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I don’t know what it is about Ouija Boards… for all intents and purposes, a Ouija Board is merely a shitty piece of cardboard that started out as a novelty item, and yet horror movies have taken this cheesy item and turned it into a force for horror… which quite often never actually works. This innocuous piece of cardboard has set up so many scenes of people sitting around a table and pointing out letters that it becomes ridiculous. But despite the fact that the Ouja Board premise has been done to death, director Matt Stone has chosen to focus his lens on this innocuous object and build the plot of his low-budget horror flick around it with some mixed results.

Ouija Board is typical in many ways. First off, the film starts with five people traveling to an out of the way cottage in the middle of the night. They get lost, of course, and while they are cruising around, they run over some chick. Since they are lost as fuck, they put the body in the truck and continue driving. Eventually, everyone gets tired and they go to sleep. When they wake up, the body is gone… and they go about their business and find the cottage. From there, the film turns into stock supernatural horror, full of visions, sudden appearances of dead people, and the occasional Ouija Board scene. It’s all stuff you’ve seen before, but the skill with which everything is pulled off is inspiring for such a low-budget flick.

That being said, there are a few holes in the technical aspects of the film. The first major problem is the sound. The sound quality of this flick is fucked completely. The score frequently drowns out the dialogue of the characters, causing one to turn the volume all the way up… which leads to excessive ear assault whenever something unexpected happens as it is usually accompanied by superloud violin strikes, which will scare the shit out of you. There you are, one second trying to listen to what the characters are saying… the next second you’re sitting there covered in urine because you’ve been beaten about the eardrums by a mismatched score. It’s a huge problem and easily the biggest problem of the movie as it asks the viewer to choose the lesser of two evils. Either you keep the volume down and miss out on some of the dialogue or you turn it way up and risk contracting post-traumatic stress disorder and a case of deafness.

Director Matt Stone, despite the sound quality of the film, does a lot with a low-budget. Stone’s shot selections are solid and the way he tells the story is fairly natural with a couple of nice reveals later in the film. Much of the film is full of characters talking and arguing, which isn’t the most exciting stuff in the world, but Stone does his best to make it interesting and the fact that he gets solid performances out of all of his actors only helps matters. The only real problem with the film is the fact that the film is just so clichéd that nothing ever really feels fresh or new… except for the films last fifteen minutes which are a delicious montage of violence.

Ouija Board isn’t groundbreaking, but it is a nice reminder that some of the crap that Hollywood is making for millions and millions of dollars can be made with almost no budget. The film doesn’t feel so much like a polished horror flick as it feels like an experiment for a first-time director, and as a starting point, it’s actually pretty impressive. As a horror movie, Ouija Board is run of the mill, but if you’re interested in low-budget horror and the things that people try to do with a low-budget, it’s worth checking out.

Final Synopsis: This is a typical low-budget horror flick in many respects. If you’re into low-budget horror, then check it out. If you’re not, then you can skip it.

Points Lost: -2 for excessively poor sound quality, -2 for excessive clichés

Lesson Learned: When the corpse of someone you’ve run over gets up and leaves the trunk of your car, it’s perfectly normal to go about your business and pretend nothing ever happened.

Burning Question: Have you ever played around with a Ouija Board?

Ouija Board
6/10

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