The makers of “Ouija” deserve an A for effort on this, the first major feature for writer-director Stiles White and co-writer Juliet Snowden. They tried to take on a subject that can be creepy and chill-inducing but were unable to add any new elements to the story. The result is another ghost yarn that is just a variation of the “Paranormal Activity” series, but minus the found-footage, jerky motion format.
The Ouija board, a conduit between the physical and spiritual world, has been featured in dozens of movies over the years, most notably in “The Exorcist” and more recently had a guest-starring stint in “Paranormal Activity.” The consistent thread in these appearances is that using the Ouija board, like playing with matches, can usually lead to trouble. It seems every time a call is made to the great beyond via the board, it is not Casper the friendly ghost who answers. It is more often than not a spirit that is upset or riled about something.
“Ouija” begins with two young girls, Laine Morris and Debbie Galardi, playing with an Ouija board and Laine gets spooked when her sister Sarah comes into the room uninvited.
The movie advances several years and now teen-age Debbie (Shelley Hennig), alone in her house, seems to be unnerved about something. She tosses an Ouija board into the fireplace, wanting to destroy it. Then, when Laine (Olivia Cooke from “Bates Motel”) comes by so they can go to a high school basketball game, Debbie begs off for vague reasons, making Laine suspicious something is up. But Laine goes on to the game.
Back alone in the house, Debbie experiences some strange things and soon is dead, having hung herself.
In the days following the tragedy, Laine, grappling with the guilt that she was unable to prevent Debbie’s suicide, begins to sense something else is going on. Conveniently, Debbie’s parents decide to leave town for a while to recover from their sorrow, asking Laine to watch the house during their absence. Also, Laine, whose mother is no longer around (either split from the marriage or dead — it is never revealed), is left with her rebellious sister Sarah (Ana Coto) while her father is on a business trip. This gets the parents out of the way.
Laine discovers the Ouija board at the Galardi house, not aware it supposedly was burned. Giving in to her intuitions that Debbie might be trying to contact her, Laine drafts four other people to join her in a seance at the Galardi house: Sarah, Laine’s boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff), Debbie’s boyfriend Pete (Douglas Smith) and Isabelle (Bianca Santos).
The Galardi house is the epitome of a place with a bad history — two-story, old and creaky, and despite having numerous lights throughout always seems to be dark. Some unusual events occur during the seance held by the young people, but nothing substantive results from the attempt to contact the dead.
However, over the next few days, four of the young people encounter the same message in various ways — written on a wall with chalk, etched on a desk, appearing on a laptop screen and scrawled on window condensation — leading them to believe it is indeed an attempt by Debbie to contact them.
So the Ouija board is hauled out again, but soon the young people discover there is something more sinister going on. Here is where the screenplay by White and Snowden gets bogged down in yet another haunted house story. Fans of such spooky stories will enjoy the appearance of Lin Shaye from the “Insidious” films, playing a different character but in a similar role as someone who may have an explanation for the creepy incidents. Also, Vivis Columbetti, who played the nanny Martine, a person who sensed evil things brewing before everyone else in “Paranormal Activity 2,” plays the Galardi housekeeper Nona, who counsels Laine on how to battle these nasty spirits.
“Ouija” does build some suspense, but the payoff scares just fall flat. Flickering lights, mysterious shadows, doors opening on their own and the creaks and pounding have become mundane after so many uses in movies of this type.
Cooke, who starred as Jane Harper, the young woman supposedly possessed by a doll in “The Quiet Ones” earlier this year, anchors “Ouija” as Laine, a strong-willed young woman whose attempts to make sense out of a friend’s death unwittingly launches more peril around her. Unfortunately, other than Coto as Sarah, the sister who likes to sneak out at night with an older guy, none of the other characters has much personality. They are props whose role is to be terrified.
“Ouija” falls short of creating any substantial apprehension. When the secrets are finally revealed, they are not particularly startling. In the end, White and Snowden simply revisited the familiar themes of the ghost story movie.
