Review of Ouija (2014) by Matt G — 20 Feb 2015

People often defend horror movies. They say they're "fun", and I understand, people like to be scared. It's thrilling at times, and I agree that horror movies can be good, but that doesn't mean they all are, especially nowadays. Horror movies used to serve a purpose, they used to have a brain and a heart, and more on their mind than simply trying to scare everyone that goes to see it.

So I'm not writing this on the film's ability to scare, if you want me to, then fine, I'll sum it up. The movie is as scary as any other horror movie released in the past 5 years. Also remember, the film is rated PG-13, which restricts it from showing too much, although I must admit it, they seem to have gotten away with a lot with "Ouija".

It seems quite clear that most modern horror films have only one thing in mind: to scare the crap out of everyone as much and as often as possible. This has been the case for a while now, so much that I think people begin to forget about the story, which in this case, is absolutely horrible. It's even mistitled, the ouija board is barely a part of it, and it could've been better. It's basically only a reason for all of this crazy ghost nonsense to be happening, it's not smart or clever or unique in any way at all.

On top of the lame story, "Ouija" has little to no characterization, and of course they get good looking young actors and actresses to star in it, because that's so realistic right? Honestly, I often got confused about the differentiation between characters. They're all so similar, and why does the audience care if any of them succeed at their ultimate goal: to stop the ghosts and such, you know, the stuff that used to matter in older horror films.

It's possible to make a good horror movie, it is. It's just so difficult for people to do it when all that seems to be on their mind is the film's ability to be scary. Yes, they're horror films, obviously they should scare you, but we're all so sick of the anticipated jump scares. Can a movie scare us without finding the need to cheaply jump out for a quick second, especially when we can anticipate it? Horror movies are boring nowadays, and "Ouija" doesn't change anything.

I watched a film called "Psycho". Nothing jumped out, no loud music played for a split second, yet it's chilling as hell. When I left the theater after "Ouija" I quickly returned to reality. A good horror movie should scare you with its story, it should have the ability to effect the way you think about the world. It should make you wonder. It should not make you laugh.