Witchboard (1986)

Dir: Kevin S. Tenney

This low-key debut from the criminally underrated Kevin S. Tenney is an A+ demonstration on how to make a successful spine-tingler with but a dollar to your name and a head full of ideas. Super-hottie Tawny Kitaen plays a girl who becomes obsessed with using a ouija board to talk to the spirit of a dead ten-year-old when the board gets accidentally left at her apartment after a party. Unfortunately, the more time she spends obliviously messin', the more people seem to be carking it in gruesome ways all around her. Never lowering itself to the jokey crassness too many low-budget 80s shockers suffered from, director Tenney uses old school genre techniques to make his spooky ideas spring menacingly to life. "Witchboard" is strong on character and suspense, with an eerie atmosphere and a couple of killer jump-three-feet-in-the-air moments that almost had me spilling my soda (and not even feeling cheated afterwards). The script's twists and turns kept me hooked and the enthusiasm of the cast and crew make this a fiercely enjoyable little minor-league classic. Inspiring stuff. Sadly, I give it about two years before Hideo Nakata remakes it with Melissa George in the Tawny Kitaen role, Sean Preston Spears as the ghost boy and a Papa Roach soundtrack. ***