The Ouija, also known as a Ouija board, spirit board, talking board, or witch board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", and occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a planchette as a movable indicator to spell out messages during a séance. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words. The name "Ouija" is a trademark of Hasbro, but is often used generically to refer to any talking board.
Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders is a 1996 American fantasy horror film written and directed by Kenneth J. Berton.
"The Monkey" is a 1980 horror short story by Stephen King featuring a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy. The story was first published as a booklet included in Gallery magazine in 1980. It was significantly revised and published in King's collection Skeleton Crew in 1985.
Monkey Shines is a 1988 American science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by George A. Romero and starring Jason Beghe, Kate McNeil, John Pankow, and Joyce Van Patten. Its plot follows a young athlete who becomes a paralyzed quadriplegic, and develops a bond with an intelligent service monkey named "Ella" who becomes homicidal after she is injected with an experimental serum of human brain tissue. It is based on the 1983 British novel of the same title by Michael Stewart.
Witchboard is a 1986 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Kevin Tenney in his directorial debut, and starring Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols, and Todd Allen. The plot centers on a college student who becomes entranced into using her friend's Ouija board alone after it was accidentally left behind at her party, resulting in her becoming terrorized by a malevolent spirit.
Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway is a 1993 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Kevin Tenney. It stars Ami Dolenz as an artist possessed by a ghost of a former occupant of her new apartment. The film is a sequel to the 1986 film Witchboard, and was followed by Witchboard III: The Possession (1995). It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 10, 1993.
Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre. Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children. In 1897, in a short film called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys. Another film called Santa Claus and the Children was made in 1898. A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled Santa Claus was created. In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree. He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children. After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney.
A cymbal-banging monkey toy is a mechanical depiction of a monkey holding a cymbal in each hand. When activated it repeatedly bangs its cymbals together and, in some cases, bobs its head, chatters, screeches, grins, and more. There are both traditional wind-up versions and updated battery-operated cymbal-banging monkeys. The cymbal-banging monkey toy is an example of singerie and kitsch.
Dolls is a 1987 American horror film directed by Stuart Gordon, written by Ed Naha, and starring Stephen Lee, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Ian Patrick Williams, and Bunty Bailey. Its plot follows six people who seek shelter during a storm in the mansion of an elderly puppet maker and his wife, only to find that the various puppets and dolls in the home contain the imprisoned spirits of criminals. It was produced by Charles Band and Brian Yuzna through Band's Empire Pictures.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 7th Gemini Awards were held in March 1993 to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was broadcast on CBC Television.
The Monkey's Paw is a 1948 British second feature ('B') horror film directed by Norman Lee and starring Milton Rosmer, Michael Martin Harvey, Joan Seton and Megs Jenkins. It is based on the 1902 story "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs. The screenplay was by Lee and Barbara Toy. It was produced by Ernest G. Roy.
Deadly Messages is a 1985 made-for-TV horror mystery thriller film directed by Jack Bender.
A Haunted House is a 2013 American satirical horror comedy film directed by Michael Tiddes and written and produced by Marlon Wayans. The film stars Wayans alongside Essence Atkins, Cedric the Entertainer, Nick Swardson, David Koechner and Dave Sheridan.
Ouija is a 2014 American supernatural horror film. It was directed by Stiles White in his directorial debut. Jason Blum, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Bradley Fuller, and Bennett Schneir produced it, and Juliet Snowden and White wrote it. They had previously together written The Possession. It stars Olivia Cooke, Daren Kagasoff, Douglas Smith, and Bianca A. Santos as teenagers who have unleashed spirits from a Ouija board. Universal Pictures released Ouija on October 24, 2014. It grossed $103.6 million worldwide over a $5–8 million budget and was overwhelmingly panned by critics. A prequel directed by Mike Flanagan, titled Ouija: Origin of Evil, was released in 2016 to much more positive reviews.
Ouija: Origin of Evil is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed and edited by Mike Flanagan, and written by Flanagan and Jeff Howard. The film is a prequel to the 2014 film Ouija, and stars Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Annalise Basso, and Henry Thomas. A widow and her family introduce a Ouija board into their phony seance business, thereby inviting a spirit that possesses the youngest daughter.
The Conjuring Universe is an American horror franchise and shared universe centered on a series of supernatural horror films. The franchise is produced by New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, and the Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The films present a dramatization of the supposed real-life adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent yet controversial cases of haunting. The main series follows their attempts to assist people who find themselves harassed by spirits, while the spin-off films focus on the origins of some of the entities the Warrens have encountered.
The Amityville Legacy is a 2016 American horror film written and directed by Dustin Ferguson and Mike Johnson. It was released direct-to-video, and is the fifteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. Mark Popejoy stars as Mark Janson, a father who begins murdering members of his own family after being gifted an evil cymbal-banging monkey toy that was taken from 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York.
Amityville: Evil Never Dies is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Dustin Ferguson. It was released direct-to-video, and is the nineteenth film to be inspired by Jay Anson's 1977 novel The Amityville Horror. A sequel to the 2016 film The Amityville Legacy, it continues the story of an evil cymbal banging monkey toy that was taken from 112 Ocean Avenue, a haunted house in Amityville, New York. The film stars Mark Patton, Helene Udy, Dawna Lee Heising, Ben Gothier, and Michelle Muir-Lewis.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a 2021 American supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves, with a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick from a story by Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan. The film is a sequel to The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), and the seventh installment in The Conjuring Universe. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as paranormal investigators and authors Ed and Lorraine Warren, with Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Julian Hilliard also starring. Wan and Peter Safran return to produce the film, which is based on the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, a murder trial that took place in 1981 Connecticut, in addition to The Devil in Connecticut, a book about the trial written by Gerald Brittle.
Connect is a 2022 Tamil-language supernatural horror film directed by Ashwin Saravanan and produced by Vignesh Shivan under Rowdy Pictures, starring Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, and Vinay Rai. Connect marks the second collaboration of Saravanan with Nayanthara, after Maya. The background score was composed by Prithvi Chandrasekhar. The film also marks Kher's return to Tamil cinema after a long gap.
