MOVIE REVIEWS: OUIJA

Much of the $5 million that Ouija cost to make Came from board-game maker Hasbro. And several critics say it shows. As Robert Abele observes in the Los Angeles Times: "Ouija is a tie-in fright flick only a group of toy and movie executives could summon from around a conference table." Unfortunately, comments Ben Kenigsberg in the New York Times, "Unlike a movie ticket, a board game can easily be returned." And Claudia Puig in USA Today suggests that the Ouija board is simply "shoehorned" into the movie to benefit Hasbro. "You’ve seen this movie before. Many times," she writes. "It’s essentially the story of evil spirits emanating from a dead person in a haunted house and terrorizing teenagers." But to that, Farran Smith Nehme in the New York Post responds with an emphatic So What? "Depending on how jaded you are, a lot of these old tricks still work," he writes, adding, "It’s fun for most of the running time."