Ouija
A group of friends must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.
Cast
Olivia Cooke – Laine
Ana Coto – Sarah
Daren Kagasoff – Trevor
Douglas Smith – Pete
Bianca A. Santos – Isabelle
Matthew Settle – Anthony
Ouija is bursting with cliché characters and situations. It has to be one of the most predictable, cheesy pieces of crap I’ve ever seen. And as such, here’s your lowdown:
Cliché
The two main female characters are classic American teenagers; one blonde, one brunette. They are such close friends, they both have photos stuck around their bedroom mirrors of each other
Sibling rivalry:
During one scene, one of the lead females has an argument with her younger sister – because her younger sister is dating a reckless gothic dude who is too old for her. The younger sister carelessly rebels and goes off to date the older dude.
Hispanic Housemaid:
Most horror movies have one. Or at least a gardener who becomes a guru for the character who is in trouble due to ‘having experience’.
Paranormal Activity 2 for example – the Hispanic housemaid who can sense something not right and tries to intervene (mainly by lighting incense sticks and waving crucifixes around). There is one of these characters in Ouija – an obvious choice of character for the main female to lean on.
BANG! (goes something upstairs during one scene) – prompting the response, “just calm down, it’s an old house. Old houses make strange noises”.
..enough said.
Parentage:
There is a disinct lack of parents – of any of the teenage characters – throughout the entire movie. Apart from a funeral scene.
Then the kids are on their own.
Not-So-Scary Scares
During one scene, a female character is in her bathroom, alone. She opens the cupboard on the wall and takes out some dental floss.
..the following scenario (as shown in the trailer) sees her have a nasty experience with the dental tool.
This scene got an “ewww” reaction from me due to the concept of it, but otherwise remained incredibly uneffective. It didn’t help by the fact the unfortunate accident that happens to the girl is already shown fully to the audience in the trailer – therefore, as she reached for the floss, a handful of audience members in the cinema made noises of recognition. An “oh god, it’s the floss bit” type reaction.
Then of course, the make-up / prosthetics – awful. The girl clearly had some sort of rubber plastered over her own mouth with poor effort from the make-up department.
What Went Right
..yes. Something did go right.
Although lacking in the make-up department, Ouija managed to deliver some genuine “WHOA” jumpy moments. One moment stands out for me in particular where one of the male characters makes – what would normally be – a subtle entrance, but manages to scare the shit out of the audience as well as his on-screen friend. I literally felt a jolt of fright when he appeared – brilliant. A few other scenes made me jump nicely too, delivered with slick and sharp punch. It was these moments which added spark to the movie and ensured I didn’t fall asleep, which I appreciated. Without them, I probably would’ve been nodding off.
Ouija was just awful.
Yes, it delivers a few jumpy scenes but apart from those, I was disappointed.
Olivia Cooke is the relief by delivering a genuine, effective performance as grieving friend Laine. Her quality of acting outweighs everyone else as she sobs and screams her way toward the bizarre finale. Well done Olivia.
Apart from this, Ouija is one of those awfully tacky features where you switch off, laughing. If I’d entered a room where someone was watching it, I’d probably mistake it for Scary Movie.
Oh, and guess who makes a SHAYmeful appearance?..
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