The Scariest Horror Movies Featuring Ouija Boards
They've been called many things over the years: Spirit boards; talking boards; “The Mystifying Oracle.” The branded versions, owned and distributed by Hasbro, are simply called Ouija boards, a name coined by the sister-in-law of Elijah Bond, one of the people involved in patenting the Ouija board we know today.
While popular myth (and marketing for the parlor game) suggests the name is a combination of the French and German words for “Yes,” Ouija scholars (yes, they exist) say the name actually came from the early use of the board, when it was asked to provide a name for itself, and Ouija was allegedly its reply.
Of course, talking boards existed long before the Ouija was patented in 1890, and for almost as long as such ways to contact the deceased have been around, they've been showing up in film. After all, there's an inherent tension and expectation that comes along with using a Ouija board (or anything similar), and plenty of filmmakers have made use of that tension to evoke some real chills.
Here are some of the scariest movies that prominently feature spirit boards; vote up the ones that made you quickly say, “Goodbye.”
- 191 VOTESPhoto: Warner Bros.
In addition to a wide array of other memorable moments, William Friedkin's 1973 classic The Exorcist introduced a generation of viewers to “Captain Howdy,” the perhaps not-so-imaginary imaginary friend whom Regan MacNeil (played by a young Linda Blair) communicates with via a Ouija board she finds in a closet.
This sinister use of what was, at the time, a common children's game helped secure an ominous reputation for Ouija boards in film for decades to come.
- 251 VOTESPhoto: Cinema Group
Decades before the 2014 film Ouija revived the craze for Ouija boards in horror movies, Witchboard and its two unrelated sequels were the go-to sources for Ouija-themed terror.
Directed by Kevin Tenney (Night of the Demons), Witchboard follows a young woman who is plagued and eventually possessed by a ghostly presence after using a Ouija board by herself. In other words, all the stuff you'd expect from a Ouija-centric movie.
Of course, this being the '80s (and Tenney being Tenney), things get pretty wild before all is said and done, complete with ax-wielding specters from the other side.
- 366 VOTESPhoto: Warner Bros. Pictures
Based on the notorious real-life Enfield Poltergeist case, the first sequel in the popular Conjuring series sees the fictive versions of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) traveling to England to investigate a seemingly haunted row house.
In the film, the escalating supernatural activity begins when Janet Hodgson, the second-eldest of the home's four children, plays with a makeshift Ouija board, contacting a malevolent spirit that is plaguing the house and the family.
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- 432 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
One of the earliest Hollywood horror films to successfully treat ghosts seriously, 1944's The Uninvited also has one of the earliest examples of a Ouija board scene - or at least something pretty close. Although branded Ouija boards had already been around for some time when The Uninvited hit screens, and “talking boards” or “spirit boards” had been around even longer, this haunting film uses none of those.
Instead, for the eerie and dramatic seance in The Uninvited, the characters use an upturned glass and a series of lettered tiles, similar to Scrabble tiles. Even without the classic Ouija board, the effect is no less chilling.
- 545 VOTESPhoto: Netflix
Based on the real story of 18-year-old Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro, who reportedly died after a seance in her school basement in Madrid in 1991, Veronica tells a similar (if entirely fictionalized) tale, centered solidly on a Ouija board.
After the ill-fated Ouija session in the school basement, the eponymous Veronica seems to be possessed, and it's just a matter of time before she has to attempt another seance, this time under much more grueling conditions.
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Co-written and directed by Mike Flanagan, Ouija: Origin of Evil, the prequel to 2014's Ouija, is that rare follow-up that is much better regarded than its predecessor. While that film had a mere 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, Origin of Evil enjoys a “certified fresh” 83%.
What's the difference? Chalk it up to Flanagan's deft ability to combine family melodrama and period detail with effectively spooky moments, such as the film's climactic revelation that “we played in a graveyard.”
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- 726 VOTES
Alison's Birthday
Photo: Umbrella EntertainmentA session with a makeshift talking board (similar to the one used in the 1944 classic The Uninvited) ends in tragedy in this eerie Australian horror film that starts with ghostly possession and ends with Celtic cults.
