Released: October 24th, 2014
Rated: PG-13
Studio: Universal
Starring: Olivia Cooke, Daren Kagasoff, Ana Coto,
Bianca A. Santos, Douglas Smith
Directed by: Stiles White
Written by: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White
Personal Bias Alert: not a horror fan, got a free shirt at the screening
2 of 10
Horror
is probably the genre I watch the least, not because I hate scary stories, but
because the good ones are so few and far between. Even when being selective, I still find
myself watching a lot of duds. Perhaps
my personal taste is the problem; I prefer atmospheric chillers to the jump
scare/gore fests that litter the low-budget horror machine. Finding the ones that fit that particular style
can be tough, but that makes it extra delightful when I find one that works.
Even
with my lack of genre knowledge, I know the trepidation adult horror fans feel
at the site of a PG-13 rating. It’s
translation: no violence, no gore, no
fun. Still, if a film knows how to work
without the crutches of R-rated horror, then you can get away with some pretty
terrifying stuff. Ouija, unfortunately, doesn’t know how to do this.
With
the name Ouija you should be able to
guess the basic plotline of this movie: some
teens use a Ouija board, evil spirits are released, a haunting ensues. It’s pretty stock stuff, and the movie never bothers
to stray far from these basic elements. It’s
actually kind of surprising to think back and realize how little actually
happened in this film. It feels much
longer, but that might be the boredom talking.
So
the movie has a basic plot, that’s still recoverable. Get a few decent actors, build some
atmosphere, pepper in some creepy visuals, and you have a hit. Ouija
does get the acting right (I’ll get to that in a minute) but fails to deliver
any substantial visuals or build to much of anything. The movie mostly plods along, hitting the required
plot points to get itself to a finish line we all see coming. Add in that first-time director Stiles White
mistakes darkness for style, and the whole thing ends up like that tasteless
side dish your Aunt always brings to Thanksgiving dinner.
So
thank god there’s good acting. Really,
the only redeeming quality about this movie, besides the fact that it’s largely
in focus, is the core group of actors. They
sell the proceedings well enough to avoid it being laughable, and Douglas
Smith, Daren Kagasoff, and particularly Olivia Cooke in the lead role manage to
turn in some noteworthy performances.
Sure, they don’t have anything to do and struggle with some awful
dialogue, but that actually makes their performances all the more impressive. They manage to pull off a lot of generic,
badly written schlock, which is no small feat.
Now,
I often get on movies for giving a character one or two traits and then
pretending they’re fully realized human beings, but Ouija sets a new bar for utter lack of characterization. I walked away not knowing a single trait for
any of the main characters. Nada. None.
They are blank canvases, tabula rasas floating in and out of breakfast
joints on the way to their doom. The one
thing I did learn was that the girl who dies at the beginning of the film
inexplicably likes Shakespeare, but that was thanks to the set design and not
any actual writing. This interest is
never explored nor explained, but is left hanging on the wall like an inside
joke on the utter expanse that exists between Hamlet and this movie.
I’m
going to keep this short and sweet, which is one of the few things Ouija has the decency to do. In all honesty, I just don’t have much to say
about this one. When the lights went up
in my theater, I was filled with an overwhelming nothingness and thought ‘Was
that it?” In my opinion, that’s one of
the worst reactions a horror film can elicit.
Other
Notes:
Ø Who
dresses in a nice skirt and tights to hang out at home eating some fancy
looking leftover pasta in the kitchen by themselves?
Ø Still
not sure how to say Ouija.
Ø Those
sinister ghosts and their stoves.
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