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'Ouija' plays horror hand too literally

I can't help wondering what Hasbro executives were thinking in licensing the company's Ouija board property to Universal Pictures. Just how many copies of this seance-themed novelty item - suitable for players age 8 and older who might be looking to commune with the dead on game night - were they hoping to sell? A horror movie that practically opens with a shot of someone throwing the infernal thing into a fireplace is not exactly the best commercial.

"Ouija," the film, is in a difficult position vis-à-vis Ouija, the board game. Unlike other beloved Hasbro properties that have been turned into films, the object at the center of this story - a device that has been said to facilitate communication with ghosts - still creeps a lot of people out.

That, of course, is an excellent reason to make a scary movie. The thing is, if you're going to do it, it better be scary. Though "Ouija" starts off evoking a nicely eerie atmosphere of dread, it ultimately goes too far, making the liminal space between the spirit world and this one all too eye-rollingly literal.

There's actually some good news here. "Ouija" features a strong, believable cast. The young actors playing a group of teens who get sucked into an obsession with an antique Ouija board after the suspicious death of a friend (Shelley Hennig) are quite good at conveying the mix of healthy skepticism and morbid fascination that is necessary to pull an audience into the tale. Anything that presupposes the existence of a form of supernatural texting - via a movable planchette sliding over a board that has been printed with the letters of the alphabet - is going to be a tough sell, in this modern age of reason and instant messaging.

There are no credulous idiots among this crew. And the powers of persuasion of the film's heroine, Lane (Olivia Cooke), are formidable.

Like Lane, the film is seductive. At one point, our heroine is shown looking up an online video in which the Ouija board's allegedly supernatural powers are attributed to the "ideomotor phenomenon" (i.e., wishful thinking). This bit of pre-emptory debunking, by director Stiles White, who co-wrote the film with Juliet Snowden, is canny. It sets up things nicely for when the action starts to get a little more ectoplasmic.

And that's where the film goes off the rails. The deliciously unsettling ambiguity of traditional Ouija board play is quickly replaced by standard horror-movie tropes involving ghoulish apparitions, zombielike trances and violent, "Exorcist"-style telekinesis. Little is left to the imagination, which is where all real horror lies.

“Ouija”

★ ★

Starring: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Shelley Henning, Daren Kagasoff

Directed by: Stiles White

Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for thematic material and violence. 99 minutes

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