Witchboard

Witchboard
Directed by	Kevin Tenney
Written by	Kevin Tenney
Produced by	Gerald Geoffray
Starring	Todd Allen Tawny Kitaen Stephen Nichols Kathleen Wilhoite Burke Byrnes Rose Marie
Cinematography	Roy H. Wagner
Edited by	Daniel Duncan Stephen J. Waller
Music by	Dennis Michael Tenney
Production companies	Paragon Arts Partner Paragon Arts International
Distributed by	Palisades Ent. Cinema Group
Release date	December 31, 1986 (1986-12-31)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$7.4 million (US)

Witchboard is a 1986 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney in his directorial debut, and starring Tawny Kitaen and Stephen Nichols. The film focuses on a female college student who is harassed and later possessed by an evil spirit after communicating with it through a friend's ouija board at a party.

The film had a limited release in December 1986 and received a wide release in March 1987. Although critical reception remains generally mixed, the film has obtained a cult following since its release. Two unrelated sequels, Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway and Witchboard III: The Possession, were respectively released in 1993 and 1995.

Plot

One night at a party, Brandon Sinclair brings out his ouija board and attempts to contact David, the spirit of a dead ten-year-old boy with whom he has communicated numerous times. The spirit responds, but Brandon's nemesis Jim insults David, making the spirit angry and provoking him to slash the tires of Brandon's car.

The next day, Jim's live-in girlfriend Linda sees Brandon's ouija board which Brandon left behind from the previous night and tries to contact David. It is revealed that the spirit is actually a ghost of a deceased murderer named Carlos Malfeitor acting under the guise of David. This malicious spirit initially starts being nice and helpful to her, informing Linda where her lost diamond engagement ring is. Meanwhile, at the construction site where Jim is working, Lloyd is killed from fallen sheetrock by the murderous spirit. After Jim is questioned by Lieutenant Dewhurst at Lloyd's funeral, she again contacts Malfeitor - still believing to be David - about the accident, and the spirit lies that he did not cause it.

Soon, Linda begins to fall under progressive entrapment, in which the spirit changes and starts to terrorize the user, rendering the person weak and easy to possess. Brandon brings over a psychic medium named Sarah "Zarabeth" Crawford to contact David, and if necessary to exorcise him from the building. The spirit puts up little resistance and leaves, but after leaving, Zarabeth is suspicious and wants to research the occurrence. Not long after getting home, she is attacked and killed by Malfeitor; her throat is slashed before being thrown out of a window and impaled onto a spike. The next morning, Brandon is shocked to hear about Zarabeth's death on the newscast, and immediately suspects the spirit David murdered her. After Brandon leaves for more information, Linda is unconscious by Malfeitor and she is sent to a hospital after Jim contacts an ambulance. During this time, Brandon and Jim conduct research on David, and later initially accuse the spirit of terrorizing Linda. They use the Ouija board and discover that Malfeitor is frightening Linda instead. Malfeitor then attacks; he renders Jim unconscious with fallen barrels and kills Brandon with a carpenter's hatchet. Upon the discovery of Brandon's body in the water, Jim is grieved over his friend's loss.

Released from the hospital, Linda uses the board but gets no response. After taking a shower, she is then attacked and possessed by Malfeitor. The next morning, Jim returns and discovers the apartment in disarray, before he is attacked by a possessed Linda wearing black formal men's clothing and wielding a fire axe. During the fight, Lt. Dewhurst enters the apartment and falsely accuses Jim of the attack before he's knocked unconscious by Linda with a fire poker. The possessed Linda tells Jim, now armed with Dewhurst's revolver, that he is the "portal" and taunts him into committing suicide. Suddenly, Jim tricks her and shoots the Ouija board many times right before he is pushed out of a window by the entity and lands on a car.

After the events, a normalized Linda and a survived Jim resume their now back to normal lives and are seen marrying each other at a church. As a girl and the apartment landlady clean up the apartment, they both find the wrecked Ouija board and questions if it stills works before throwing into a box with the planchette. The camera then zooms to the word "yes" on the board before the planchette points to it by itself and the film fades to black.

