed By Stiles White.
Written By Juliet Snowden and Stiles White.
Starring: Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Daren Kagasoff, Bianca A. Santos, Matthew Steele,.
Lin Shaye, Ana Coto, Shelley Hennig, Robyn Lively and Vivis Colombetti.
Hollywood, will you ever learn. Board games cannot be turned into feature films. "Battleship" was a complete mess and now we have "Ouija", a supernatural horror film about a spiritual board that kills the teenagers who haven't seen at least one scary movie in their lives. It is one of the least scary movies I have seen in a long while. You will guess every shot from the closet door to the bathroom mirror to the dental floss. You will find more suspense in a game of Hungry Hippos.
"Ouija" focuses on a group of friends who are trying to communicate a friend (who had just committed suicide by hanging) by playing around with the Ouija board. Soon, they awaken an evil spirit from the board and the spirit begins to haunt the group by killing them one-by-one. That isn't surprising. The group of five friends are played by Olivia Cooke (from TV's "Bates Motel"), Douglas Smith, Daren Kagasoff, Ana Coto and Bianca A. Santos. I believe these young actors will have bright futures in Direct-to-DVD scrap heaps.
Director and co-writer Stiles White has slow pacing and he can't generate scares or suspense. His previous movie credit was co-writing the godawful Nicolas Cage sci-fi thriller "Knowing". Not surprisingly, "Ouija" was produced by Jason Blum (who started low budget horror moviemaking with both the "Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious" franchises) and Michael Bay (who produced the remakes of "Friday the 13th", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street").
I'm still not sure any Hasbro board game can be turned in a good feature film but if it has characters, a story and clever writing, I'll make it an exception. Even though it is totally disposable, "Ouija" has remained number one at the box office for two straight weeks.
You're better off watching "The Conjuring" or "Insidious" again. That's my advice.
This review of Ouija (2014) was written by Patrick L on 01 Apr 2015.
Ouija has generally received mixed reviews.
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