Ouija

Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Bianca A Santos, Shelley Hennig and Douglas Smith.

Director: Stiles White

Release Date: 2014

Running Time: 1hr 29 minutes

Genre: Horror

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

A group of friends must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.

Stiles White's directorial debut. Ouija is most likely a movie that you'd expect to be pretty awful, be very predictable and down right cheesy? Not quite. Don't go expecting this to be like James Wan's "Insidious" and "The Conjuring" you've got to give White credit considering it's his first movie and he's used to normally being behind the camera, having been production coordinator on hit movies like "Inspector Gadget" and "Lake Placid", at the end of the day this isn't a bad horror movie. Best friends Debbie and Laine are caught messing around with an old Ouija board when they freak each other out and swear to never use it again, however years later Debbie is still messing and communicating with the board when it ultimately leads to her death. On the day of her funeral, her friends decide they must find the board and desperately try to communicate with Debbie in hope of finding out what truly happened to her that night, what could possibly go wrong right?

You may recognize lead actress Olivia Cooke from "Bates Motel" where she stars alongside Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga. Cooke's performance in all honestly could have been much better, her acting isn't particularly convincing, her performance in this movie is very similar to her role in "Bates Motel" there's barely any characterization which is a little bit disappointing. Unfortunately most of the actors don't show very good characterization or good acting skills. It seems to be a very common occurrence when it comes to horror movies. It seems to be getting harder and harder for directors to produce a very scary looking horror movie. The storyline itself is pretty good, it's not too predictable, there are however some very surprising characters. The conversations between characters are a little bit cheesy and simple but none the less it works well with the storyline and the acting. In hindsight White really should have used his backstory as the main storyline, it would have made for a more scary and enjoyable experience for the audience.

It's no surprise really that White has had more experience working behind the camera, the best bits of Ouija are easily the special effects and the production design. The special effects themselves look really really good, alongside some pretty cool effects from make up artist Leslie Devlin and head make up designer Anthony Gordon. Despite the movie itself not being one of the best horror movies in recent years, the special effects are far better then some of the effects used in recent movies. The editing at times is a little bit choppy but nothing too noticeable. Considering this was White's first movie it's safe to say he really hasn't done a bad job and has the potential to make some pretty good looking movies in the near future.

Ouija is nowhere near one of the best horror movies ever created, it's a shame because White chose to use two very big producers from hit movies "Insidious" and "Texas Chainsaw" , I like that subtle hints were dropped regarding James Wan's "Insidious" especially with actress Lin Shaye making a brief appearance in the movie. It would be nice to believe that they could all be potentially linked, but they aren't. Overall this is an entertaining movie but I do think the movie was let down a little bit by the lack of storyline and back story. Perfect for those who are easily scared!

4/5 stars