Ouija (2014) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 8

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Keep telling yourself it’s only a game.

You may have seen movies like Ouija before, but this film takes the horror of spirit boards to a new level. Friends slowly begin dying after some of them use a Ouija board, awakening a malevolent spirit. It’s a slightly disjointed yet scary film for the season.

Before Viewing

A young woman discovers a Ouija board and is found hanging in her foyer, dead. Her group of friends attempt to contact her using the same Ouija board when suddenly the lights go out. They realize that they have awoken something evil, as different scary things happen to each of them. The pacing of the trailer ramps up to a number of quick and scary shots with characters being dragged off into the darkness or their eyes rolling into their head. Yes, yes, Ouija looks scary!

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

A high school student named Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig) throws a Ouija board into the fire. Her friend Laine (Olivia Cooke) stops by and Debbie says she’s tired and will meet her in the morning. Back in the house, strange things begin to happen like the door opening by itself and the gas burner on the stove igniting by itself. Debbie’s eyes fog over–completely white–and she hangs herself in her foyer from a string of Christmas lights. Debbie’s friends gather at the house for a wake, and Debbie’s mother (Robin Lively) gives Laine a box of Debbie’s things to remember her by.

The Galardi family goes out of town so Laine and her boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff) stop by before school to water plants and bring in the mail, where they also find a perfectly intact Ouija board on Debbie’s bed. Laine suggests that the friends get together and use the Ouija board to see if they can talk to the spirit of Debbie. She and Trevor, plus Debbie’s boyfriend Pete (Douglas Smith), Isabelle (Bianca Santos), and Laine’s younger sister Sarah (Ana Coto) all decide it’s worth a shot. Laine explains the rules and utters the call to order (quoted below) when the board begins to spell out the words “hi friend,” before the lights go out.

The next day each of the group experiences seeing the words “hi friend” etched or written somewhere they should not be. While most of the group is terrified, Laine convinces them to try again, believing it was in fact Debbie they spoke to. This time the planchette identifies the spirit as “DZ,” spelling out the phrase, “Run. Mother is coming!” Through the small magnifying glass on the planchette, they see a young girl’s apparition with her mouth sewn shut and a motherly ghost streaking toward them. They all split. Sarah is afraid that they accidentally broke a rule of the board.

Looking in the box of things provided by Debbie’s mom, Laine finds a USB drive that contains a video of Debbie finding the board in the attic of the old house she lives in. It, and other things, belonged to previous owners. Finding some old photos in the attic, Laine and Pete perform an internet search and find information about Doris Zander (Sierra Hawkins), aka “DZ.” Laine discovers a sister named Pauline (Lin Shaye) who is an old woman now in a local nursing facility. Visiting her, Pauline provides information about their evil mother and the location of a hidden basement where Doris’ body is located. Laine must cut the stitches on the body to stop the curse.

During this investigation, a spirit possesses Isabelle, sewing her mouth shut before killing her. In Debbie’s basement, Pete, Trevor, Laine, and Sarah find the mummified body of Doris. Pete and Trevor are trapped in another room. Laine cuts the stitches and Doris’ ghost screams, vaporizing the mother. But that’s not the end. Pete sees a vision of Debbie, but it’s a ruse by Doris who kills him. The remainder of the kids realize that Pauline and Doris were the evil ones, and Mother was trying to protect Laine and her friends. Laine’s Nona (Vivis Colombetti) gives her the advice that they need to destroy the board and the body at the same time.

Returning to Debbie’s house, Trevor is lured to the backyard by a vision of Sarah and drowned in the pool. In the basement, Sarah is dragged away. But before she can be killed, Laine starts playing the Ouija board alone–meaning Doris must join her. Laine becomes possessed, but before Doris can kill Laine, Debbie’s spirit arrives to help hold off Doris until Sarah throws the body into the nearby stove along with the board. Doris is destroyed for good. Laine admits to Sarah that she misses her friends every day. That night she discovers the planchette mysteriously in her room. She holds it up to look through the small magnifying glass.

“As friends we gather, hearts are true. Spirits near, we call to you.” – Debbie, and others

Welcome to the final film in this week’s celebration of horror movie anniversaries. It is Ouija’s 10th Anniversary this year and a good time to revisit the film if you’ve never seen it. You can also check out the other anniversaries from this week with the 100th Anniversary of The Hands of Orlac, the 50th Anniversary of Phantom of the Paradise, the 40th Anniversary of C.H.U.D., the 30th Anniversary of Brainscan, and the 20th Anniversary of Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed. Ouija was Stiles White’s inaugural and final directorial job. He had written a number of other horror films including Boogeyman, Knowing, and The Possession. The cast contains a number of horror newbies including Olivia Cooke (previously in The Quiet Ones, but best known now for Bates Motel and Ready Player One), Douglas Smith (Stage Fright and Antiviral), Shelley Hennig (Unfriended and Teen Wolf the TV series), with Ana Coto, Bianca Santos & Daren Kagasoff all making their debut. The film also included horror veteran Lin Shaye, whose past credits include the Insidious series, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Critters, The Hidden, and Tales of Halloween (coming later this month).

