Fantasia Fest 2024: Witchboard Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

After an extended absence in the horror genre, Chuck Russell makes a return to the genre, bringing Witchboard to this year’s festival. A loose remake of the 1986 film, this version follows an engaged couple, Emily (Iseman) and Christian (Dominguez) as they discover an antique witch board in a forest. Emily becomes increasingly curious with the relic, causing mysterious circumstances to brew in their lives as they try to open a new restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Russell’s attempt at re-embracing the genre that launched his career is a surprising homage to the director’s strengths in his popularized films, including the intricate practical effects of Dream Warriors, the darkly comedic energy of The Mask, and the period set pieces of The Scorpion King. The use of blaring sound design and phantasmic music brings a fast-paced, sinisterly campy tone with an unexpected opening set piece that sets up the level of dread that Emily and Christian will soon face. While inherently predictable in plot, Russell keeps a welcome unpredictability in the motivations of the supporting characters that might serve as friends or adversaries to our protagonists at any given moment. His experience aids in creating an excellent genre blend of horror, comedy, drama, action that outweighs its formulaic horror setting.

Iseman brings surprising depth to her role as she is able to draw excellent parallels between the curiosity of using the witch board, and her past with drug addiction, without it seeming forced. The natural transition between many stages of her emotions throughout the film greatly props up the weight of her character on the story and the surrounding characters. Iseman’s natural presence in a horror environment highlights her potential as a scream queen. Meanwhile, Dominguez often serves as a defensive character that reacts to much of the mayhem faced with Emily and the rest of the characters. He provides distinctly different reactions to many levels of the unusual situations that arise. Bower’s Alexander, rounds out this expressive, unpredictable group through his portrayal of contrasting personalities, including a wise aristocrat, a witty sleaze, and an over-the-top villain, which flow smoothly with his motivations and how they might line up the couple’s crisis.

In the end, while Witchboard does not bring anything new to the genre, Russell delivers a horror film that consistently retains unpredictability in his characters’ motivations, aided by an expressive acting trio, and a dynamic style of blending genres that comes with birthing hit films in the previous millennium.

still courtesy of A-Nation Media

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Costa Christoulas

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