Entertainment

You'll Be Laughing at, Not With, 'Ouija'

by Alanna Bennett

The lack of self-awareness in the first trailer for Ouija is, to put it mildly, baffling. I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't a bunch of teenagers approaching a Ouija board with a completely straight face. Feeling spooked eventually, sure — the wind could be spirits! — but not even acknowledging the inherent silliness in Ouija boards that many who've been to sleepovers have long embraced? Come on.

Considering the complete lack of (intentional) humor, the most interesting part of this movie is perhaps the weaving together of bit players from various teen shows. Teen Wolf's Malia Tate is there, for example, as the first girl to be eaten (or something) by the Ouija. Her forlorn friends who then try to contact her spirit include The Secret Life Of the American Teenager's Daren Kagasoff and The Fosters' Bianca A. Santos. And yes, they are both in grave peril as they're haunted by... ghosts? The board itself? Some demon who controls that specific board? It's hard to tell.

It's entirely possible this movie's trying to be the slightly more mainstream Sharknado, but you can't really tell by the trailer. It just looks like one of those kinda boring horror flicks you'll end up watching with your friends at 1 a.m. after 45 minutes of bickering over what's good on Netflix.

It does, however, contain at least one classic horror movie moment. For instance, "Is something bad gonna happen with that floss???"

Spoiler: Yes. You can witness that below:

Image: Universal