When a woman finds an ancient witchboard and becomes obsessed with it, she unwittingly becomes involved in a devilish duel of souls across timelines that threatens harm to everyone around her.
I cannot stand articles with declarations of a film being “the worst film of the year.” Film, just like any art form, is subjective, and it’s up to the viewer to make that decision for themselves without influence from these types of click bait crap. Which is exactly what the articles declaring Witchboard to be the worst film of 2025 are, because the film is far from any such moniker. While it’s certainly not going to win any Oscars, and it obviously has a few flaws on display, Witchboard is anything but terrible. It’s a surprisingly solid horror film that isn’t afraid to take a few risks even at the expense of killing the pacing and at times branching into absurd territory, though it never fully transitions the film into the “bad” category.
While I’ve admittedly been a fan of Chuck Russell for quite some time, and I think he’s a largely overlooked talent with his vision spanning across genres from The Mask to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, he’s not in his best form here. That’s not to say he’s misfired, but rather his work feels a bit tired, especially from a script standpoint, which was written by himself and Greg McKay, adapted from an 80s film of the same name. The pacing issues are very blatant, especially prevalent in the ending, with the film overstaying its welcome by around 20 minutes, and making you quite aware of how long you’ve been watching it by the time we reach the climax that just keeps trucking. Still, I found that I was invested enough in the characters and plot to want to see where things were going, even as it slowly grew long in the tooth. That said, I give the film incredible kudos for knowing what kinds of story beats would’ve gone too far, and the feeling of restraint keeps the film from going fully into a cheesy mess, still holding together a coherent plot up to the last frame.
The performances are pretty alright, too. Nobody is going to be completely blown away by anyone’s work here, but a solid cast of relatively unknown actors helps elevate the script beyond some of the obligatory expositionary dialogue moments. Madison Iseman gives us a run of the mill protagonist, though she certainly has more depth than the typical “final girl” stereotype. Aaron Dominguez is also good, walking the line between character types in a way that makes his role impactful, especially when it’s needed the most. Jamie Campbell Bower’s performance is a tad overbaked, and yet it somehow works better than if he had gone for the subdued approach. And the rest of the cast is pretty standard, meaning they’re good at their jobs without anyone being bad enough to break the immersion.
Special effects are decent, too, considering the film’s status as a lower budget indie style film. Certain sequences of combined practical effects and CGI worked well, though there’s some character work near the end that should’ve hit the cutting room floor, especially when we get into the “bad TikTok filter” stuff. The music and score are fitting and unobtrusive, as well, with “needle drops” that actually work effectively. And the cinematography from Yaron Levy makes the film look professional and well done.
Overall, Witchboard isn’t going to be anyone’s favorite horror film, but to label it as the worst one of the year is a blatant lie that maliciously detracts from what is otherwise an enjoyable and pretty original attempt at a horror story.