#sibling also pointed out that letterboxd and imdb are now recommending 'witchboard 2024'

[all-souls-matinee]

Quick-bite reviews: Witchboard 2 (1993) dir. Kevin Tenney

When Paige Benedict finds a Ouija board in her loft closet she takes up with the helpful spirit of a past tenant, but her friends and neighbors doubt its identity and motives.

With the same writer/director and the same stylization choices as the original Witchboard this is largely the same movie, but I was down for that because it means the nose dive in the quality (or, here, heartfelt bizarreness) common to horror sequels isn't an issue. I like that it takes on even more of a mystery angle than the first and that it's clear everyone had a blast making it. Crucially and most importantly to me they doubled down on 'SoCal witch shop' as a key location, and it's the best scene in the movie if not the occult genre as a whole. Of course a ghost would lie about being murdered to sound interesting on a first date!

Unfortunately, where the ensemble cast of the '86 movie was charmingly odd these guys are all insufferable. I liked Paige, but Movie makes it difficult at every turn by insisting she's whiny and insecure so needs tough love from her cop ex-boyfriend who looks 20 years older than anyone else. Who else is going to stop the ouija board from giving her confidence by making her say 'fuck' and dress slutty?* Oh, well there's always alternate 'nerd' love interest who looks like a failed magician and won't stop calling her a stupid bitch!!! It's a shame because I really like the women in the first movie and there are glimpses of that here (shoutout to the dropped subplot of Paige having weird chemistry with her office nemesis), but they more often feel the butt of the joke than in on it.

*her funeral outfit was delightful; don't let anyone tell you otherwise Paige

Buy a ticket? So long as you've seen the original you can skip it, although I will say my sibling and I were like 'wouldn't it be funny if the sequel had the exact same ending stinger as the first movie just beat-for-beat?' and it DID.