Before Kevin Tenney brought us Night of the Demons he gave us Witchboard, the first film of the semi-famed second-tier horror franchise. This isn’t the first Ouija board-centered horror out there but undoubtedly, Witchboard played its own part in making the Ouija board and the idea of playing around with it when you don’t understand the implications a genre staple.
A big part of what separates this from other similar films is that doesn’t start out immediately like so many of them from the ’80s, hooking us in with kills and blood, giving us a taste of what’s to come later. The feature debut of writer/director Kevin Tenney, Witchboard stars Todd Allen and Tawny Kitaen as Jim and Linda. This young couple has been together for around two years. They live in a Victorian mansion that has been converted into apartments, and their landlady is played by Rose Marie from The Dick Van Dyke Show. One night Jim and Linda have a party, and Linda’s ex Brandon (played by Stephen Nichols) brings his Ouija board over so he can show it off. One he talks to often is the spirit of a ten-year-old boy named David, who died thirty years earlier. Jim insults David, which provokes him to slash the tires of Brandon’s car. They argue outside because Brandon was afraid that David held him responsible because he was in the control of the board at that moment. They split up with Brandon forgetting his board at the house. The next day, Linda uses Brandon’s board that was left behind to contact David, who informs her where her lost engagement ring is. At the construction site where Jim works, his friend Lloyd Salvador (playede by James W. Quinn) is killed by fallen drywall. It fell on its own just like that.
After the funeral Linda continues using the board. That’s a huge mistake, because a person is more susceptible to being manipulated by spirits when using the board alone. They’ll act nice and helpful, get the person addicted to communicating with them. Then they’ll start terrorizing the person, breaking down their resistance. Finally, they’ll possess them. This is called progressive entrapment, and Linda has fallen into it. Jim chalks her change in demeanor up her pregnancy, but Brandon knows there is something else going on. So he brings some punkass girl Zarabeth (played by Kathleen Wilhoite). She is psychic medium (no surprise there). Zarabeth channels David, who claims to be a ten-year-old boy. She and Brendan begin to suspect that David wasn’t honest about who he was. A suspicious Zarabeth returns home to research the occurrence but something is waiting for her there. Her throat is slashed before she is thrown through a window and lands on a sundial, impaling her to death. What an overkill! I bet she didn’t see that coming!
The next morning, Jim witnesses Linda violently thrown against the wall, rendering her unconscious. After she is brought to a hospital, doctors confirm Linda is not pregnant as they had suspected. Phantom pregnancy? Or was it unholy spirit in this case? She has a dream in which some old man cuts of her head with an axe. Don’t worry though, it’s plastic. The head, not an axe.
Jim teams with Brandon to conduct research on David. The two find a newspaper article about a ten-year-old boy named David Simpson who drowned in a nearby lake. They travel to the lake and use another board in an attempt to communicate with David. Yeah it seems they had a spare one. Anyway, they but soon learn that a different spirit, Carlos Malfeitor (played by J.P. Luebsen), has been terrorizing Linda all along. Now who the fuck is that? Seated on a dock, Jim is knocked unconscious when a stack of fishing barrels topples over him, and Brandon is killed by Malfeitor with a hatchet. BAM right between the eyes! He ain’t so good looking no more.
That night, he researches Malfeitor’s biography, and learns that he was an axe murderer shot by police in his home in 1930—the same residence he and Linda live in. What a surprising twist! Meanwhile, Linda gets attacked by Malfeitor in her own home. The next day, Jim finds their home in disarray, before a possessed Linda attacks him. Lieutenant Dewhurst (played by Burke Byrnes) enters and accuses Jim of the murders, but Linda strikes him with a fire poker (she had a better hand). Jim takes the opportunity to brandish his revolver at her but Linda tells him that he is the “portal”, taunting him in an attempt to drive him to suicide. Jim shoots the board before he is pushed through a window and lands on a car. Of course he survives and theyresume their lives, marry each other and live happily ever after. Happy end. Or is it actually? Because their landlady, Mrs. Moses, finds the board while cleaning out the home with her granddaughter, and wonders if it still works. The board is thrown into a box, where its planchette moves to the word “yes” by itself. Another climax!
Conclusion: Mildly entertaining and not particularly frightening, Witchboard is horror junk food. Jim and Brandon’s relationship possesses curious subtext with many people seeing it as blatantly homoerotic. After all, they were best friends before Linda. Now they create some kind of twisted love triangle. Tawny Kitaen is a delight as both the damsel and the demon. Well, delight in comical means. One thing they definitely need to keep (and again, maybe expand) is the magic-obsessed cop. Even though I’ve seen the movie for some reason I didn’t recall a single thing about this character, which is even stranger when you consider what an oddball highlight he is (probably because he is only in like three scenes). And he gets one of those 80s deaths, where he shows up for the big battle only to be killed instantly. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more from Malfeitor, the actual villain who only appears in a pair of dream sequence shots and in a photo. But again, if there weren’t so many flaws, this little jewel wouldn’t find it’s place on this blog. So lets just leave it as it is.
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