Witchboard (1986)

Tenney’s directorial debut. A low-budget independent supernatural horror that became a cult favorite on home video, the kind of film that lives on a shelf because it earned its stay, not because it won awards.

Why it’s in the canon

Cult classic of 80s occult horror. The criteria blend is 1+3, I loved it, and I want to remember it. It passed through the era when independent horror was doing some of its most interesting work, and it carries the texture of that era without leaning on nostalgia. It’s the film I reach for when I want 80s occult horror specifically.

What the film does

Witchboard is a possession-and-ouija hybrid that threads the line between slasher-adjacent tension and atmospheric dread. Todd Allen plays Jim, who becomes obsessed with using a ouija board to contact a dead child, and Tawny Kitaen plays his girlfriend, who watches the situation spiral. The film isn’t trying to be sophisticated, it’s trying to be effective, and it is. The demonology is half-baked, the acting is uneven, the special effects are low-budget, and none of that matters when the film is working.

What stays with me

The opening sequence, where Jim and his friends first use the board, is the film’s strongest stretch, the moment when the supernatural stops being a game. Everything after that is the film cashing the check that opening wrote.

On hand

Yes, DVD + digital. The DVD is a clean release; the digital is a download I keep as backup.