The Ouija Exorcism (2015)

One of my all time favorites.

Captivating movie !

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

'The Ouija Exorcism' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not particularly original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive as well as the low rating and poor reviews. It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films have are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Ouija Exorcism' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is really nothing to recommend.'The Ouija Exorcism' does have some occasionally spooky but mostly overly-simple scenery, which is the only thing the film has going for it.Unfortunately, it's shot and edited so poorly, looking like a school project shot on a shaky camera or a phone by an unsteady hand, and the drab colour palette. It was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm. In particular, the camera work was a nauseous assault on the eyes with its excessive amateurish-ness. Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates and are overdone.Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting that shows a huge indifference to the situation and what is going on and extremely awkward prolonged pauses.Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés, lots of unintentional humour that makes some of the film play like a really bad spoof and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about and useless padding, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both incredibly poorly done.A lot of 'The Ouija Exorcism' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper and the film often fails to make sense, at worst it's incomprehensible.There is not enough threat, and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror or creativity. Everything here is neither creative, suspenseful or nail-biting. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden and like their heart was not in it or ill at ease, with the chemistry between the characters and actors coming over as constantly random and aggressive with the subtlety of an axe. This is very dreary and amateurish stuff that fails to be scary, interesting or easy to follow.To conclude, terrible. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Joe (Ben Morrison) visits his dying father (J. Damian Anastasio) who had placed him in foster care over a Ouija board incident when they were children. He meets his childhood neighbor Bev (Laura Kirchner -SJP lite). Together the two families go off to a retreat. For nearly an hour we get character and plot build up. Joe's slightly socially inept son Noah (Michael Palladino) has the hots Bev's daughter Chloe (Brittney Bertier) and she is "creeped out" by him. Things plod along, thank you Lola Kelly for letting us see your boobs, until 15 minutes from the end when the film climaxes and I try to feign interest.In one scene when Bev and Joe are talking I noted the background sound had a distinct change. The early childhood scene would have taken place in the 1980's although it looked more 70's. The kids were neat and I wish the story would have centered around them. Ben Morrison had a terrible dead pan character with greasy hair and unshaven. I am not sure what the woman straddling the Ouija board has to do with the film.Julia Rae was adorable as young Bev and I wish her well on her career.

Ignoring the cretinous and obvious 'shill review' here asking that the actors get Oscars (if they're being 'ironic', they failed badly), I can agree with most reviews here that this is a pretty dire film. I can agree with the shill that 'The Academy' should indeed recognise this film if only to make sure that all involved, cast and crew at ALL levels of this steaming pile of horse manure are never allowed near a film set, word processor or production studio again until they die. From what is a reasonable premise the film rapidly descends into utter nonsense, and dreadfully poorly acted and scripted nonsense at that. All in all a hideous mess. If you're looking for Halloween scares you won't find them here.

This is the third exorcism movie that I have watched and posted about this week,the others being: THE VATICAN TAPES, and THE EXORCISM OF MOLLIE HARTLEY. I gave them a rating, respectively, of 6 and 1/2, and 5 and 1/2. I judge all such movies not against all horror movies but just against other exorcism movies.Now I am an aficionado of exorcism movies, so I give a grade of 3 just to begin with, and 4 is the worst I've ever given to one, and this one belongs in that category, far inferior to the two movies cited above.I don't even have the energy to lay out the entire plot, just as the writers had no energy to deliver a coherent or suspenseful plot. Very briefly, a Ouija Board here serves just like the Dybbuk box in the movie, THE POSSESSION. The demon Belial was placed there long before when the main character, Joe, was a boy. It got out when he fooled around with the board, possessed the kid, people were slaughtered, the demon was banished back to the board, yada, yada, yada.It's now some 30 years later and time for Joe's son to find the Ouija board and give it a spin. Here comes Belial again, quickly possessing one character, then changing to another, etc. etc. This took place at the cabin where Joe and son are visiting. Naturally, the hot girl next door is also a shaman. Of course she is. She knows to whip out salt to make a safe circle, whisks a knife out of nowhere, and knows what Joe has to do to exorcise the demon: read from the Book of Psalms, in Hebrew (Joe grew up in a Jewish family), and do so standing in the swimming pool.Joe's son, Noah, gets possessed and Joe is trying to coax him into the pool, when the Shaman hits Noah on the head with a big stick and utters: "The book was taking too long." Three dead bodies and the demon gone, and mercifully the movie comes to an end.