Line #13 Film/Witchboard


1	[[quoteright:182:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bmta3ndg3mti2ntdeqtjeqwpwz15bbwu3mdkzmtezodq__v1_uy268_cr70182268_al.jpg]]
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3	->''"Never play it alone."''
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5	''Witchboard'' is a 1986 {{Horror}} film written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney.
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7	At a party hosted by Linda, everybody plays with a Ouija board brought by her friend Brandon. They actually manage to contact a spirit. She fails to follow the instruction to not use the Ouija board alone, and soon finds out that the spirit she was talking to was manipulating her the whole time, and wants to control her body to walk the Earth once more.
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9	Got two sequels, ''The Devil's Doorway'' and ''The Possession'', respectively released in 1993 and 1995.
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11	!!This film contains examples of:
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13	* ArchEnemy: [[spoiler:Malfeitor]] is this to Jim, since he spends the whole film tormenting him.
14	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Brandon claims that Ouija boards have been around since 540 BCE. The first recorded use of anything like an Ouija board was in 1100 CE, and modern ones were invented in the 1880s.
15	* BaitAndSwitch: The ending teases that the brief church scene is [[spoiler:Jim's funeral, with ambiguous music and people weeping in the pews. Turns out he survived his fall and it's his wedding to Linda.]]
16	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Carlos Malfeitor is the spirit terrorizing Linda.]]
17	* BunnyEarsLawyer: When Brandon brings in Zarabeth as a medium, Jim is skeptical due to her eccentric appearance, valley girl-like speech patterns and sarcastic humor - she successfully conducts a seance with David, then is the first character to start realizing things may not be as they seem.
18	* DestinationDefenestration: The evil spirit throws Zarabeth through a window where she is ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice on a sundial.
19	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The way the spirit on the other end is first positive and friendly and then turns autocratic and abusive is reminiscent of a pattern common to much domestic abuse, or the way pimps typically recruit new workers.
20	* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler:Jim seems to send Malfeitor back to the spirit world by shooting the Ouija board. Later, the landlady is cleaning their apartment, and finds the board. She throws it away, saying that it's unlikely that it still works. Then the planchette moves.]]
21	* FanDisservice: Despite the shower scene drawing a lot of viewer attention, Tawny Kitaen portrays Linda with enough fear and pain that any potential eroticism is lost.
22	* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:David is shown to not really be the spirit terrorizing Linda.]]
23	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: The evil spirit [[DestinationDefenestration throws Zarabeth through a window]] and she is impaled on a sundial.
24	* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Melfeitor reveals near the end that the protagonist was his actual portal to return to Earth, and he was just terrorizing everybody else for fun.]]
25	* MacGuffinTitle: The film is centered around the titular Ouija board.
26	* ManipulativeBastard: Evil spirits have a tendency to manipulate people who contact them alone by being extremely helpful at first, then intimidating them into giving up their bodies for possession.
27	* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:Main villain Carlos Malfeitor's last name is Portuguese for "evil one."]]
28	* OuijaBoard: Spirits use them to contact the world of the living.
29	* OneWordTitle
30	* PreppyName: Brandon Sinclair
31	* TheReveal:
32	** [[spoiler:David is not the spirit terrorizing Linda. It's a being named Malfeitor.]]
33	** [[spoiler:Jim is actually the portal, and Malfeitor is just terrorizing Linda to mess with him.]]
34	* TwangHello: In an act that would get you fired on any real construction site, Lloyd gets Jim's attention by throwing a carpenter's hatchet into the beam beside Jim's head.
35	* WritingAroundTrademarks: The film was originally going to be titled ''Ouija'' before the producers learned that Ouija is a trademark of Hasbro. The title was changed, but characters within the film still refer to the device as a 'ouija board'.

Context Film / Witchboard