Witchboard (1986)
What's It About?
After using a Ouija board at a party, a woman begins behaving erratically as her relationship with the ghost of a dead child grows sinister.
Is It Any Good?
Night of the Demons is a vastly overrated "gem" of the 1980s. Critical re-evaluation has been far too kind to that movie but despite its many many many failings, it is still a movie that has a charming set-up and some decent special effects. Kevin S. Tenney, the director of Night of the Demons, also directed Witchboard (not to be confused with Witchery, Witchtrap, Witchcraft, or the poorly titled Witchouse)
Witchboard has all the problems of Night of the Demons. The bad acting, the plodding story, and the terrible dialogue without any of the cool creature effects, body horror, or creep factor of Tenney's previous film. I'm really not trying to slam Kevin Tenney's film-making because his movies are all different shades of watchable, which says a lot for a c-list horror film director he's just better at the broad stuff and there's just not a lot of broad material to be mined from a story about a murderous ghost.
I will say that the proper pronunciation of "Quija" (Wee-Juh) sounds more ridiculous the more you say it and Witchboard says it a lot. There's also a medium who shows up as is the tradition with these movies because what's a Poltergeist knock-off without a Zelda Rubinstein. The medium here is named Zarabeth and seems to be a combination of Lori Petty circa Tank Girl, Cyndi Lauper circa We Are the World, and a trendy craft show grandma.
Witchboard has a mildly interesting concept but it's poorly executed and not worth watching.
Watch, Toss, or Buy?
Toss it.