Guest Author - Andy Boxall

Director: Kevin Tenney
Starring: Todd Allen, Stephen Nicholls and Tawny Kitaen
Region 2, Anchor Bay Entertainment
Out Now

In the Seinfeld episode The Nose Job, Jerry cannot control his desire for a dim actress, who insists on practicing her lines, badly, with him. The actress was played by Tawny Kitaen, who presumably was calling on her Witchboard performance for inspiration, for no matter how lovely she seems in either work, possibly probably doesn’t count this movie as being her career best!

Kitaen play’s Linda Brewster, wife of under-achieving Jim and former girlfriend of Jim’s super-successful school buddy, Brandon. With this triangle present at one of Jim and Linda’s parties, talk turns to the supernatural and more specifically, the Ouija board, which turns out to be a hobby of Brandon’s. After a game, where they contact a spirit of a boy named David, Linda becomes obsessed with the board and starts using it alone, opening her up to possession by a malevolent spirit that fools her into thinking he is David. It’s then down to Jim and Brandon to reconcile their differences and save Linda.

Witchboard was made in 1986 and the movie makes no attempt to hide it. The fashions and hairstyles are hideous, the soundtrack is a 80s Halloween/Elm Street knock off, Jim and Linda own a waterbed and the phrase ‘multiple sadness’ is actually in the script! Provided you can forgive (or at least ignore) a trip back to this tasteless decade, you should find a fun and occasionally scary supernatural horror behind it.

What makes it so much fun is the fact it doesn’t take itself too seriously, except when it counts. For example, the amusing/annoying (delete depending on your sense of humour) psychic is a cliché and the movie knows it, but once she starts her séance this is forgotten and we are treated to one of the film’s creepiest moments, equaled only by a great dream sequence earlier.

As already indicated, Tawny Kitaen doesn’t inspire in her role, but she is not the only one as Todd Allen and Stephen Nicholls didn’t attract any Oscar buzz either. But the fact that they are all equally awful and do seem to improve as the movie progresses just adds to the fun! Script-wise it’s as expected; cheesy and predictable, but once again it’s saved by being funny. Jim’s friend Lloyd gets the best lines and borders on the hilarious! Some excellent steadicam and ingenious camera angles rescue Witchboard from relegation to the ‘so bad, it’s good’ category, taking it instead to the ‘it may be cheap, but it’s still good’ slot.

The Disc

Anchor Bay has treated the movie to a new anamporhic transfer and the picture is terrific, looking a world away from the grainy rental VHS tapes where the movie first gained popularity. There is the usual array of sound options too, with the original 2.0 track and a remixed 5.1 and DTS track.

Normally these remixes are a bit of a waste, as they rarely make use of the rear channels and offer very little over the standard stereo mix. But here, the DTS mix is loud and clear, with some nice surround sound effects present at key moments during the film, making it worthwhile selecting this option if you can.

Elsewhere on the disc you can find some trailers, biographies (of which Tawny’s makes interesting reading) and some film notes. The making-of documentary is a mixed bag, with the first half being mostly just clips from the film, but the second half having a few more on-set interviews and comments from the crew. It does a good job of highlighting the budget constraints and the fact that this was director Tenney’s first movie.

Finally there is a commentary track with Tenney, executive producer Walter Josten and producer Jeff Geoffray. Commentaries from directors on their first movies are usually a good listen and this is no exception as Tenney has a lot of love for the film and has no problem talking about the work behind it, the actors or the effects. He also shares some great anecdotes.

Conclusion

Forgive the amateur-dramatics style acting and the woeful 80s style disasters and you can enjoy an occasionally creepy atmosphere, some great jumps and most of all, 98 minutes of none-to-serious fun!

Footnote: The Region 1 DVD version of Witchboard is slightly different from the Region 2. On the plus side it has better cover art and comes with a miniature Ouija board, but on the minus, it seems to only have Dolby Mono audio.