Witchboard 2: The Devils Doorway 1993 - REVIEW

Hot off the success from the original Witchboard that starred Tawney Kitaen and really was a pretty damn good movie.  Now the lead is played by little known actress Ami Dolenz.  Yes, that last name looks familiar and you are right she is the daughter for Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees.  Ami is still not a really known actress considering not many if any of her movies have made it to DVD in the United States.  She is still a pretty good actress non the less and not to bad on the eyes either.

We start as Paige (Ami Dolenz) is being shown an apartment, a loft to be more exact.  Its a perfect place for her to rekindle the artist in her.  She takes the loft being told the only catch is that the landlord, Elaine (Laraine Newman), is stuck in the 60's and is pretty eccentric.  Paige quickly moves in the next week and almost immediately finds an of Ouija Board in the closet.  Later that night after her bath she is intrigued by it and used it in her living room.  Right away she contacts a spirit by the name of Susan (Julie Michaels).  Paige starts using this regularly and Susan helps her with her promotion at work and her painting.  Meanwhile Susan is exacting revenge of her own.  The revenge of her death, but Elaine and her brother Russell (John Gatins) do not  believe Susan to be dead.  Paige then wonders who she is talking to and gets sucked in by this spirit.  She starts dressing differently, using profanity and other things she would never had done.  She realizes she is in trouble with this but it is too late to stop now.  Paige and her friends are in for a wild ride.

First of all let me say this is really not a great movie, but it does have some charm.  In the early 90's up until the original Scream came out in 1996 the Horror genre was on a downturn.  There are not a whole lot of good movies that came to us between those years. There are some, but they are few and far between.  I consider Witchboard 2 to be an exception to that.  The movie is fun, it keeps you glued to  the screen the entire movie.  Whether it be because you want to know what is going to happen next or you just want to keep watching Ami Dolenz prancing around in daisy duke shorts and cut off shirts.  The story itself could have been better but it does the trick and makes for an entertaining movie.  The acting I would give 3 out of 5 stars.  Ami is not the best actress and honestly her supporting cast did a far better job than she did, but thats ok.  The real shame about this movie is that if you live in the United States the only way you can watch this is on that ancient movie player called a VHS or a poor looking VHS transfer to DVD.  I had not seen the movie in years and had to settle for the latter of those choices, but I really did not care. 

Watching this movie takes me way back.  I wasn't even in high school yet when this was made back in 1993.  I guess I am dating myself a little bit there.  I am so bummed that we do not have an officially released DVD version of this yet.  I mean you have the really really bad movies like Return to Sleepaway Camp and Witchboard III a DVD release but not this!  Cmon now!  Thats really the only bad thing I have to say about this movie.  All in all this is one of the more fun Horror movies out there.  I would rank it right up there with Prom Night II and III which I hold near and dear to my heart.  I do wish they would have elaborated more off this storyline for perhaps another sequel starring Ami again, but instead they made Witchboard III a few years later and it was just fuckin awful.  All 3 movies have no continuity anyway but the third installment lacks everything the first 2 had going for it.  I will be waiting impatiently for someone to release this on DVD, but until then stay twisted everyone!