Ouija Review

Title: Ouija (International title: Seance)

Release Date: 2007

Genre: Horror

Director: Topel Lee

Cast: Judy Ann Santos, Jolina Magdangal, Iza Calzado

Synopsis: IMDb

Trying to capitalize on the success of Japanese horror movies, Ouija blatantly rips off scenes from The Ring and The Grudge (i.e. fingers coming out of a woman's hair, jerky movement by the ghost). It was so distracting that I ended up just comparing the films the whole time. This really only applies to people who've seen the aforementioned movies. If not, the movie provides some decent scares. Although, there was this one scene that had me scratching my head. The ghost walks toward a frightened Judy Ann and gets on the floor to do some...yoga. Was that supposed to be scary? The one scene that actually made me jump out of my seat involved the maid, played by Pearla Bautista. It scared the crap out of me!

I thought the main actors did a good job of portraying their roles as sisters. It wasn't the best, but their family issues were presented convincingly and some character development was evident.

It wasn't very original (the copied scenes sure don't help), but Ouija had a decent story and some good acting. Even though it's not in the same league as Sigaw, it's worth at least a rental.