Witchboard Reviews: Best Horror Movie In 1986
Tawny Kitaen, Todd Allen, and Stephen Nichols star in the 1986 American supernatural horror thriller Witchboard, written and directed by Kevin Tenney in his feature film debut The story revolves around a college student who, after inadvertently leaving her friend’s Ouija board behind at a party, becomes enthralled with using it alone and is terrorized by an evil ghost.
Overview
| Witchboard (1986) | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kevin Tenney |
| Written by | Kevin Tenney |
| Produced by | Gerald Geoffray |
| Starring | Todd Allen Tawny Kitaen Stephen Nichols Kathleen Wilhoite Burke Byrnes Rose Marie |
| Cinematography | Roy H. Wagner |
| Edited by | Daniel Duncan Stephen J. Waller |
| Music by | Dennis Michael Tenney |
| Production Company | Paragon Arts International |
| Distributed by | Cinema Group |
| Release date | December 31, 1986 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5–2 million |
| Box office | $7.4 million |
| IMDB Rating | 5.7/10 – 8,363 Votes |
Synopsis
Using his Ouija board and his ex-girlfriend Linda Brewster, Brandon Sinclair connects with the ghost of David, with whom he had previously spoken, during a home party in Fairfield, California. David is insulted by her lover Jim Morar, which prompts him to cut the tires on Brandon’s automobile. The following day, Linda touches David via Brandon’s abandoned board, and he tells her where her misplaced engagement ring is. At the building site where Jim works, drywall falls and kills his friend Lloyd. Linda calls David on the accident after Lieutenant Dewhurst questions Jim at Lloyd’s burial, but he denies being the cause.
Linda feels trapped by a spirit that weakens its victims and tries to take control of them. She starts to feel sick and suspects she may be pregnant. Linda becomes obsessed with communicating with David, a spirit claiming to be ten years old. Brandon brings in a psychic medium named Zarabeth to conduct a séance with David. After the séance, Zarabeth investigates the incident but is mysteriously killed. Brandon suspects David, but Jim remains unconvinced.
While Brandon departs in search of information, Jim sees Linda being forcefully slammed against the wall, unconscious. Doctors at the hospital where Linda is taken confirm that she is not pregnant, despite their first suspicions. Jim, feeling uneasy, hooks up with Brandon to investigate David.
The two come across a newspaper story about David, a 10-year-old boy, who drowned in a local lake. Jim and Brandon go to the lake and try to talk to David using a different board, but they quickly find out that Linda has been terrorized by a different spirit, Carlos Malfeitor, all along. Jim is rendered unconscious while seated on a wharf by a stack of fishing barrels toppling over him, and Malfeitor murders Brandon with a hatchet. Once conscious again, Jim laments Brandon’s corpse. That evening, he looks up Malfeitor’s biography and discovers that, in 1930, he was an axe murderer who was shot by police in the same house that he and Linda currently occupy.
Malfeitor attacks Linda when she leaves the hospital on her own. Jim returns home to find it in disorder the following day and is attacked by a possessed Linda. Jim is hit by Linda with a fire poker when Dewhurst comes and accuses him of the killings. Linda taunts Jim, attempting to drive him to commit suicide, by calling him the “portal” as he brandishes his handgun. Jim, on the other hand, fires at the board before getting shoved through a window and into a car.
Following the incidents, Jim and Linda resume their lives and get married as they are no longer under the spell of the Malfeitor. While cleaning the house with her granddaughter, their landlady, Mrs. Moses, discovers the board and wonders if it still functions. The planchette of the board automatically advances to the word “yes” when it is thrown into a box.
Witchboard Cast
| Cast & Role | |
|---|---|
| Todd Allen | Plays Jim. |
| Tawny Kitaen | Plays Linda. |
| Stephen Nichols | Plays Brandon. |
| Kathleen Wilhoite | Plays Zarabeth. |
| Burke Byrnes | Plays Lt. Dewhurst. |
| James W. Quinn | Plays Lloyd. |
| Rose Marie | Plays Mrs. Moses. |
| Judy Tatum | Plays Dr. Gelineau. |
| Gloria Hayes | Plays Wanda. |
| J.P. Luebsen | Plays Malfeitor. |
| Susan Nickerson | Plays Chris. |
| Ryan Carroll | Plays Roger. |
| Kenny Rhodes | Plays Mike. |
Box Office Performance
On December 31, 1986, Witchboard had a limited 15-screen theatrical debut in several tiny American cities, including Spokane, Washington; Buffalo, New York; Anchorage, Alaska; Columbus, Ohio; and El Paso, Texas. The movie took in $95,435 on its first weekend of release and made $416,336 in the four weeks that followed. March 13, 1987, saw the film’s distributor, Cinema Group, extend its theatrical release to 1,100 screens countrywide due to the positive box office returns in these smaller regions. Throughout its wide opening weekend, the movie brought in $2.7 million; its total box office receipts came to $7,369,373.
In May 1987, the Samuel Goldwyn Company distributed the movie in theaters in England after acquiring it for worldwide distribution.
Remakes and sequels
Two follow-ups to the movie were released: Witchboard III: The Possession (1995) and Witchboard 2: The Devil’s Doorway (1993). A reimagining of the same name is scheduled for release in 2024.
