OUIJA HOUSE (2018)
Director: Ben Demaree
Umbrella Entertainment

Tara Reid and Mischa Barton, both looking like they've lived hard, circle the drain in the direct-to-video scarefest OUIJA HOUSE, on DVD from Umbrella Entertainment.

Thirty years ago, Katherine (Tara Reid, THE FIELDS), her boyfriend Tomas (Nathaniel Meek), and her cousin Claire (Tiffany Shepis, THE FRANKENSTEIN SYNDROME) broke the cardinal rule of the Ouija board and used it in a house with a violent past for kicks, awakening something that killed Claire while Katherine barely escaped with her life. Now, Katherine (Dee Wallace, THE HOWLING) has had her house foreclosed and her daughter Laurie (Carly Schroeder, THE LIZZIE MAGUIRE MOVIE) has staked saving the family home on the publication of her book on the paranormal. Without her mother's knowledge, Laurie, her boyfriend Nick (Mark Grossman), best friend Spence (Derrick A. King), and his fifth wheel girlfriend Tina (Grace Demarco) are joining her cousin Samantha (Mischa Barton, BHOPAL: A PRAYER FOR RAIN) at the family home which was built on the worship site of a coven of baby-sacrificing witches to rile up some paranormal activity for her research. Samantha reveals that the coven were distant ancestors of their family, made up of women who practiced healing magic until they were corrupted by warlock Roka (Justin Hawkins) who drew power from stones found in the area and tormented the parents of his sacrificial victims with word games they were destined to lose. Eventually, the coven was infiltrated by other white witches who turned on him, killed him, and contained him on the land. Despite the ominous warnings of Tomas (TWIN PEAKS' Chris Mulkey) who is now the caretaker, the group breaks out the Ouija board and temporarily make contact with an entity. When provocative Tina turns her body into a Ouija board, she becomes possessed and turns into a walking planchette as the group discover that the house itself is a giant Ouija board and they must play Roka's game or die.

A slickly-lensed low-budget horror film from a former Asylum director, OUIJA HOUSE squanders the likely one day availability of familiar faces Wallace, Shepis, and Mulkey in a plot that is not far removed from TRUTH OR DARE (the 2017 TV movie, not the similar Blumhouse effort of the following year). Performances and effects are serviceable but in service of not all that much. Best streamed or as a budget disc.

Unreleased on physical media in the United States, OUIJA HOUSE gets a single-layer, menu-less, barebones disc provides an issue-free encode of a cleanly-photographed DTV production with a undemanding Dolby Digital 5.1 track. No more, no less. On the other hand, for interested American fans, it is region free (despite the region 4 logo on the back cover) and NTSC. (Eric Cotenas)

 

 

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