Cast

• Todd Allen as James "Jim" Morar
• Tawny Kitaen as Linda Brewster
• Stephen Nichols as Brandon Sinclair
• Kathleen Wilhoite as Sarah "Zarabeth" Crawford
• Burke Byrnes as Lt. Dewhurst
• James W. Quinn as Lloyd
• Rose Marie as Mrs. Moses
• Judy Tatum as Dr. Gelineau
• Gloria Hayes as Wanda
• J.P. Luebsen as Carlos Malfeitor
• Susan Nickerson as Chris
• Ryan Carroll as Roger
• Kenny Rhodes as Mike
• Clare Bristol as Anchor woman

Production

Conception

Director Kevin S. Tenny was writing the script while a student at the University of Southern California. Inspired to write a horror film based on a Ouija board, he began to research the concept of "progression entrapment," an element that figures briefly in The Exorcist (1973), in which an individual becomes progressively "entrapped" by a spirit. Some elements of the script, including the sequences in which the kitchen knife falls into the ground, and the ketchup from the broken bottle forming into a shape, were based on incidents he had heard of while researching the experiences close friends and others had had with Ouija boards.

Though Tenny never believed in the board himself, he admitted the board was "creepy." One of the central themes of the film was the "bromance" of Jim and Brandon, whose friendship was compromised in a love triangle with the character of Linda. Tenny has stated in interviews that despite it being a horror film, he sought to create a character-driven film.

When Tenny's friend, Rolan Carol, had to drop out of university due to financial issues, he got a job at a commodities' firm where the owner, Walter Josten, was getting bored of commodities. Rolan mentioned Tenny's script to Josten, who had an interest in filmmaking. Tenny and his friend, Gerald Geoffray, pitched the film to Josten, who was impressed by the idea, and agreed to help finance the project. Tenny dropped out of his program at the University of Southern California, four units shy of earning his Master's degree, to begin shooting the film.

Casting

The character of Jim, a sarcastic yet non-malicious person, was based on Kevin S. Tenny himself. While many actors had come in for the role for Jim, the role was awarded to Todd Allen as Tenny found his sarcastic characteristics funny and true to what he was aiming at. When Allen went for the role, he recalled sitting in the auditioning room where and in the corner of his eye saw Tenny cracking up with the casting director's producer; Todd at first worried that he lost the role, but Tenny had written the role to be fairly close to himself, and Todd was making him crack up because of how it reminded the director the way he acted and said things in real life. Now cast for the role, he got the benefit of going back with the producers and director to read the actresses that signed up for the role of Linda. At the time, Tawny Kitaen had read the role when he wasn't there.

Upon Kitaen arriving for the role, Tenny and casting producer Rebecca Boss found her to a good choice; as he noticed many women come in and go for days for the role, everyone he knew at his office (in which were all males) noticed Kitaen than the other women that auditioned. As they were beginning to shoot, she had flown to New York so Tenny called up her agent about making a deal for the film, and she flew back to show up on the set. When Allen got onto the set and meet her, during shooting they had their relationship become very intimate quickly; Allen felt what he came across immediately was how much he liked her and vice versa with Kitaen. Tenny had reflected Kitaen had brought something that he didn't initially see, but he was smart enough then to see that she had an appeal that affected everyone else.

Stephen Nichols, whom had starred in the soap opera Days of Our Lives which the show planned to kill off his character Steve "Patch" Johnson, at the time wanted the show's producers to sign a contract, but couldn't sign it as he had his role in the film; he viewed the film was good for himself when it came time to negotiate again to returning to Days of Our Lives as the show's producers really wanted him to come back. On set, Nichols recalled sitting next to Kitaen and remembering from how good she smelt, this apparently made it easy for him to imagine how much he was in love with her for the role. Due to his role from the show, he would have constant fans giving him attention, but although Allen would give him trouble due to this he and Allen had a very good liking on the set.

