“Ouija,” a recently released horror film, filled the River Cinema in East Grand Forks with an eerie atmosphere as I joined my friends to watch the film last Saturday.

The movie is based on the Ouija board game manufactured by Hasbro and the plot circles around a group of friends who must confront their fears when they evoke a dark entity out of the spirit board.

The trailer for this movie looked promising enough to deliver a good scare, so I was curious to see what kind of horror it hopefully had in store.

I walked into the theater with low expectations because I was anticipating to sit down and watch another generic, non-thrilling horror film — the kind that are so commonly found in today’s modern era of horror flicks.

As the theater went dark and the movie started, I didn’t feel much suspense. I began to dread I was in for another lame horror movie experience.

The film started out incredibly slow, and the acting was awful. For the first 30 minutes of the movie, I found myself laughing more than being in suspense.

The movie didn’t appear to be heading in a very promising direction, it eventually picked up and improved — but only by a little bit.

The movie wasn’t totally predictable anymore and actually became interesting and exciting.

Creepy ghosts began screaming and charging at the camera and sudden noises and jump-shocks became a factor.

I found myself enjoying the idea of this movie. I felt that it incorporated something different than the traditional horror movie. Ouija boards are strange and eerie, and this movie puts an interesting twist on what can happen when one plays a seemingly innocent game.

Although the concept was interesting, I was still left hoping for the perception of the Ouija board to be creepier and better executed.

The ending, however, was incredibly disappointing. There was no exciting highpoint of action and the finale felt abrupt and unsatisfying.

While this movie wasn’t horrifying or incredibly shocking, I still enjoyed it.

I would only give “Ouija” two out of five stars because of its slow and lengthy build up that made the film unsuspenseful.

As far as modern day horror movies go, however, this was definitely one of the better ones I’ve seen as it involved a fresh idea and contained a couple of quality scares.

Amanda Hefner is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].