PLOT: A woman becomes obsessed with communicating with a spirit via a ouija board, and it’s up to her boyfriend and an ex to try and break the spell. 

Okay, no joke: I really dug this movie. It perfectly balances that 80s-ness where not everything is taken so seriously, but the stakes are 100% real, but it also had a death in it that made me stop, rewind and laugh my ass off when I watched it a second time. This one was a surprise; it’s a simple story and kind of derivative, but it hit the right notes for me. 

WItchboard starts at a house party thrown by Linda and her live-in boyfriend Jim. Linda invites her ex-boyfriend Brandon, who has studied evil spirits, and brought his trusty Ouija board to contact a spirit he has communicated with in the past, a young boy spirit. After the party, Linda continues to communicate with what she thinks is the same spirit, but it may be something a little more evil. It’s up to Jim and Brandon to put aside their differences in order to save themselves and Linda from the evil presence. 

I don’t believe in spirits, but I don’t fuck with Ouija boards. I have better sense than that. But I love watching dumb assholes do stupid things in movies, and playing with a Ouija is one of those dumb things. And this movie is the dumb Ouija board movie to end all dumb Ouija board movies. 

First of all: the sexual tension between Jim and Brandon? Through the goddamn roof. Tawny Kitaen, the chick that humps the car in that one White Snake video, is basically the third wheel in this; it’s fascinating. Besides that, the first death in this film, in which Jim’s buddy Lloyd gets a huge piece of sheetrock dropped on his ass, had me HOWLING. It comes out of nowhere and his last words are “Employment means nothing to me, pal.” Fucking hysterical. 

Otherwise, this movie is pretty standard, but pretty fun. Tawny Kitaen does unhinged well in this, and I’m reminded of the time that her ex-husband Chuck Finley filed a restraining order against her. But she looks damn good when she’s possessed, and that probably says a lot about me. There’s your standard plot line of the cop thinking that Jim is behind all the killings which, honestly, feels a little shoehorned. Like, he had no motive to kill Lloyd; it doesn’t make much sense that he would be a suspect, regardless of his missing hatchet. 

Overall

WItchboard is a fun movie about Ouija board shenanigans that should be a cautionary tale to all of you. Don’t fuck with anything that, best-case scenario, opens up communications with good spirits, because you never know when evil spirits are gonna impersonate those good spirits and run amok in your life. One specifically hilarious death, a pretty good ending, and just an overall fun attitude won me over. 

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10