J.P. Luebsen, who previously was a photographer, met Kevin Tenny through a friend at a July the 14th party and was chosen Luebsen for the villainous role of the spirit Carlos Malfeitor. Whenever he was on-set, Kitaen made a point about being self-apart from him to get her anxious enough to the point where she'd be terrified of him and not being near him.

Kenny cited about fifty various women had come in for the role of Sarah "Zarabeth" Crawford, but Kathleen Wilhoite was the first to come in; Wilhoite had just graduated from school in 1982 and had big ambitions which she felt was the "prime" of her life. When she was given the role, she hadn't initially responded back to Tenny about it, but after he found her shortly at a place she confirmed to him that she would definitely play the role.

James Quinn was long-time childhood friends with Kevin Tenny and his brother Dennis Michael Tenny; he remembers how Tenny as a child made small films in his garage, and on the weekends they would go out to seal objects from construction yards doing sets and stunts from 6:00 pm to 12:00 pm. The concept of Llyod being a construction worker came from inspiration of Kevin, Quinn, and Dennis who previously worked in construction before they moved to Los Angeles. Much like he felt with the cast, he felt Quinn was perfect for the role considering he kept making him and Dennis laughing on the set. Looking back at the role, Quinn had though the role didn't age well today compared to what he felt at the time was "cool".

Actor Kenny Rhodes was approached by Boss about the film, but didn't recall auditioning which he felt it was the only instance where he didn't audition. He worked primarily on with Allen, and he worked well with him as "cheerleaders for the lead". During filming, the costumer gave him a bandanna for his character to make him appear "tougher", and is presently proud of keeping the bandanna as he was a Bruce Springsteen fan.

Filming

Principal photography was shot primarily in 637 S Lucerne Blvd in Los Angeles and Big Bear Valley in San Francisco, California, in 1985. The film is dedicated to Christopher J. Tenney, a family member of the director Kevin S. Tenney who died during filming.

The film's original production title was Ouija, but as soon as they had discovered they didn't own the title their attorney told them they could not use the title, say the word "Ouija", or use a Parker Brothers Ouija board. For filming the scene where Brandon and Jim go to Big Bear and use a second Ouija board to contact the spirit of David they had already shot the first Ouija board and since the E&O carrier didn't approve of this, they had to put up a $50,000 bond to prevent any potential litigation; fortunately no lawsuit had occurred, but Josten had wished this would have been cleared before shooting had begun. When the filmmakers waited for the insurance to change the title to Witchboard, they were really waiting on the verdict of an E&O maven named Fred Leopold to see if he was going to rule in their favor so Geoffray used the Ouija board alone to see what will happen, but no answer came from the board. Ultimately, Leopold allowed the filmmakers to pay the bond and go forward with the film, and they were able to use some of the early Ouija board footage and integrated with a new Ouija board. With the split on the new title, some people were disappointed the film didn't stay as Ouija while others though the new title was cooler.

Shooting the nightmare sequence where Linda in the hospital gets decapitated by Malfeitor (to where her hands exaggeratedly move around) was done by a stand-in for Kitaen where her head was ducked and they had a Styrofoam head on-top connected with a poll with a wig that matched Kitaen's hairstyle. Luebsen was nervous about the scene as they were used a real axe, and he was swinging it very close towards the stand-in. Special-effects artist Tassilo Baur explained despite they used a real axe, they had also used prop axes for safety reasons as well as to improve their performances. Baur also had some props that were hinged so that they preciously hit a specific spot.

Allen was initially dismissive about the scene where Llyod throws a carpenter's hatchet near Jim's head didn't work too well, but Tenny reassured him. The scene was originally planned to be shot with an FX man shooting the hatchet directly, but it was the film's cinematographer Roy H. Wagner that suggested if they shoot it in reverse they would also show the scene to Allen to see how he can act it out in reverse if it was real. They also had the fake hatchet put into a piece of balsa wood, and they yanked it out with a wire.

