‘Ouija’ was part of an earlier announce slate of films to be created based on Habro franchises, following the smash success of the ‘Transformers‘ and the slightly more moderate success of ‘G.I. Joe’. In various stages of development are movies based on Stretch Armstrong, Max Steel and Magic: The Gathering. ‘Battleship‘ may have derailed things a bit, but despite not being very successful in the US, it actually made money internationally. ‘Ouija’ has had a rocky journey, but it looks like the movie is all set for release this Halloween.
‘Ouija’ is based on the classic board game staple, despite it not being much of a game. A slumber party classic, friends gather around a board which has the words ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ printed on it as well as the alphabet. Each friend places the first two fingers of both hands on a heart-shaped pointer and attempt to contact the dead. (It was either that or watch ’13 Going On 30′ again.) The friends contact spirits and ask questions and the spirit supposedly moves the pointer to either answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or to spell out their answer. And everyone lies when others accuse them of manually moving the pointer.
The board was actually not originally linked to the occult, but was based on a real thing called “automatic writing” that goes back centuries. It wasn’t until the 1900s that the link to the supernatural was created.
The film is directed by Stiles White and is produced by Michael Bay and Jason Blum (among others).
What do you think? Will this be good, scary fun just in time for All Hallow’s Eve? Or do these toy and game adaptations need to head to the afterlife?
