Ouija - Don't Play With the Devil

Ever since they were little kids, Laine (Olivia Cooke) and Debbie (Shelley Henning) have played with a Ouija board, which is supposedly used to contact spirits. Laine has long forgotten about it, until one night Debbie tells her that she found the board again and played with it on her own - something the rules say you absolutely should not do. The next day, Debbie is dead. Supposedly, the girl, who was actually very fun-loving, hanged herself. Laine doesn't believe it was suicide. To find out if Debbie really killed herself and if there was anything she could have done to help her, Laine convinces her boyfriend Trevor (Daren Kagasoff), her friend Isabelle (Bianca Santos), her little sister Sarah (Ana Coto) and Debbie's boyfriend Pete (Douglas Smith) to have a Ouija session at the deceased's house - not a good idea, as it will very soon turn out in a bloody way.

Co-produced by Michael Bay, the horror flick Ouija - Don't Play with the Devil is the latest collaboration from writing team Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, who have co-written genre hits such as Boogeyman and most recently Possession - The Dark in You. White has now taken his first seat in the director's chair for the film, which is loosely based on a board game by Hasbro (Transformers). His directorial debut was a commercial success in the U.S., but was mercilessly slammed by critics. The reason for this is probably the very unimaginative story, the very template-like characters, the extremely flat dialogue and the poor performances of the actors. But also the fact that the already not particularly exciting story is built up extremely slowly and with little suspense, is not necessarily helpful in covering the all too obvious weaknesses of the film.

This succeeds only in the unfortunately too few successful moments of suspense. When Stiles unleashes the paranormal goings-on at the deceased Debbie's house on the colorless characters, there's actually some recognizable entertainment value and even the odd successful shock moment. For the intended target audience of 16 to 18 year old viewers who like things a little creepy but not too gross, this is perfectly fine. Especially in the second half, the film manages to fulfill its target audience-oriented mission quite well. Sure, the whole thing is never really intelligent or original even in the acceptable moments. And neither the atmosphere, the story nor the effects can leave a lasting impression. But it must also be said that especially in the genre of teen horror in recent years there have been significantly worse machinations, which have offered even much less suspense and even weaker acting performances than what you get to see here.

Surely I would not now go so far as to claim that Ouija - Do not play with the devil is a good movie. The production simply lacks too much of its own character and craftsmanship for that. But for what the film wants to be - a crowd-pleasing, well-behaved scary movie for not exactly demanding teenage genre fans - especially the second half fulfills absolutely satisfyingly. So if you don't expect more than a few decent scares, a bit of creepiness, a couple of attractive actors in an arguably predictable scenario, you might well get your money's worth here. But if you're looking for real horror, a thrilling story, a gripping atmosphere and really good actors, you should give this wooden board game adaptation a wide berth. Conditionally worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp