Ouiji: A Big Flop
By: Joshua boughton
“Ouija” is supposed to be a horror movie filled with a commercial for the board itself. The cast of characters aren’t big names but Michael Bay did have a part in with no explosions, which is a shame because I wanted fireballs and house getting destroyed.
The movie starts out after Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig) dies a mysterious death which is unannounced to our wonderful cast of cookie cutter characters.
The whole movie is based around the board and really doesn’t give off a spooky vibe and is just a pointless plot device. During the movie Laina Morris (Olivia Cooke) along with her sister - who is a goth chick with no rhyme or reason to be thrown into the mix but let’s just go with it - is played by Ana Coto along with Trever (Daren Kagasoff). Also I’d like to point out that the Goth chick doesn’t believe in the board or spirits so there’s a contradiction to the plot right there.
The only character you might recognize is Lin Shaye, who was the old woman in Insidious 1 and 2. The plot is cookie cutter but not stereotypical with its character development, or what little development there is. The ghost that is evil looks like mama from “Mama.” To move the story forward it uses the Ouija board, which if it didn’t focus on that board the movie would have been decent. Like all movies there are some clichés, which most movies try to hide their clichés from audiences Ouija does the exact opposite and telegraphs each scare.
The movie isn’t subtle either. It goes about as fast as a freight train and pushes the audience to the next plot or scare and then leaves the viewer empty. I say cookie cutter a lot since “Ouija” is just another stock horror film with stock characters and stock antagonists. There is so much that is unexplained that there a sequel or prequel is almost necessary, like “Annabel” which wasn’t exactly cookie cutter, but still went as fast as a freight train and did manage to surprise me along the way. Basically the producers are going to milk it for what it’s worth, which to me isn’t much, and “Ouija” overhyped itself much like everything these days.
This is starting to feel more like a rant so I’ll just give what I’m going to rate this flop of a movie. I give Ouija a 3/10 for it being cookie cutter all around. If you want some scares next Halloween just go on a ghost tour - you’ll have more fun than seeing the sequel or prequel to “Ouija,” or just don’t even see it no matter how promising it looks.
The movie starts out after Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig) dies a mysterious death which is unannounced to our wonderful cast of cookie cutter characters.
The whole movie is based around the board and really doesn’t give off a spooky vibe and is just a pointless plot device. During the movie Laina Morris (Olivia Cooke) along with her sister - who is a goth chick with no rhyme or reason to be thrown into the mix but let’s just go with it - is played by Ana Coto along with Trever (Daren Kagasoff). Also I’d like to point out that the Goth chick doesn’t believe in the board or spirits so there’s a contradiction to the plot right there.
The only character you might recognize is Lin Shaye, who was the old woman in Insidious 1 and 2. The plot is cookie cutter but not stereotypical with its character development, or what little development there is. The ghost that is evil looks like mama from “Mama.” To move the story forward it uses the Ouija board, which if it didn’t focus on that board the movie would have been decent. Like all movies there are some clichés, which most movies try to hide their clichés from audiences Ouija does the exact opposite and telegraphs each scare.
The movie isn’t subtle either. It goes about as fast as a freight train and pushes the audience to the next plot or scare and then leaves the viewer empty. I say cookie cutter a lot since “Ouija” is just another stock horror film with stock characters and stock antagonists. There is so much that is unexplained that there a sequel or prequel is almost necessary, like “Annabel” which wasn’t exactly cookie cutter, but still went as fast as a freight train and did manage to surprise me along the way. Basically the producers are going to milk it for what it’s worth, which to me isn’t much, and “Ouija” overhyped itself much like everything these days.
This is starting to feel more like a rant so I’ll just give what I’m going to rate this flop of a movie. I give Ouija a 3/10 for it being cookie cutter all around. If you want some scares next Halloween just go on a ghost tour - you’ll have more fun than seeing the sequel or prequel to “Ouija,” or just don’t even see it no matter how promising it looks.