Latest news with #Witchboard
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Witchboard' Summons a Fun but Uneven Remake of a Cult Classic
Released in 1986, the original Witchboard's cultural impact lingers mostly because it stars Tawny Kitaen—known more for being a music-video vixen than an actor. But the stunt casting works: her character's Ouija board curiosity turns tragic when an evil spirit takes a shine to her, possibly lured in by her perfectly teased hair. The movie delivers more cheese than frights, but you can easily see why it became a cult classic. Less clear is why Witchboard needed a remake, especially one that only very lightly lifts material from the original, but you can't overlook that catchy title. This new version, which comes from genre favorite Chuck Russell (director of fan-favorite Freddy sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, as well as The Mask and The Scorpion King), crams many more layers into its story, something that ultimately works against it. But it also unleashes some very fun, surprisingly macabre flourishes that help offset its shortcomings. Any time a horror movie begins with a wild historical flashback, you can be certain it will impact whatever's about to happen in the present day. Especially if the movie is called Witchboard, and the flashback involves a witch vs. hunter face-off and features a highly distinctive spirit board capable of summoning dark magic. Also, if one of the characters in the main story makes an offhand remark about being an orphan, not knowing anything about her real family, etc., you can start immediate speculation as to which 17th-century character is related to her. Most of Witchboard takes place in New Orleans, a city that lends itself to eerie mischief as well as restaurant culture. That intersection is where we find Emily (Annabelle Comes Home's Madison Iseman) cheering on her fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez) as he and his friends prepare to open a new cafe. Emily's finally feeling optimistic about the future following a stint in rehab, and she's so confident in her relationship she only recoils a tiny bit when Christian's glamorous ex, Brooke (Melanie Jarnson), shows up to the launch party. And in fact, Brooke—who's conveniently an expert on 'shamanistic traditions'—proves immediately useful once Emily shows her the (highly distinctive) spirit board she found while gathering mushrooms for the restaurant. We know, of course, that the board was recently stolen from a local museum at the behest of the sinister Dr. Alexander Babtiste (Stranger Things' Jamie Campbell Bower). But the women don't, and on the off chance that any horror fan who's settled in to watch Witchboard doesn't know how a spirit board works, Brooke's there with a quick overview. With context and exposition out of the way, Witchboard can dive into the goopy stuff that ends up justifying its existence. Once Emily starts experimenting with the board, bad things happen, starting with a fantastically grim kitchen scene that evokes the same tension the Final Destination movies tap into when setting up their elaborate deadly set pieces. A later restaurant sequence is such an over-the-top screamer you wish Witchboard had fully leaned into that outrageous tone. It certainly seems willing; some of its best moments come courtesy of a charismatic stray cat that starts following Emily around. And Bower's performance is so campy it gets in the way of him being a villain. This is a guy who lives in an antiques-filled mansion where he's attended to by triplet witches styled like Daenerys Targaryen and throws Eyes Wide Shut-style solstice parties. He's pals with Brooke, so he worms his way into 'helping' an increasingly freaked-out Emily and Christian with his witchy expertise and an ulterior motive that's made clear at the film's climax. Only, his plan doesn't make a lot of sense. We won't spoil the finer points here—not that we could explain them if we wanted to—but it ties back to that 17th-century clash and, much like the original Witchboard, threatens the soul of its supernaturally curious leading lady. Witchboard also presents a confusing approach to Wicca, drawing a careful line between 'I use healing herbs' and 'I worship Satan' and then proceeding to completely muddy it. But maybe that's overthinking it. This is Witchboard, after all. Though the remake won't be knocking the original out of its place in the cult-movie pantheon, at least it keeps things gruesomely entertaining along the way. Witchboard hits theaters August 15. If you need a little more hairspray with your spooks, the 1986 Witchboard is also streaming on Amazon Prime. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Geek Tyrant
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Red-Band Trailer For The Supernatural Horror Film WITCHBOARD — GeekTyrant
A new trailer has been released for the reimagining of the 1986 cult horror film Witchboard , which cames from Chuck Russell, the director behind The Blob and A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors . This looks like a gnarly horror film that will be filled with some wild and gory visuals. Set in New Orleans, 'Emily and her fiancé Christian are opening their new dream café. But their dreams are dashed when Emily finds an ancient, cursed Witchboard, an ancient artifact that once served as a gateway to the spirit world. 'As Emily becomes increasingly captivated by the board's ability to summon spirits, Christian seeks the expertise of Alexander Babtiste , an enigmatic occult scholar. As Emily's grip on reality weakens, Babtiste's true intentions come to light—to use the Witchboard's dark spirit power for his own twisted purposes. 'Culminating in a decadent masked ball at Babtiste's mansion, the line between temptation and terror blurs as Emily and Christian find themselves trapped in a deadly web of witchcraft and dark desires. Emily and Christian must race against time to break the board's curse before they succumb to its deadly power!' Madison Iseman ( I Know What You Did Last Summer ) leads the cast as Emily, alongside Aaron Dominguez ( Only Murders in the Building ), Antonia Desplat ( Shantaram ), and Charlie Tahan ( Ozark ). Also along for the ride is Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower. Speaking with Bloody Disgusting, Russell said: 'I wanted to get back to the horror genre. I've been keeping an eye out for that over the course of my career, and I wanted to do something even scarier and more imaginative. I wanted to top my other two horror films,' he said. He added: 'I put everything I hadn't tried into this film. I hope that fans of my work will recognize my touch. But we have dreams; we have deadly hallucinations. We have body swaps; we have literal time travel. It's fun in that regard, but number one is to scare the hell out of people, and I think we've done that, too.' The film is set to hit theaters August 15, 2025.
