Ouija

The biggest fright in Ouija is when you realize this is a mediocre movie that isn’t getting any better.

High School Seniors Laine (Olivia Cooke) and Debbie (Shelley Hennig) have been lifelong pals with a fascination for communicating with the other side, but they are about to discover the dangers.

Since finding an old Ouija board and dabbling with reaching out to the dead, Debbie has been noticing some strange occurrences around her creaky, poorly lit home, and, for reasons no one can fathom, commits suicide one night.

Laine and Debbie’s other pals, Sarah (Ana Coto), Trevor (Darren Kagasoff), Izzy (Bianca Santos) and Pete (Douglas Smith), are heartbroken and can’t come to grips with why Debbie would have taken her own life, but they find the Ouija board and decide they should try to contact their deceased friend.

Of course, strange stuff starts to occur to them as well, and they have to find a way to stop this evil force before each of them dies.

Ouija follows the standard, modern horror movie formula, and ends up being average for doing so.

Writer/director Stiles White and co-writer Juliet Snowden are going through the motions without any apparent desire to be better, and, probably, without the budget to reach for greatness.

We have the group of interchangeable, unknown pretty actors (who work cheap) filling the starring roles, hoping this will be their big break and behaving themselves on set because each one knows he or she could be replaced by any millennial kid walking the streets of Los Angeles (if that kid is willing to take off his Beats by Dre long enough to hear the offer).

We watch the characters make plenty of horrible decisions and put themselves in ridiculous situations, which makes the movie quite cheesy, but you and I have seen worse.

And, every few minutes, the audience is subject to some frightening shocks to keep you unbalanced and remind you this is supposed to be a horror movie, but nothing is truly shocking enough to be memorable.

White and Snowden’s story never gets too complicated and dutifully delivers some reasons why this house is haunted, but it feels routine.

Mostly, Ouija feels cheap. The special effects are nothing spectacular, and White has to use suspense as a replacement for anything visually stunning. You are likely to see some 5-year olds trick-or-treating on Halloween who are scarier than the ghosts and spirits on display in Ouija.

Ouija is nothing special.

Ouija is rated PG-13 for disturbing violent content, frightening horror images, and thematic material.