After helming some of the most significant practical effect horror films of the ’80s, writer/director Chuck Russell (The Blob, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors) returns to the genre for the first time in twenty years with Witchboard (2024).
Ostensibly a remake of Kevin Tenney’s 1986 film of the same name, the new film adopts a few key elements of the original, including a shower set piece, the possession of its female lead, and a board used to communicate with the dead, but, aside from that, the 2024 film is mostly doing its own thing.
Witchboard opens with a prologue set in 1693 France as Bishop Grogan (David La Haye) battles witch Naga Soth (Antonia Desplat) and her coven in the woods. What jumps out immediately is the evocative set design, including a tree filled with amputated hands, and the exciting action as the cavalry arrives with guns blazing just in time.
The opener also clarifies Witchboard’s approach to gore, which is an unsatisfying mix of practical (looks great) and CGI (distractingly bad) blood. The disconnect between the two is most apparent here and in the film’s biggest set piece: a restaurant-set bloodbath that alternates wildly between fantastic and distractingly bad.
This dichotomy describes Witchboard overall. The film is reminiscent of pre-Scream horror titles: a B-movie that contains no meta references, no (intentional) humor, and no efforts to “elevate” the material. At times, when the film isn’t taking itself seriously, this is extremely welcome. At others, however, Witchboard feels curiously out of touch and out of time, as though it were a lost relic of the ’90s that has only recently been unearthed and has no concept of anything that has happened in horror in the last thirty years.
The plot concerns Emily (Madison Iseman) and Christian (Aaron Dominguez), a newly engaged couple on the cusp of opening a restaurant in New Orleans. Early scenes establish that Emily is a recovering drug addict who is mildly threatened by the reappearance of Christian’s ex-girlfriend, Brooke (Melanie Jarnsen), an accomplished researcher of antiquities.
Emily’s luck changes when she comes across the titular Witchboard while foraging in the woods for mushrooms. Appreciating the pendulum board’s unique look, Emily reasons that they could display it in the restaurant, so she brings it home. Then at a private party in advance of the opening, Brooke shows Emily how to use it and, in the process, unleashes the power of the witch in the present day.
What follows initially plays like an entry in the Final Destination series. In the film’s best sequence, Emily uses the board to find her missing engagement ring as the witch’s specter haunts Christian’s kitchen. While he and the other staff, including Richie (Charlie Tahan) and Zach (Jamal Azémar) cook, Naga Soth’s image appears in a variety of reflective surfaces as everyday items, including a pan filled with oil, a row of knives, and a meat slicer, become potentially lethal weapons. It’s a fun, tense, and well-shot sequence, but unfortunately it’s also a one-off; Russell disappointingly never revisits the concept.
Instead, with the introduction of Alexander Babtiste (Jamie Campbell Bower), Witchboard switches gears to become a generic possession film.
Intriguingly, there’s no attempt to disguise the fact that Babtiste has nefarious intentions. It’s clear he has an ulterior motive when he inserts himself into Christian and Emily’s life, acting as an expert who can help curb Emily’s newfound obsession with the board.
The aforementioned shower set piece is a nice callback to Tenney’s film and introduces a recurring narrative construct: flashbacks to 1963 that explain how Naga Soth went from healer to condemned witch due to the actions of Bishop Grogan and the Church.
As the past increasingly informs present-day events, it seems as though Witchboard will explore how power-hungry religious men use and abuse women for personal gain. This unsurprisingly ties into Emily’s family history, but the clunky, borderline ridiculous way this is discovered (via a Google search) bears an unfortunate resemblance to this year’s Tarot. It also fails to pay off; the teased critique of misogyny storyline fails to come together in a satisfying way and the misguided finale only serves to confuses the issue.
Sadly, this is emblematic of Witchboard overall. Russell frequently overcomplicates several characters (backstory and motivation), as well as the narrative, often to frustrating effect.
While Babtiste’s predatory nature is evident from the start, he’s brought into the mix by Brooke, whose intentions are kept deliberately, maddeningly obtuse. There’s also a clunky recurring bit where Christian confuses the effects of the Witchboard with Emily’s history of substance abuse, but aside from introducing her ex-boyfriend/drug dealer Jessie (Francesco Filice), this is dropped as quickly as it is introduced.
Witchboard features several other non-starters, including Babtiste’s hedonistic lifestyle and his menagerie of odd minions. Babtiste’s introduction to Christian is at a party that hints at “deviant” sexuality and debauchery (same sex pairings, masks, etc) but aside from some PG-titillation, the film shuts it down. Russell is content to tease sexuality, but reticent to actually explore it.
Take, for example, the three identical white-haired girls named Asha (sisters Renee and Elisha Herbert, and Chiara Fossati) that the scholar surrounds himself with. Like the sex party, the trio exists primarily to strut around and look sexy. There’s also a pair of heavies who turn up or disappear based on the needs of the plot, but all of these characters fail to contribute anything meaningful to the film. They’re just cool looking window dressing.
The performances are similarly scattered. Bower Campbell’s performance is big and broad, verging on campy in the best way possible. He’s clearly having a blast chewing the scenery, but the disparity between him and Dominguez is stark. The latter is so earnest that all of Christian’s supportive dialogue to Emily comes off as either tone deaf, unintentionally funny, or both. The two actors are in completely different, non-complimentary films.
While Witchboard offers several fun, silly, and deeply entertaining characters and set pieces, it is just as often bogged down by odd narrative choices, shallow characterizations, and uneven visual effects. Clocking in at nearly two hours, the film also overstays its welcome, with the restaurant opening playing like a climax before Witchboard sputters to its real, inferior finale set at Babtiste’s mansion.
Here Russell tries to fuse together the film’s unsuccessful dual timelines and a critique of masculinity and religion, as well as give Emily/Naga a bit of female agency. It doesn’t work and the film ends on an unsatisfying note and a weak sequel set-up.
Overall Witchboard is messy and uneven, scattered in both narrative and performance, but fun enough to lightly recommend. It’s not the slam dunk horror fans were hoping for from Russell’s return, but as a lightly schlocky “turn your brain off and just enjoy” title, it mostly fits the bill.
Witchboard had its world premiere at Fantasia Film Festival.
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