2014 has been kind of a dull year for teen horror. Nothing has really rattled us like 2012’s House at the End of the Street, The Woman in Black, or 2013’s Mama. But this week brings the release of a much anticipated teen chiller, the supernatural board game inspired Ouija. The film focuses on a group of teens (which includes Teen Wolf‘s Shelley Hennig, Secret Life‘s Derek Kagasoff and Happyland‘s Bianca Santos) that attempt to contact a recently deceased friend using a Ouija board, but they end up contacting someone, or some-thing, else. Needless to say, terror ensues, and we all go home looking over our shoulders and go to sleep with the lights on.

Oujia boards, or Spirit Boards, have existed since the late 1800s, when businessman Elijah Bond paired a flat board upon which he printed the alphabet with a planchette (the teardrop shaped pointer that slides around the board pointing at the letters). Later on, the game was produced by William Fuld, who coined the name Ouija by combining the French and German words for “yes.”

2014’s Ouija is by no means the first time the classic board game has surfaced in film or TV. It has appeared in media as far back as the 1940s, starting with the 1944 supernatural mystery film The Uninvited (which has no connection to the 2009 film of the same name starring Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel). In the film, a Ouija board is used in a séance, and set up a long legacy of creepy films that incorporated Ouija boards into their stories. The most recent notable appearances of Ouija boards in film are the original Paranormal Activity, The Others, and What Lies Beneath, along with a horde of other lesser known, low budget and foreign titles.

As for 2014’s Ouija, fans of creepy supernatural horror will likely be very pleased. The cast has a comination of familiar faces (Kagasoffm, Hennig, and Santos for example), along with some newcomers who we’re excited to meet, particularly Ana Coto, who plays Sarah Morris.

Ouija opens Friday, October 24.

Contributed by Jordan Adams

---