{"id":15971,"date":"2015-10-09T00:30:27","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T04:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=15971"},"modified":"2015-10-08T20:57:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T00:57:51","slug":"ouija-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/09\/ouija-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Ouija (2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ouija-movie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The only terrifying thing about \u201cOuija\u201d is that there\u2019s going to be a sequel. In the final scene our main character holds up the pointer to the screen to look in to it, almost as if warning us that a second part is inevitable. It\u2019s horrifying to see how little is made up of such a paper thin concept. If it didn\u2019t take itself so seriously, I think \u201cOuija\u201d could have been good old fashioned fun. It should have been a self aware and very tongue in cheek horror comedy about a board game that channels ghosts. Almost like a supernatural Jumanji. Instead we\u2019re given the cinematic equivalent of a sleeping pill that fails to channel anything horrific in its entire ninety minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost like watching a big screen version of a young adult novel. And even young adult novels have more edge than \u201cOuija\u201d does. They also tend to make much more sense in the long run. There\u2019s literally a prologue scene where our two main characters, as young girls, are playing with the Ouija board and nothing happens. Seriously, there\u2019s a small build up to nothing. From there, we meet Laine, a shrill character who spends most of the movie chasing after her little sister. When her friend Debbie is hanged after a secret game of Ouija, Laine and her group of interchangeable friends I call the \u201cCannon Fodder Bunch,\u201d decide to contact her spirit through the board.<\/p>\n

Of course they end up invoking something otherworldly and soon the \u201cCannon Fodder Bunch\u201d is being offed one by one by a mysterious spirit. A la \u201cThe Ring,\u201d Laine and her surviving forgettable pals go searching for a way to stop the ghost, which thrives on taunting them with messages that read \u201cHi Friend.\u201d What? Was \u201cYo!\u201d initially rejected in the first draft of the script? Most of the narrative is reliant on really clunky exposition, with Laine watching a ton of home videos of Debbie leading to her death involving the board. And Linn Shaye appears for a fun walk on role as a mental patient connected to the apparitions with devious motives of her own. Never trust the mental patient!<\/p>\n

From thereon in there are just endless plot holes that leave the film a bumbling mess. If DZ was killing and possessing people anyway, what the hell difference did opening her mouth have? If Mother was ineffective in stopping DZ, why was she even introduced? Did Laine know about Debbie playing with the Ouija board or not? Who was video taping Debbie cleaning? Who video tapes themselves cleaning their attic and rooms? Why did Debbie have a necklace\/flash drive that had home videos of Debbie on it? Were Debbie and Laine involved romantically? For the most part, the performances are solid, with Olivia Cooke being given the lion\u2019s share of the film\u2019s dramatic tension and trying her best. The direction is also pretty good with some nice shadow play and interesting set pieces. It\u2019s just that \u201cOuija\u201d is a failure from the starting gate and fails as even a silly time killer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only terrifying thing about \u201cOuija\u201d is that there\u2019s going to be a sequel. In the final scene our main character holds up the pointer to the screen to look in to it, almost as if warning us that a second part is inevitable. It\u2019s horrifying to see how little is made up of such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[64,276,409,477,703,744,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-15971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-demons","tag-ghosts","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-o","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15973,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15971\/revisions\/15973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}