Witchboard (1986)

Friends playing with an Ouija board at a late-night party unleash a demonic spirit who begins hunting them.

Director:

Kevin Tenney (as Kevin S. Tenney)

Writer:

Kevin Tenney (as Kevin S. Tenney)

Stars:

Todd Allen, Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols

Cast

Cast overview:
Todd Allen	...	Jim Morar
Tawny Kitaen	...	Linda Brewster
Stephen Nichols	...	Brandon Sinclair
Kathleen Wilhoite	...	Zarabeth
Burke Byrnes	...	Lt. Dewhurst
James W. Quinn	...	Lloyd
Rose Marie	...	Mrs. Moses
Judy Tatum	...	Dr. Gelineau
Gloria Hayes	...	Wanda
J.P. Luebsen	...	Malfeitor
Susan Nickerson	...	Chris
Ryan Carroll	...	Roger
Kenny Rhodes	...	Mike
Clare Bristol	...	Anchorwoman

Storyline

At a party, a guest brings out a Ouija board, and they attempt to contact a spirit he knows. The spirit does appear, but it becomes apparent to the one who brought the Ouija board that this is an evil spirit that is impersonating his spirit, and despite warnings not to use the board alone, a woman uses it alone, and becomes harassed by the evil spirit, his goal to possess her so he can walk the earth again.

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Plot Keywords:

ouija board | ouija | evil spirit | psychic | medium | 

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Taglines:

This game could be fatal. WITCHBOARD. Don't play it alone.

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 March 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Diabelska plansza

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$95,435, 4 January 1987, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$7,369,373

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paragon Arts International,Blue Rider Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The house in the film was also used in Waxwork (1988) and Willard (1971). This Los Angeles home has since been "retired" as a filming location.

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Goofs

When Linda is possessed and attacking James towards the end, he stabs her to fight her off, and you can see obvious padding under her pants where the knife was stuck.

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Quotes

Zarabeth: TTFN
Jim Morar: TTFN?
Brandon Sinclair: Ta Ta For Now.

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Connections

References Casper: The Friendly Ghost (1945)

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Soundtracks

Excerpts from 'BOHOR I
Composed by Iannis Xenakis
Performed by Iannis Xenakis
Courtesy of Erato Disque

User Reviews

TTFN!! Just a little psychic humor of the 80s

I Love the 80s! You gotta love productions like Witchboard, if you like the 1980s. It is the ultimate 80s horror flick: bad hair (including punk multi-colors and mullets), microfiche, bad dialogue, smoking in a hospital (?!?), waterbeds, cheap thrills and open-shirted male shirts with hair flowing from masculine chests to the screen. It's actually a guilty pleasure of mine and hard to downgrade since I grew up on it.

My sister was the one that loved this movie when I was young and like a lot of late-1980s flicks (i.e. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and Dirty Dancing) she got me hooked on this one. Now, watching it again, honestly the first time since the late 1980s, it's such an extreme flashback. I mean dialogue like "TTFN – ta ta for now" or "I got a bad feeling about this" should sum it up. Oh, and the foggy graveyard helps too.

We have a bizarre love triangle between former best male friends and a female third who is soon-to-be engaged to one of the males at a party and an Ouija Board. They contact (for fun) a dead 10-year-old David…or did they bring about an evil spirit? Either way, ditzy red-headed Linda (Tawny Kitaen) continues to "play" with the board alone when she's not supposed to! Inadvertently, she concurs up this other "evil" spirit and people start dying left/right. Will the two males fighting for her attention solve the problem before she's fully possessed? It's hilarious. Really. If you watched this for the first time, outside of the 1980s, you might laugh your ass off. But, I'm glad this movie was made; this was an extreme homage to that period. It's kinda scary – not really, but if you believe in this hocus-pocus Ouija stuff. It's gory. And it has the most laugh-out-loud outrageous finale, as if they ran out of ideas and had to close it out. This is for die-hard fans, or just someone out for a good laugh.

Side Note: I remember reading a wonderful "Ask Marilyn" (by Marilyn vos Savant) article that stated on how to prove the Ouija is a hoax, and I believe her. You get two people to control the Ouija Board, but blindfolded and have a third party watch them. Since they can't subconsciously control the pointer while in the dark, the results should be hilarious. Honestly, I have yet to try that, but I have met very few that believe in such nonsense. I'd love to prove the insanity this board has produced. At least it produced a fantastically fun 1980s horror movie.