Surprisingly incoherent and boring

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Beautiful, moving film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I didn't find this movie particularly scary. And it wasn't because it was from 1986. It simply was because there were no scary moments in the entire movie, and no surprises to the storyline either.For a movie from the mid-Eighties then "Witchboard" was fairly mediocre and there were some more memorably and scary horror movies available from the Eighties.I will say that the acting in "Witchboard" was good, and director Kevin Tenney did a fair job in directing the movie. There was a good build up moments in the movie, but unfortunately they just didn't end in anything thrilling, overly impressive or climatic.The lack of scary moments in "Witchboard" is what ultimately caused it to land on a mediocre shelf. It is adequate for what it turned out to be, just don't expect anything groundbreaking or particularly scary.

Writer / director Kevin S. Tenny ensured cult genre status for himself in the 1980s with this film and "Night of the Demons". This particular film wouldn't suit all horror fans, as it's slowly paced, not really ever that scary, and is more plot-heavy than one might expect. In fact, it's better written than one might expect, features decent performances, and it never becomes a blatant cheese fest, indulging in a little bit of gore but never featuring much in the way of special effects. Some of the camera-work is genuinely effective, and the characters are entertaining and basically likable.Still, it can get annoying and repetitive. People are forever scaring each other in this thing. One may grow weary of these jump scares. It's all played with a dash of humour that never becomes too prevalent.Todd Allen and 1980s hottie Tawny Kitaen star as Jim and Linda, a young couple who mess with the supernatural when her ex-boyfriend Brandon (soap opera veteran Stephen Nichols) brings a Ouija board to a party and contacts the spirit of a dead 10 year old boy. Linda is intrigued and it doesn't take long for her to become obsessed with using the board. Then the spirit starts acting up and killing the occasional person, and Jim and Brandon end up working together to solve this mystery.Adding to the fun factor is Kathleen Wilhoites' performance as eccentric medium Zarabeth; she's appealing in a calculatedly but enjoyably kooky way. Burke Byrnes is good as the amiable detective working the case. Rose Marie makes a special appearance as a landlady. And J.P. Luebsen is memorable even with very limited screen time; he's quite creepy.Overall Tenney's debut is worth catching for the aficionado of horror from this decade.Followed by two sequels in which the only common element is a Ouija board.TTFN.Seven out of 10.

This movie is great I use the vote that is supposed to be used for correct rating towards movies. I bugs the heck out of me when I go through the reviews, people do not vote right and the movies don't get the credit for what it is, so there is a lower rating on the movie. Come on people that review and just put I give it ** 1/2 out of **** is not correct rating. That does nothing to the rating of the movie. Not using the vote feature of this site just leaves it where it is like you never been on this site at all. Well, back to the movie. I seen this so long ago, and when I was a lot younger. I enjoyed it and got freaked out when watching it. It is one of the best 80's horror flicks. It is a classic. I saw the second one too, but not the third.The second one I thought was just as scary as this one. I recommend if anyone that has not seen this to rent it or maybe it is on DVD now to rent it or buy it. Now, for a hint to IMDb. Please make that vote option a mandatory to vote for the movie, because good movies are getting low ratings because of lack of members not using the vote feature.

The suspense never stopped in this film. I sat the whole time on the edge of my seat wondering just what was going to happen next.Two guys, Jim (Todd Allen) and Brandon (Stephen Nichols) were lifelong friends. Did they have a falling out over Linda (Tawny Kitaen)? They seem to hate each other now, and you always had it in the back of your mind that this had something to do with what was going on.Was there really some evil spirit trying to get out, or was it simply evil in the form of jealousy and hate. The fact that a police detective (Burke Byrnes) was always hanging around added to the suspense.There isn't a lot of gore in the film; it was just eerie suspense that rose to a climax that was really great.As an added bonus we got to see a whole lot of Ms. Kitaen as she was attacked in the shower. Yum.