‘Witchboard’ Movie Review: In-Name-Only Reincarnation Should Have Been Better Or Even Sillier
Photo from The Avenue
From Jeremy Kibler
If horror movies have taught us anything, it is that, for all that is holy, stop playing with Ouija boards or anything resembling the creepy occult! Luckily, movie characters can make these mistakes for us. Or else, we wouldn’t have Witchboard, an in-name-only reincarnation of Kevin Tunney’s 1986 possession horror movie (a precursor to Tunney’s more imaginative and ghoulishly fun 1988 possession-slasher Night of the Demons). The original Witchboard is very special, not because it was artistically great or particularly frightening but because it was sometimes stylish and reveled in its ‘80s sexiness and cheesiness as the perfect slumber-party movie.
This new Witchboard may not earn that same claim, but it’s at least a return to genre for director Chuck Russell (at his best, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, and The Mask). As witchy nonsense goes, it’s deeply silly and sometimes enjoyably schlocky, much like Russell’s own Bless the Child (not his best).
Recovering addict Emily (Madison Iseman) and hot chef fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez) are opening a new restaurant of Creole cooking in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Joining them is Christian’s staff of friends who started the business in a food truck, most significantly Richie (Charlie Tahan). When Emily comes across an ancient, spirit-contacting pendulum board in the forest foraging for mushrooms, she naturally wants it for the restaurant decor. At a private party before the opening, Christian’s ex-girlfriend Brooke (Melanie Jarnson) arrives, and she just so happens to be an expert in antiquities. Emily uses the board to find her missing engagement ring, but soon obsession takes over as the board unlocks the power of a long-dead witch named Naga Soth (Antonia Desplat, Alexandre’s daughter) from 17th-century France. Emily’s poor soul is then on the line.
Ditching the ‘80s movie’s Ouija board for a pendulum board, Witchboard realizes that “Pendulum Board” just wouldn’t have been as catchy of a title. The script by Russell and Greg McKay follows the same general structure: a taken young woman gets her hands on the titular witchboard, which craves blood and then possesses her. This time, in an intriguing idea that never really turns into anything, Emily’s obsession with the board gets mistaken for her relapsing. Amusingly, once she actually gets possessed, Christian becomes terribly lunkheaded to not realize she’s completely changed. While movie character behavior like that can be given a pass, combining a little time-traveling body-swapping 100 years apart and an overcomplicated history involving our main character and her bloodline muddles things too much. Expository flashbacks try to make the main antagonist, Naga Soth, a healing herbalist who was condemned as a witch by the church, but it just slows down the pacing and narrative momentum.
The characters are functional, earning enough sympathy before the shit hits the board. As Emily and Christian, Madison Iseman and Aaron Dominguez adequately fill their roles with earnestness. The performances are uniformly competent, while Jamie Campbell Bower gets to camp it up and have the most amusing time as Wiccan aristocrat Alexandre Baptiste. Sisters Renee and Elisha Herbert and Chaira Fossati entice but are given little else to contribute as sexy, white-haired triplets who sometimes do Baptiste’s bidding. Let’s face it, nobody here is as much of an offbeat hoot as Kathleen Wilhoite’s jokey psychic Zarabeth from the original.
In spite of some hokey effects, Witchboard at least looks slick and adds a fresh flavor with its locale change from California to Louisiana. A tense, bloody sequence out of a Final Destination movie escalates a simple kitchen mishap with oil and a meat slicer, and then later a drug dealer gets an over-the-top death that’s almost played more for laughs. There’s also one effective jump scare with Emily in bed. Russell does fall back on an old “it’s only a stray cat!” jump scare (twice!), but in a film about superstition, cats wanting attention makes a little more sense.
When Witchboard lets go of its inhibitions, it simply entertains. An untamed set-piece involving psychedelic mushrooms at the restaurant opening is easily the film’s highlight, while a showdown at the Baptiste mansion is a total letdown. For better or for worse, Witchboard itself feels like a lost artifact from the late-’90s or early aughts (think Wishmaster), but it wasn’t dying to be found.
Rating: 2.5/5
Witchboard hits theaters on August, 15, 2025.
