When their daughter unexpectedly kills herself, Debbie Galardi's (Shelley Hennig) parents move away, leaving their home in the care of Debbie's best friend, Laine Morris (Olivia Cooke).
Laine can't find it in herself to say goodbye to her best friend and so convinces a handful of other teens to join her in playing with a 'spirit board' (
aka a ouija board) to try and contact Debbie. This is a game Laine and Debbie played as kids and she knows it isn't real, but just needs some form of closure.
However, when the gaggle of teenagers are gathered in Debbie's old house they do make contact through the board and when greeted with the message "Hi Friend", they believe they've reached Debbie. Unfortunately, they've actually connected with the ghost of a child murdered in the house decades earlier.
And, naturally, things spiral out of control from there.
There's a fairly decent backstory to the main plot of
Ouija, but ultimately the film devolves into typical, trashy, teen pop horror because the writers fail to nail down any logic to the ghosts' powers and behaviour, instead letting them do whatever the filmmakers' think will generate a good jump scare.
Even the presence of the brilliant Olivia Cooke, who gets saddled with some contortedly corny lines that she manages to deliver with conviction nonetheless, can't save this effort from being all about the flash, rather than the substance.
Another wasted talent in the flick is Lin Shaye (
of Insidious and other horror flick fame) who pops up as the batty sister of the murdered child; there's never any sense that she's doing anything more than reciting her lines.
It was also great to see Shelley Hennig again, a face I haven't seen since
The Secret Circle disappeared off our TV screens several years ago (
we have yet to be allowed to see the seasons of Teen Wolf where Shelley shows up).
However, while her fellow
Secret Circle alumnae Jessica Parker Kennedy was owning it in
Black Sails at this time, Shelley's role in
Ouija - despite some unexpected appearances towards the end of the tale - isn't that rounded.
The film has its moments, but ultimately
Ouija is a missed opportunity to craft a solid ghost story around the Victorian hokum of spirit boards.
If only more thought had been put into the internal logic of the piece and less on creating the next 'oh-so-clever' jump scare,
Ouija could have elevated itself above its popcorn status into a decent horror film.