The home-brew Ouija board may only factor into the film's opening minutes, but the scene is plenty spooky, with winds blowing in from nowhere, a glass shattering against the wall, possession, and ultimately a character's tragic demise at the (proverbial) hands of a falling bookcase.
The rest of this slow-burning 1981 chiller stays more than a little creepy, as well.
- 842 VOTESPhoto: Warner Bros. Pictures
One of William Castle's now-notorious string of “gimmick” horror pictures, 13 Ghosts features one of his more ingenious gimmicks. Castle repurposed simple 3D glasses into “ghost viewers” that would let people see the film's ghosts (or not) depending on whether or not they looked through the red or the blue lens.
Like a lot of Castle's gimmick pictures, 13 Ghosts may be only sporadically spooky, even for 1960, but one of its more effectively creepy moments involves the family turning to a Ouija board. What initially seems a bit of harmless fun quickly turns ominous as the board spells out the spirits' intent to harm or even kill the family.
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- 954 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
Paranormal Activity reinvigorated the found-footage horror scene and changed the game for what filmmakers could accomplish with low-budget chills.
Given that few chills require a smaller budget than a Ouija board scene, you better believe the first Paranormal Activity movie in the long-running series features one. Micah, one half of the young couple on which the first film centers, tries using one to communicate with the spirit plaguing them.
Of course, when the Ouija board is left unattended, it begins to move on its own - and that's just for starters.
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- 1031 VOTES
Two Witches
Photo: Arrow FilmsIn Two Witches, a young couple seek help from a friend who is a modern witch after a much more old-fashioned kind of witch puts the “evil eye” on the expecting mother. The friends turn to a Ouija board, but the seance seemingly goes nowhere - at least, as far as the participants can tell.
Those of us in the audience of this modern witchy film made in a '70s throwback style see something sinister lurking in the dark behind our protagonist, and we know bad things are afoot. True to form, it isn’t long after the Ouija scene that things take a dramatic and grisly turn for the worse for all involved.
- 1123 VOTESPhoto: Concorde Pictures
As you might imagine with a movie whose subtitle is “Nighty Nightmare,” Sorority House Massacre II is not exactly high art. But between all the slashing and exposed skin is a major Ouija board subplot.
The audience learns the ladies in question got their new sorority house so cheap because it was the site of a bloodbath, here represented by reused footage from Slumber Party Massacre.
In the process of discovering this, they also find a Ouija board, which sets the film's more grisly events in motion when the planchette mysteriously flies into the fireplace.
- 1232 VOTESPhoto: DreamWorks Pictures
In What Lies Beneath, Claire Spencer (Michelle Pfeiffer) is married to a successful college professor played by Harrison Ford, and the two live a seemingly idyllic life in a lakeside house in Vermont. There's just one problem: Claire is convinced they're being haunted, and it seems her husband knows more than he's letting on.
As she tries to get to the bottom of things, Claire tries a number of solutions, including a Ouija board, to discover what lies beneath her seemingly perfect life.
A big box-office success when it was released in 2000, What Lies Beneath is also the screenwriting debut of actor Clark Gregg, best known today for playing Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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- 1337 VOTESPhoto: Universal Pictures
When it comes to spooky movies featuring Ouija boards, few feature them more prominently than the one with the product's name right in its title. Produced by Platinum Dunes and Blumhouse and officially licensed by Hasbro (the rights holders to the Ouija copyright), this 2014 film was widely panned by critics, receiving a dismal 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.
But for those looking for spirit-board scares, there are some to be had in this creepy chiller, especially in an early scene, when the friends all first summon up some bad spirits with the Ouija board.
- 1428 VOTES
I Am Zozo
Photo: Image EntertainmentInspired by a supposed real-life phenomenon in which a demonic entity named Zozo purportedly harasses people exclusively through Ouija boards, the unusual 2009 flick I Am Zozo has received mixed reviews. While some watchers called it “the coolest movie I have ever seen about a Ouija board,” others have argued that “nothing happens.”
Whichever camp you fall into, it's hard to argue that the early scenes, in which a group of friends use a Ouija board on Halloween to contact the eponymous spirit, are pretty creepy - especially if you buy into the idea that Zozo is a real thing.
