31 Days Of Horror Movies 2026
Prompt 17 is “death by board game” and:
17.
Witchboard (1986)
Having seen the remake on day 2, I spotted the original was available and so here we are.
Tawny Kitaen, mostly known to my generation as The Woman In The Whitesnake Videos, stars as a woman with a boyfriend and ex who used to be friends and the ex is really into Ouija boards. Though not into them enough to remember to take his home after a housewarming party. So she tries it alone which is a bad idea and various sorta-poltergeist-y sorta-possession-y problems ensue.
Unusually heavy on daytime horror scenes. though this may have been to save on lighting, the leads are fine if underwritten and the guys’ quarrel feels more high school than postgrad adult (but don’t quote Han Solo if you’re this much less cool than Han Solo) and the fun characters (Kathleen Wilhoite as a Cyndi Lauper styled medium and Burke Barnes as a detective who loves magic tricks as his Columbo shtick) only get a couple scenes each.
Seeing it after the remake explains a couple of the scenes there, but they largely worked in the remake as-is. The overheated shower works better here though!.
I will give it credit for a great evil joke fakeout which I loved when Buffy The Vampire Slayer did it thirteen years later, and I’m sure someone there saw it here.
The medium: Shudder
Gameability: Investigating a weird occult thing, colourful side characters, fairly straightforward answer, yesh. Maybe don’t use an actual Ouija board as a prop for reasons of taste.
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