Ouija

Ouija Information

Ouija is a 2014 American supernatural horror film directed by Stiles White in his directorial debut, produced by Jason Blum, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller and Bennett Schneir and written by Juliet Snowden and White, who previously together wrote The Possession. It stars Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Douglas Smith, and Bianca A. Santos as teenagers who have unleashed spirits from a Ouija board.

The film was released on October 24, 2014 by Universal Studios. The film was a commercial success, receiving $103.6 million worldwide over a $5 million budget, but was overwhelmingly panned by critics. A prequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil, was released on October 21, 2016. and received far stronger reviews from critics .

Plot

Debbie Galardi recalls playing Ouija with her best friend Laine Morris as children. In the present day, Debbie throws her Ouija board into the fire and watches it burn. Laine arrives outside Debbie's house. Debbie breaks their plans for the evening, saying that she would rather stay home alone while intimating that something strange happened with the Ouija board. Laine leaves. When Debbie returns to her bedroom, the Ouija board reappears completely intact. Debbie becomes possessed and hangs herself with a string of white Christmas lights. The next day, Laine attends Debbie's wake with her boyfriend Trevor, her younger sister Sarah, her friend Isabelle, and Debbie's boyfriend Pete. Laine agrees to watch the Galardi house while Debbie's parents take some time away. Laine, Sarah, Trevor, Pete, and Isabelle meet at Debbie's house and use Deb's Ouija board to try communicating with her. The lights go out and the group investigates strange noises. An invisible presence smashes Pete's head into a mirror. Laine brings the Ouija board home where her housekeeper Nona warns her not to use it. Trevor finds the phrase "hi friend" (a message communicated during the Ouija board session) written in chalk on a tunnel wall while bicycling. Isabelle sees the message in her car window. Pete finds it carved into his desk and it also appears on Laine's computer screen. Thinking that Deb is trying to communicate with them, the group has another Ouija board session. The five friends discover that they are actually in contact with a spirit who identifies itself as "DZ". Laine uses the planchette to look for ghosts and sees the image of a little girl with her mouth sewn shut sitting at the table. The girl warns them to run because her mother is coming. The board flies into the air as Laine sees an old woman approaching, prompting everyone to flee outside. Laine watches videos recorded by Deb on her computer. She learns that Deb found the Ouija board in her attic and played alone. Elsewhere, Isabelle is possessed and killed in her bathroom. Laine and Pete search Deb's attic and find a box of old photographs that belonged to the previous residents. While researching the previous family's history, they learn of a little girl named Doris Zander who went missing, and whose mother was suspected in her disappearance. Laine visits Doris's sister Paulina, who is now committed to a psychiatric hospital. Paulina explains that her mother was a medium, and she used Doris as a vessel for the dead to speak through. Their mother went mad and sewed Doris's mouth shut before killing her. Paulina tells Laine that there is a secret room in the house where she must find Doris's hidden body and unstitch her mouth in order for the girl to banish their mother. The remaining friends go to the cellar of the Galardi house. Trevor and Sarah are each pulled away by an invisible force. Pete becomes locked in another room. Laine finds Doris's corpse and cuts the stitches on her mouth. Doris's spirit appears and chases away the ghost of her mother. Pete becomes possessed while alone in his house and is killed. Laine revisits Paulina and realizes that the old woman intentionally lied. Doris was the evil entity all along and her mother was trying to stop the friends from summoning her. Nona advises the Morris sisters that they must destroy Doris's body and the Ouija board at the same time. Trevor goes to meet the girls at the house, but Doris's ghost drowns him in the pool. Laine and Sarah return to the cellar of the Galardi house. Doris captures Sarah and prepares to sew her mouth shut. Laine plays the Ouija board alone in order to draw the spirit's attention. Doris starts possessing Laine, but Deb's ghost then appears to help overpower Doris. Sarah uses the opportunity to throw Doris's body into the furnace. Laine then does the same with the Ouija board. The paranormal activity stops. Later, Laine finds that the planchette has mysteriously appeared back at her home. She picks it up and looks through the oracle.

Cast

Olivia Cooke as Laine Morris
- Afra Sophia Tully as young Laine
Ana Coto as Sarah Morris
- Izzie Galanti as young Sarah
Daren Kagasoff as Trevor
Bianca Santos as Isabelle
Douglas Smith as Pete
Shelley Hennig as Debbie Galardi
- Claire Beale as young Debbie
Sierra Heuermann as Doris Zander
- Sunny May Allison as young Doris
Lin Shaye as Paulina Zander
Claudia Katz Minnick as Mother
Vivis Colombetti as Nona
Robyn Lively as Mrs. Galardi
Matthew Settle as Anthony Morris

Production

Pre-production

The film was announced in May 2008 with Universal attached At one point in 2011 Universal dropped out due to budgetary concerns. Following this it was subsequently announced that the film would be produced at a lower budget and Universal subsequently rejoined the project.

