Finally, a movie to show us something we can’t all relate to. Ouija illustrates to the public what we all secretly want to do but would never actually do: play with a ouija board.
After their beloved friend Debbie passes away for an unknown reason, a group of friends decide to try and communicate with her to get answers. After awakening a terrifying presence, they must stop the connection between the ancient game board and ‘the other side’. In the movie, the group of kids know the dangers of stirring up paranormal activity, but the desire to say goodbye to their best friend pushes them to play the game anyway.
Ouija boards were first introduced in 1890 according to wikipedia.org. They started off as a simple parlor game that had no meaning until someone used it as a divining tool in World War I. Now, it’s seen as communication with the supernatural world, which is what Ouija is based around.
“Keep telling yourself it’s just a game,” is a repeated line from Sarah Morris, one of the teens that was in on the game. Exactly. Laine and Sarah (sisters), Trevor (Sarah’s boyfriend), Isabelle (best friend), and Pete (Debbie’s boyfriend) all started out thinking they were ‘playing a game’. Unfortunately for them, this game wasn’t just played by the five teens sitting around the table.
According to boxofficemojo.com, Ouija made $8 million on October 24, 2014 (the day it was released) and stayed number one in the box office for the first three days. It continues to stay strongly in the top ten to this date.
The reviews for this movie weren’t one sided: it was hard to tell if the majority of movie-goers loved it or hated it.
“My expectations for Ouija were pretty high… but I was disappointed because I what was going to happen and it had a weak plot,” says senior Emily Keller.
Many other viewers put forth the same opinion considering it’s obvious what happens when people play with ouija boards. Everyone hears the horror stories and most steer clear of the mistake waiting to happen.
“Ouija was actually the best scary movie I’ve seen in the theaters so far because it was actually scary. I definitely recommend it to any scary movie lovers,” explained sophomore Erin Potter.