The scene where Lloyd is killed from fallen sheetrock was cut repeatedly mostly due to Quinn's comedic personality on-set kept making Allen laugh. Since they used a dummy for the sheetrock to fall and when it fell, it caused the dummy's legs to slightly fling up which made Quinn hysterically laugh. When the sheetrock fell down, it caused a very loud noise in which Allen's reaction on screen was real, as he felt it sounded almost equivalent to a gunshot. Baur, accompanied with special-effects assistant Mick Strawn practiced dropping the sheetrock from a floor above with bunch of sheets of fake-sheetrock with two actual ones on both sides, and did this until they could drop it reliably to make it look convincing.

The shower scene was one of the biggest challenges for Wagner to shoot as Tawny didn't want the director nor the camera crew to shoot the scene with her, but she assured trust in Wagner when she seen him with a wedding ring. The crew a couple of effects when the spirit turns on hot blazing water in the shower that Linda was trapped including numbers of breakway glassed shower doors, and a fog machine to represent the hot water's moisture. Kitaen became more comfortable shooting the scene when the set was cleared to only the director and second-camera loader assistant, but this was a big uproar as all of the men were temporarily kicked off-set.

During production, there were a number of running gags on the set, most of which Wagner was included in. In one, Kitaen devastatingly believed on-set that her poodle was accidentally run over by the prop's truck, but she was relieved to find that the dog was safe and it was only a gag prop with hair similar to her dog that was laid on the road. At the time, they did another gag where since Kitaen was dating O.J. Simpson at the time and he visited her on the set from time-to-time, and would call the production office under a pseudo name to speak with her. They had other gags where they rocked Kitaen's trailer back and forth, flipped the outhouses upside down with the actors inside, and locking the crew in rooms where they couldn't get out to the set on time.

They also, however, had their fair share of some eerie occurrences on set. Some of the crew, mostly those that came in earlier, had significant problems inside the 637 Lucerne Blvd house such as the crew bumping into things that weren't there, as well as things that have moved that no one else around could've done during that time frame. Wagner especially felt a strong presence at the staircase where someone was walking behind him, and numerous occurrences where the cast and crew heard whispering and talking.

The last day of filming where the shot of Jim gets pushed out of the window and landing on top of the car's hood was shot in a park far away from 637 S Lucerne Blvd, and they had built a replica of the window that Allen's character would fall out of. When Allen's character falls out, he had a crane arm behind him which prevented him from flailing his arms around, so he had to sit there and used his shoulders to block out the arm completely.

Release

When the film was wrapped up to production, Tenny was worried that he made sure that his characters were and whenever he had made the film "scary" when it was being screened by the distributors. Geoffray, in contrast to Tenny, felt confident in the film and they managed to screen the film a lot before it reached its full theatrical release.

Prior to its theatrical release, Witchboard had a 15-screen limited release on December 31, 1986; the film grossed $95,435 that weekend. After this, the distributors picked up the film for a full theatrical release on 1,100 screens nationwide on March 13, 1987. bringing in $2,582,408 that weekend. Through its course, the film's final box office gross was $7,369,373.

The film was released on DVD in the United States by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2004, now out of print. On February 4, 2014, Scream Factory released the film as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.

The film is exclusively available on iTunes.

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 46% approval rating with an average of 5.2/10 based on 13 reviews.

HorrorNews.net gave the film a negative review, citing that "While the film garners recollection of being an 80’s cult film, I think it has more to do with the fascination of its lead actress Tawny Kitaen more than anything. Tawny is at her peak, beautiful and stunning… but at the heart of a mediocre film."

Alex DiVincenzo of BrokeHorrorFan.com gave the film a positive review, citing that "[Witchboard] pales in comparison to Tenney’s follow up Night of the Demons, but it’s still a fun flick. It was successful enough to warrant two sequels in the '90s and develop a small cult following. Tenney’s youthful exuberance practically oozes onto the screen, which aids Witchboard’s B-movie charm."

Sequels

The film has spawned two sequels, Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway (1993) and Witchboard III: The Possession (1995).

See also

• List of ghost films

External links

• Witchboard at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Witchboard.com