Ouija, pronounced We-ja or Wee-Gee, is not the first film about spirit boards (also known as talking boards or witch boards). The earliest depiction of one of these boards in film appears to be in William Castle’s 13 Ghosts where a Ouija board is used. But the most popular known films include The Exorcist, where Regan uses a board to contact “Captain Howdy,” Paranormal Activity, and the Witchboard series (three films in total) which focuses exclusively on a spirit board unleashing a demon. While Ouija boards have appeared in previous films, this is the first (or two films presently) that uses the name Ouija in its title. That is because the name Ouija was trademarked by Parker Brothers in 1950, and now belongs to Hasbro. That information, that the board is actually a game produced by a toy company should provide a little piece of mind about the usage of the device. Presumably, the Parker Brothers were not in league with the devil or some minor demon when they decided to sell this product. The board is very much in the realm of other urban legends, suitable for sleepovers, such as Bloody Mary and Candyman.

The film presents its rules for the use of the Ouija board. As far as I can tell, these are not part of the official rules of the board game–at least after searching for instructions online. While these may not be officially trademarked instructions, they are probably still great rules to adhere to. The first, “You can never, ever play alone,” is apparently what gets Debbie in trouble in the first place. Playing alone allows the spirit to overwhelm the player as almost happened to Laine in the end. The second rule, which seems odd for the film, is “You can never play in a graveyard.” At no time is a character playing in a traditional graveyard, but Paulina recognizes that playing in the old Zander house is tantamount to playing in a graveyard. Most likely due to Doris’s body laying in rest in the basement. The final rule is “You always have to say goodbye,” which is just good etiquette. There’s no reason to provoke the spirits by being impolite. Remember, rules are there for your protection!

There are two main themes in the film. The first is about the bond of sisters. Laine and her sister Sarah are shown briefly as kids when Laine screams at Sarah to get out of her room. As teenagers Sarah, the younger of the two, is entirely different from Laine. She hangs out by herself or is seen going out with some unseen man that audiences are told is older. The two really have nothing in common, that is until Laine drags Sarah along to the séance. She then becomes embroiled in the plot, unfortunately without much to do. She is grabbed by the spirit of Doris at the end but manages to complete the process of burning the body and the board, saving Laine. The end of the film seems as if they are getting along better. Ouija also tells of the bond between Doris Zander and her younger sister Paulina, now an adult in the contemporary part of the movie. Paulina is convinced that getting Laine and her friends to free the vengeful spirit of Doris will allow the sisters to bond again–being nice to Paulina for helping her spirit be free. This is when Paulina goes off the rails, however, getting restrained by the nurses at the hospital. Presumably, some of that relationship is addressed in the second Ouija film, Origin of Evil, which is a 2016 prequel about the Zander sisters, and their mother.

The other theme of Ouija is about the time we have with other people. Most people don’t expect to lose friends in high school–especially to supernatural forces. Laine is saddened by the loss of Debbie, saying several times in the film that she really misses her, all the time. The film ends with her saying the same thing about the rest of her friends who died. Laine realizes that people never really get to say goodbye, especially in events such as this. All your time with friends and family is precious since you never know when you may lose them. It’s great that Ouija at least tries to address this in some fashion, given the scars created on the community with the loss of four students. As with many supernatural films, Ouija provides its share of tension and shivers, but relies more heavily on the jump scare; whether it’s Doris’s face suddenly appearing in the viewing window of the planchette or Pete popping out from a room in the house “accidentally” scaring the girls. The sense that spirits may be affecting the spirit board they’re using is also a creepy idea. For anyone who’s used one before, they do tend to move on their own which is unsettling. For horror aficionados, Ouija is predictable in its beats. The shocks come (mostly) when expected, however, there are also some elements of the film that seem as if some other portion was excised or at least rearranged. Apparently, the sequel is about twice as good as this film–something that is rarely ever said about sequels. Though in this case, it’s probably due to being written and directed by one of the new Masters of Horror, Mike Flanagan. Thanks for joining this week’s review of anniversary films. Tomorrow jumps back into the random assortment of scary movies for the holiday.

Assorted Musings

• The house exterior used for Debbie’s house is the same location that was used for Grandma’s house in Phantasm II, which is located in Los Angeles.
• As briefly mentioned in the film, many scientists attribute the movement of the planchette to the unconscious movements of the participants known as the ideomotor effect. The same effect can be demonstrated with a pendulum held aloft (usually a ring on a string). The user can manipulate the direction of the spin subconsciously clockwise or counterclockwise.
• The name of the Ouija board is said to be a combination of the word yes in French (oui) and German (ja), but that is apocryphal. It’s actually the word that medium Helen Peters Nosworthy received when she asked the board to name itself. Apparently, it means “good luck.”