Casting was announced in November and December 2013.

Filming

Principal photography began at mid-December 2013 and wrapped at the end of January 2014 in and around Highland Park, Los Angeles.

Although shooting officially wrapped in January 2014, poor test screenings resulted in re-shoots occurring in June, which, according to Olivia Cooke, resulted in half the film being re-shot. With the reshoots, Lin Shaye was added to the film to play a newly written character, Erin Moriarty's character was removed from the film entirely, and new plot points were added or changed entirely. The most notable of changes included the character of Doris Zander's physical appearance changing from that of a burnt looking girl to a rotting, decomposing girl with stitches in her mouth. The setting for a mental asylum in the film coincidentally happened to be the same setting used on the MTV television series Teen Wolf, which also stars Ouija Shelley Hennig.

Release

Universal released Ouija in the United States on October 24, 2014. A tie-in novelization for the film by Katharine Turner was released on September 16, 2014.

Box office

North America

In North America, the film was released to 2,858 theatres and earned $19,875,995 on its opening weekend (including its $911,000 gross on Thursday preview nights and $8.3 million on its opening day). at an average of $7,000 per theatre, debuting at number one at the box office ahead of newly released John Wick ($14.2 million). The film played 75% under-25 years old and 61% female on its opening weekend.

Other territories

Ouija was released in five international markets and earned $1.3 million from 234 screens. The film went to number two in Malaysia ($545,000), number four in Taiwan ($331,000), number two in Singapore ($238,000) and also number four in Poland ($137,000). In its second weekend the film earned $5.7 million from 1,166 screens in 19 territories for a two weekend international total of $7.7 million. It went to number one in the UK, Indonesia and the Philippines. In the UK, the film earned $2.2 million on its opening weekend, which is the second biggest opening weekend for a horror film in 2014 only behind Annabelle ($3.1 million). Ouija made a domestic total of $50,856,010 and $52,618,000 overseas, for a worldwide total of $103,474,010

Critical response

Ouija was panned by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 7%, based on reviews from 76 critics, with an average score of 3.3/10. The site's consensus states: "Slowly, steadily, although no one seems to be moving it in that direction, the Ouija planchette points to NO." Metacritic, another review aggregator, gave the film a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a C grade.

Home Media

Ouija was released in the US on DVD and Blu-ray on February 3, 2015.

Novelization

The film was novelized by Katharine Turner. The novel was released on September 16, 2014.

The plot of the novel differs from the movie in many notable ways, containing an additional flashback sequence at the beginning of the book which occurs two months before Debbie dies, giving a more in-depth backstory to the main characters. Laine's father has a larger role in the novel, snapping at Sarah after she tries to sneak out of the house. There is an additional scene in the novel after the group uses the Ouija board for a second time where Sarah and Laine have a heartfelt conversation at the dinner table. There are longer sequences with Laine's grandmother Nona as well.

The message "Hi friend" from Doris in the novel appears as "Hi frend". When Isabelle approaches her car after work, instead of finding "Hi friend" written in the condensation on the inside of her car, she finds a hand print.

The characters of Pete and Isabelle also die in different ways in the novel. Pete, after seeing Doris' spirit in his room and becoming possessed, slits his wrists with an X-ACTO knife. Isabelle, after being possessed by Doris, sits in her bathtub with a plugged-in hair dryer, electrocuting herself.

The finale of the novel differs greatly from the film. Sarah is not trapped in the altar room with Doris's spirit as in the film, but rather Laine crawls down the passageway into the altar to get Doris's body. While Laine is in the passageway, Sarah is left by the furnace with the Ouija board where Doris manipulates Sarah's arm and has it twist in unnatural positions while touching the planchette. Doris uses Sarah's arm to spell out "D-I-E-F-R-E-N-D" on the board. After throwing Doris' body into the furnace with the Ouija board, Doris appears in spirit form as a normal girl, where her mother joins her. The two hold hands and disappear. Laine suddenly notices Debbie's spirit in the room. She says "Hi friend" to Laine. Laine asks if she is dead, but Debbie tells her everything is okay. Debbie says goodbye to Laine, and Laine falls unconscious.

The epilogue to the novel mirrors the film, with Laine finding the planchette in her room.

Prequel

Template:Main article Throughout January 2015, reports of a sequel were announced. In February 2015, it was confirmed the film was in development and had no release date; Jason Blum stated "We're a ways away ..." In April 2015, it was announced that the sequel would be released on October 21, 2016. Mike Flanagan will direct and co-write the sequel with his Oculus co-writer Jeff Howard. The film will be produced by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, Andrew Form, Jason Blum, Brian Goldner, and Stephen Davis. Annalise Basso and Kaylee Procter will star in the sequel. Instead, Ouija: Origin of Evil will serve as a prequel to the first film. Unlike this film, Ouija: Origin of Evil has received positive reviews from critics, earning 82% on Rotten Tomatoes.