20150521: Horror Review--The Ouija Experiment

The Ouija Experiment

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: The Ouija Experiment
2. IMDb: Users rated this 3.6/10 (831 votes)
3. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 187,564 viewer ratings.
4. Rotten Tomatoes:
   critics rating not found number of reviews too low
   17% of users liked it from 132 recorded ratings
   Critics Consensus: not enough responses.


5. Status: Released
6. Release date: 2011-05-05
7. Production Companies: La Luna Entertainment, Out of Body Films
8. Tagline: Cross Her Heart and Hope to Die


9. Budget:  1,200 USD (estimate; source, IMDb)
10. Revenue: Revenue figures not available at review time.
11. Runtime: 88 minutes.
12. Genres: Horror


13. Written and directed by: Israel Luna.


14. Starring: Justin Armstrong as Michael, Swisyzinna Moore as La'Nette, Carson Underwood as Brandon, Eric Window as Calvin, David Clark as Joseph Wheeler, Leah Diaz as Gracie Mendoza, Miranda Martinez as Lisa Mendoza, Belmarie Huynh as Shay.


15. TMDb overview: Based on true events, five friends who fall prey to the evil entities of the Ouija board. As they set about filming their experimental session, what starts out as bit of fun, soon escalates into a terrifying series of events as paranoia and personal demons are revealed…. and recorded.


2. Setup and Plot


1. Calvin and Michael are long-time friends. Calvin and Shay are boyfriend/girlfriend.  Michael and Brandon are more recent friends.  Calvin and La'Nette are siblings.  Michael has moved to new digs that still contain many of the old tenants belongings, including a ouija board.  Brandon is interested in filming some sessions using the board.


2. Most of the five leads think that talking louder helps communicate with the departed spirits.  There is an early laying down of rules about the use of the board.  The only one that seems to count is, 'say goodbye to the spirit' before ending a session.  Of course, this is violated multiple times.  Reading off a laptop screen to the camera does not add much for me about believability or acceptance of context.


3. There's a subplot about Calvin and Shay breaking up.  This was aided by the spirits, who told Shay of Calvin's cheating.  Calvin blames Michael for the breakup and takes the ouija board at one point.  The camera is Brandon's, but ends up in the hands of various characters.  This makes the plot even more disjointed.


4. At 50 minutes in, I have yet to see anything dangerous or interesting or paranormal. How about that?  That's when the mayhem and Internet 'discoveries' about the past begin.


5. After such a slow start, will there be anything that redeems this effort as a horror film?


3. Conclusions
1. Apparently this one did not make it to the theatres.  I'm not sure how this got to Netflix.


2. Perhaps one should view this as comedy only, of the unintentional kind. Laugh with the foolishness, the lack of awareness, the pointless fits of pique.


3. One line summary:  The worst side of amateur efforts at making horror films.


4. One star of five.  Two black holes for acting and screenplay.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 3/10 Better than many sloppy-cam efforts, but not great.


2. Sound: 3/10 Not well controlled.


3. Acting: 0/10  Terrible.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Terrible.