Ouija (2014)

Genre

Horror

Director

Stiles White

Country

USA

Cast

Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Douglas Smith, Bianca A. Santos, Matthew Settle, Lin Shaye, Shelley Henning, Vivis Colombetti, Robyn Lively, Sierra Heuermann, Claudia Katz, Afra Sophia, Clair Beale, Izzie Galanti, Sunny May Allison

Storyline

After the death of their friend Debbie (Shelley Henning) that committed suicide, a group of friends, Laine (Olivia Cooke), Sarah (Ana Coto) Trevor (Daren Kagasoff), Isabelle (Bianca A. Santos) and Pete (Douglas Smith), must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

Opinion

If by horror you mean a dull, never ending torture for all the five senses, Ouija is one of the best horrors ever made. If not, we are in big troubles. 

Stating that not much can be expected from a supernatural horror film based on a Hasbro child's board game, this film somehow managed to be even worse than expected. The film is tedious, predictable, lifeless, suspenseless, tensionless, slow and not scary, nothing more than another awful teen "scary" movie that will soon fall to the wayside.

Even though I previously said the film is not scary, you may jump a few times: director Stiles White makes that happen by keeping things quiet and then, all of a sudden, making some noise. 

The story is stupid, full of the same old supernatural clichés, such as evil and vengeful spirits. The extremely linear and predictable plot takes the interest away from the viewer since the very beginning. Neither the final turn, typical of these films, manages to raise the level of the film. The dialogue is cheesy and makes you cringe. There is no character development, and as the characters die, the viewer is bored and detached.

However, there is something good about it. In fact, the makeup and special effects are very well-made, but if on one hand it gives the film some points, on the other hand it loses them all because they show there was the chance to do much better.

The acting is awful. Remember the dog from The Lazarus Effect? Well, it was a better actor than all these young people put together. Olivia Cooke not only looks a little alike Jessica Alba, but she has also inherited her bad acting. In fact, they have the same, limited range of facial expressions. Douglas Smith also deserves a mention. He gets pushed from behind so hard into a mirror that it shatters, and he is not even shaken up. Now, if that's not awful acting, I don't really know what that is. Also, he should have had some sleep, because he looks more dead than when he actually dies. Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, and Bianca A. Santos are also mono-expressive. In the film for about 5 minutes, Lin Shaye is the most convincing.