Ouija (2014) Review.

Cast; Olivia Cooke, Darren Kagasoff, Douglas Smith.

Director; Stiles White.

Ouija is a 2014 horror film about a group of friends who use an Ouija board to try and communicate with their friend who recently and surprisingly hung herself with her fairy lights. But of course this is a horror film, so the communication they make is not a heart-warming reunion with their loved one but much more haunting. Slowly one by one they are being killed by deceased, deranged and murderous spirits of a Mother and Daughter; but which one is really the murderer?

Now even though almost every review I saw of this movie was terrible, I had to see it for myself, I was intrigued as to why it was apparently so terrible! Also I am a massive Texas Chainsaw fan and a producer of Texas also produced this movie. I will tell you though, this film is not majorly gory, there are no chainsaws and although I wasn’t impressed with it I was entertained, but this movie will probably get lost in the pile of other teen or for-the-sake-of-it horrors.

The film itself was filmed pretty well and it’s good for the odd jump scare, it definitely used the genre to it’s advantage and creates tension. For a modern horror I respect the lack of mention and use of social media and the fact that they didn’t use sex scenes to draw people in or try and entertain you. This film gets started relatively quickly so you don’t get too much of a chance to lose interest but it was produced by the guys who did Insidious and the best way to describe this film is by calling it the little brother of Insidious. You have many similarities to it including a spirit named ‘Mother’ who is portrayed as a horrible and abusive parent; just like Insidious 2.

Olivia Cooke is definitely a young actress who is building herself up a successful portfolio quickly and after her brilliant performance in The Quiet Ones I’m not surprised that she was cast for this part, for another horror movie. I also think that fans of Bates Motel will be seeing this movie to support her role as Emma.  Douglas Smith was also great in his role as Pete but you might consider this role a step back after being in films such as Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. All the cast were pretty good, but it had its moments where you had to question if you believed the sentence they said.

I loved some ideas they used like sewed up mouths and there’s a great scene with Darren Kagasoff in an underpass that put me on the edge of my seat a bit.

This movie was not absolutely terrible; I’d say it’s a fun horror! If you’re looking for not too many surprises but a good fright jump here and there this is for you. Like I said I wasn’t impressed but I was entertained and will be buying it on its DVD release because it did a good job with the idea it had. If this movie has taught me anything, it’s that originality is hard in horror these days and never to use an Ouija board if I’m not prepared to get fucked with!

Rating: 6.5/10

VF.