'Ouija' moderately drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews here.

Yet another film seen recently unfortunately, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Ouija' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is really nothing to recommend other than Olivia Cooke trying her best and actually being pretty okay.

Unfortunately, 'Ouija' is shot and edited so poorly, looking like a school project shot on a shaky camera or a phone by an unsteady hand, and the drab and overly-dark colours. It was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness and the lighting is far too dark and a lot of the time inappropriately so.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates and are overdone.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the elsewhere lumbering, awkward and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both incredibly poorly done.

A lot of 'Ouija' often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. Most of those attempted in fact are very contrived and will make one roll the eyes than jump. The film often fails to make sense, is very by the numbers and there is no imagination.

There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting and much of it absurd. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden, with an all over the place visual style, and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the non-existent chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random. This is very dreary and amateurish stuff that fails to be scary, interesting or easy to follow, with the deaths being un-creative, too easily foreseeable and lame in execution.

In conclusion, very poorly done. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Debbie Galardi (Shelley Hennig) burns up an Ouija board but it miraculously returns. She hangs herself. Her friend Laine Morris (Olivia Cooke) finds the board. She plays the game to contact Debbie with boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff),friend Liz (Bianca Santos),little sister Sarah (Ana Coto) and Debbie's boyfriend Pete (Douglas Smith). Everybody start finding the message "Hi Friend".

It is Stiles White's first directorial job. He does a good job technically but as a horror, this is minor fail. There is nothing truly scary. It comes close at the very end. However the movie is very flat and lacks excitement for most of the first half. Soft-spoken Cooke fits her TV show Bates Motel character very well. However she may be too soft-spoken to lead a big screen horror. One of the main requirements for scream queens is screaming. She's a nice actress who might be better off as dead best friend. Her big eyes could really work as a ghost. A switch in the two lead actresses may help. Also White needs to get some good horror ideas. He does the same dragging-away move at least twice. This may be scary for little girls but that's all.

"Ouija" is an American 90-minute movie from 2014, so this one has its second anniversary this year. It got some attention recently again as they made a sequel to it. The impact of writer and director Stiles White in this sequel was not as big though, he was the man in charge of this first film we got here. And this one was not really an inspired or creative achievement. It felt like done pretty much by the formula without including any features that make it stand out from the mass of mediocre horror movies. We have a hot girl as the main character, her equally hot female friends and some guy characters who are not strong enough though to stand up to the evil spirit that gets everybody's life in danger and kills some characters from the gang too. But the tiny girl manages to succeed eventually because of her courage, dedication and determination. Been there, seen that.

This film is about an Ouija board and this is a subject that was also dealt with many times already in films, so everybody probably roughly knows what to expect here. Some of the Ouija board scenes are pretty cringeworthy, others are solid. When they find out that they have not been talking to their dead friends is one of the best moments of the film, but also one of very few good moments actually. The confrontation at the very end with the evil spirit is not a highlight at all and makes the film seem even more forgettable than it has been in the previous 80 minutes. Judging from this one here, I cannot see why there is any need for a sequel really, but looking at how critics kinda liked this new film and that it was also made by other people than who made this first film, maybe I am a bit too harsh here. I can only judge this one we have here and I am not impressed at all. It was never really scary and this is the main objective for a horror film. Maybe you will be scared if you watch this in a dark theater at night on a huge screen, but otherwise I don't think it is a rewarding watch whatsoever. Acting and script were also fairly mediocre at best. I give it a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead.