By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
Starring Madison Iseman, Aaron Dominguez and Jamie Campbell Bower
Directed by Chuck Russell
Written by Chuck Russell and Greg McKay
A-Nation Media
Prior to this year, it felt like there was a risk of culturally forgetting the Witchboard trilogy. The three films released in 1986, 1993 and 1995 were staples of slumber parties and video rental stores, but not particularly present in the current horror zeitgeist. Enter WITCHBOARD (2024), with a specific reason to get a little excited.
Writer/director Chuck Russell has not made a horror film since The Blob in 1988. He has been steadily working on other sorts of movies like The Mask and The Scorpion King in the ensuing years, but given that he started his directing career with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, genre fans have been hopefully awaiting his return to our sandbox. With WITCHBOARD, which world-premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival, he takes a big step back into the world of things that go bump in the night.
Essentially a remake in name only, WITCHBOARD dives into all things historic and witchy right from the jump. We first see classically decked-out witch Naga Soth (Antonia Desplat) in days of yore as she is hunted by Bishop Grogan (David La Haye), and found using her “pendulum board.” Unlike those seen in previous installments of the series, this board is a bespoke design and not the Ouija type currently produced by Hasbro. It is carved wood, circular, with symbols decorating the outer ring and a bold eye dead in the center. This item has weight, both physically and metaphysically.
In the present day, the board is the target of a museum heist. While the robbery itself is successful, the fallout is significant and the board does not immediately make it to its benefactor. But Emily (Madison Iseman), fiancée of imminent restaurateur Christian (Aaron Dominguez), finds it by chance and can’t get enough of it.
What little we know of Emily is that she and Christian live in New Orleans, they are engaged and she has a history of substance abuse. This is conveyed via exposition, rather than dropping hints or reflecting her experiences within her character. Emily even has an ex-drug dealer who is straight out of a D.A.R.E. training video. But she seems in love with Christian and becomes increasingly obsessed with the witchboard, and is interesting enough to take this journey with.
As the board seemingly awakens and becomes more powerful, the situation for the lovely couple and all their friends gets bad quite fast. A tense and inevitable horror sequence occurs in the soon-to-be-opened restaurant while Christian and friends are honing their recipes ahead of the big launch. The scene is shot much like a setpiece from a Final Destination film, with comparable camp and gore. It is truly a treat for fans of that sort of impending doom on screen. WITCHBOARD also earns significant praise for its action apex, with the mayhem occurring during the restaurant opening. It might be easy to dismiss such cuisine luxury as a homage to The Bear, but the unfurling mayhem is serious fun.
Here is the true strength of WITCHBOARD: It is not a perfect film. Its characters and plot are thin, and at times it is unclear if we are supposed to root for or against the board and the witches. But it also feels like a throwback to the sort of mid-budget horror films made in the ’80s and ’90s that have all but disappeared from the slate of film releases in this century. It prioritizes madness and commotion over artistry or coherence, and comes away successful in that quest. It is hard to ding a film that refuses to take itself too seriously when it does just that.
WITCHBOARD might not be a major splash back into the horror genre for Russell, but it certainly is a welcome revival of that extinct breed of slumber-party movie.
