Jumping into 'Ouija' I was trying to be somewhat hopeful. Im always trying to broaden my horizons when it comes to more 'contemporary' Horror as a way of working on myself. So! I queued it up, got comfy…aaaaand not a whole lot happened…I kind of wish I could be kinder to this one. But theres very little I can really say to be any more precise than that.
The plot follows 'Laine' the older of two sisters who's living with her 'Nonna' and is living the bog standard high school student life with her best friend 4eva 'Debbie'. The film opens establishing that, even as kids, Debbie and Laine used to mess around with an 'Ouija' board. but back then they were just goofing around, and didnt really know what they were getting into.
Skip forward to the present day, and Laine is growing concerned for Debbie, who is becoming increasingly recluse. As it turns out, Debbie has found a new 'Ouija' board in her house, and…after messing around with it by herself (something the film tells us we must NEVER do.) Debbie winds up dead. Laine cant quite believe her friend has gone, and her circle of associates gather to both attend the funeral, and look out for a devestated Laine.
When Laine feels like she needs to contact Debbie one more time, she discovers Debbies Ouija board and manages to convince her friends and her younger sister Sarah to take part in a seance to see if they can contact Debbie and get closure on the whole thing.
Unfortunately; it doesnt really work out that way, and things quickly begin to spiral out of control, as Debbie and her friends may have actually unleashed more than they bargained for. Leading Laine and the group on a hunt through the houses history, and a terrifying history of witchcraft and the dark arts, all of which is connected to the dissapearence of a young girl…and a spirit board brimming with evil…
And the quick caption summary for this 'horror' film, is theres about 25 minutes of actual honest to goodness haunted house shenanigans, married up to about an hours worth of plot that could best be described as an after school special on the subject of 'The death of a loved one'.
This films biggest problem is the pacing. its glacial. its painfully slow in places, annoyingly slow, as we watch characters basically explain absolutely EVERYTHING In painful detail, leaving almost nothing for the film to actually 'SHOW'. and the one or two twists that DO come up here are undercut with overt foreshadowing that is clearly designed for people who lack media literacy skills.
Tonally; its a bit murky, theres definitely a horror element here, but the overwhelming feeling is more of a 'Drama' in my opinion…and not a particularly great one at that. The characters all feel painfully surface level to the point that I have to assume the film makers assumed that a flashback at the beginning was enough to flesh them out. they arnt complex, they dont feel 'lived in' these are characters that exist for as long as the film flickers on the screen, and the SECOND the credits roll hits, they're off into the ether. barely able to hold things together even at the height of the films action.
The dialogues bland, the act structuring feels sluggish and inconsistent, theres no clear act change transitions, it just rumbles on, occasionally remembering its a horror film, at which point it delivers 5-10 good minutes of quite well put together horror plotting…before getting back to 'Dawsons Creek'.
From here, we basically just run through 'acceptable' across the board. The direction is to a studio standard…which here means it isnt abysmal, but it is absolutely the barest minimum of whats needed to be considered 'Studio quality'. the vision is beige, but firmed up, the direction of the sequences has a few flickers of originality muddled in there, but this is almost a year after 'The Conjuring' reset the standard for the 'haunted house' movie, and since then 'Insideous' and 'Sinister' had only taken the genre from strength to strength. leaving this one feeling a little bland by comparison.
Same goes for the cine, shots are fine, and the horror elements do have some pretty satisfying moments here and there, but again; its nothing groundbreaking and ultimately over 10 years on, this feels a bit overly generic. When I can say 'Sterling Entertainment' films have had more imaginative direction and cine…I hope that goes some way to say just how by the numbers and bland this gets at time.
The cast do the best they can with the script, I cant fault their performances honestly, but I can fault the dialogue they've been given to work with. They have a reasonable physical energy, at times they drift into 'Asylum' terratory with the line deliveries. But across the board I think they're all just about of a 'standard' maybe occasionally drifting into 'stiff' terratory on deliveries. And; as an aside, theres a LOT of CGI in this…not all of it good, and it does impact the performances because I get the feeling that the cast either wernt aware of what effects were going to be used in the final cut. Or they were told, but didnt have it explained. Because sometimes their reactions dont really match the CG thats happening on screen.
The soundtracks ultimatley kind of unmemorable too. mainly drone and string arrangements…nothing remarkable. my only compliment being that at least the sound balance is okay, no major audio jump scares…
All in all? I didnt hate 'Ouija'…but its a VERY beige production. It takes an age to get going, when it finally does build up some steam it splutters while doing so, the plot is fine, but the dialogues rough, and the direction, cine and scoring are largely either copying other movies from this time, or the safest most overly beige options…
As a result, I cant personally recommend this one. its not bad enough for me to come out swinging at it, and; as a 'background movie' I think its okay enough…But there are FAR FAR better films out there that tackle this kind of thing. And I think this 'Spooky season' you absolutely can do better.
