Writer / director Kevin Tenney's belated sequel to his breakthrough film stars Ami Dolenz ("Ticks") as Paige, a young accountant and aspiring artist who finds an old ouija board inside her new apartment. She uses it to come into contact with the spirit of a former tenant, who's hungry for vengeance. She falls into the same trap as the Tawny Kitaen character in the first film, becoming addicted to using the board while also determined to solve the mystery of the spirits' death and the location of their body.Tenney doesn't really bring anything new to the table here. His story is reasonably entertaining if never exactly scary. A large part of why it remains so watchable is the lovely Ms. Dolenz, who creates an inherently appealing character. (However, she doesn't always have the greatest material, having to state the painfully obvious more than once.) Some of the camera moves are more impressive than one might expect. The very few murder set pieces come off as so goofy that they're at odds with most of the film, which is played pretty straight. Supplying some comedy relief is the ever reliable Laraine Newman, who's very funny as the hippie-ish landlord.Don't go in hoping for a lot of gore, or much of a body count. Instead, we get a story that's rather similar to what we saw the first time. One difference is the restless ghost; Julie Michaels is undeniably extremely sexy in the role but she's nowhere near as creepy as J.P. Luebsen. Filling out the rest of the cast are Timothy Gibbs ("The Kindred") as the initially unlikable ex-boyfriend, future Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Gatins ("Flight") as young photographer Russel, a delightful Marvin Kaplan ("Wild at Heart") as an old occult specialist, and Christopher Michael Moore as a horny handyman. "Witchboard" 1 star Todd Allen has a cameo near the end.There is one highlight involving a runaway car, and overall the films yields some modest entertainment.Six out of 10.

"Get a grip, Paige, it's only a Ouija Board." From the director of Night of the Demons and the first Witchboard, is this '93 sequel featuring the gorgeous Ami Dolenz as an amateur artist, Paige, moving into an attractive loft so she can hopefully make a career out of painting while working unhappily at a business to pay the bills. When she dabbles with a Ouija board, found in a closet (it falls in a spot so she can visibly see it), the spirit of a former occupant wants her, Paige assumes, to find her body and the murderer responsible. The question: is there more to this than meets the eye? Could a desire to possess Paige be part of why she keeps motivating her to use the Ouija board? Other characters involved in the mystery regarding the spirit of Susan (Julie Michaels) include a photographer, Jonas (Christopher Michael Moore), the brother of apartment renter, Elaine (Laraine Newman, of Saturday Night Live fame), still living in the 60s (she has a hippy-painted van, dresses and speaks as if she were stuck in a timewarp). Mitch (the bo-hunk Timothy Gibbs) is Paige's former lover, a plain-clothes policeman with bitterness due to her leaving him for being too bossy and pushy. Tenney does use special effects as he did in the first Witchboard to convey Susan's abilities to affect her surroundings when Paige is using the Ouija board (a broken mirror, operating a crane which sends a wrecking ball crashing into a vehicle crushing a victim, and pressing down the accelerator pedal of a Ford Ranger that nearly kills Mitch in Tenney's French Connection sequence of the film). Also a Tenney trademark is the Evil Dead "bird's eye view" camera shot—in this movie's case, from the Point of View of Susan moving about in spirit form—still in effect here as has been used in times past (preferably Night of the Demons and Witchboard, arguably his two best films). Tenney tries to shoot the adorable Dolenz (boy, did I have a crush on her when I was a teenager!) in sexy, provocative ways, and does, at times, succeed. She does have a potty mouth once the Paige character becomes more reliant on the Ouija board, soon quite addicted to solving the mystery of her death, placing her own body in jeopardy of a total takeover. Most unintentional funny scenes (maybe they were intentionally funny, I don't know) have the first victim trying to evade a spinning saw blade in flight, chasing (!) after him and this very same victim succumbing to a boiler that actually balloons as if it become bloated, resulting in a steam kill! Dolenz is actually not a bad lead heroine, her smile is a knock-out and she exudes a pleasant enough personality, but I found Gibbs' cop a hard character to like (he tries, later after reflection, to be more understanding and seems committed to a better relationship with her, but his initial scene does not necessarily warm us to him; his aggressive nature and aura of hostility are especially noticeable), even though he factors heavily into Paige's rescue. One things for certain, Mitch is quite a punching bag thanks to Susan's supernatural powers. Newman does what she can with a caricature, actually still quite amusing during many of her scenes. Moore is the other man in Paige's life, and his character (much to the film's credit) can not be pinned down as completely innocent, although he's far more easy to like than Mitch.

Paige Benedict is a wannabe artist who moves into a large apartment loft and discovers an Ouija board in the closet. After trying it out she starts receiving messages from the other-side by the previous tenant Susan Sidney. Who claims that she was murdered. Paige suddenly gets caught up into finding out what happened to Susan, but along the way people start dying off by strange occurrences.Well I've never seen the original, but there's no relationship between the two films that makes you have to seen them in any particular order. I was expecting something quite secondary, but Kevin Tenney's 'Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway' was a mostly fun and harmless little piece, which was competently directed with some nice inventive flourishes. While, it's not hard to figure out what's eventually going to happen (though the final twist got me) and the pacing can lumber along with long talky spells, but there are definite features that make up for these aspects. Tenney makes the most out of his budget to cook up some strikingly atmospheric camera-work, tautly effective music score, credible special effects and a humdrum script filled with some biting humour. There are some well staged action scenes that have energy and the edgy deaths are mildly inspired. Although they are rather tame. False jump scares are evident, but never fall into the cheap variety. It tries to be creepy in its set-up, but I found it to be too silly to be so. Laughable in patches, but it never gets overly cheesy. Although there are some totally unlikely (if moronic) plot developments in the script that will raise eyebrows. One thing that got on my nerves was the constant use of sounding out every single letter and letting us know what it spells when Ouija board comes into play. Sure I can hack it every now and then, but all the time. No way! At least we had a blond hottie doing it for us. Tenney sure does tease the viewer with the gorgeously dainty Ami Dolenz. Her perky performance is surprisingly good. Those looking for a bit of flesh will be highly disappointed. Laraine Newman is amusing as the flip-out hippie landlady. The beautiful Julie Michaels was fine as Susan. Timothy Gibbs, John Gatins and Christopher Michael as bawdy landlord were okay.It's a decent enough time-waster that has a certain quirkiness and stylish feel to it all.

This is one of those movies that you must see. Ok, it's not as good as the first one but it is still worth renting. In this movie Kevin S. Tenney shows us everything that happened in the first, but this time with some better acting and better death scenes. For actors you have Ami Dolenz (Ticks), and Timothy Gibbs (Leprechaun 3). I didn't care for anyone else, except for Laraine Newman who played the "I'm still stuck in 1969 lady". She's a good actor, and plays the role of a hippie pretty well. (To be honest a little to well). If you liked "Witchboard" then you will probably like this one. Stay away from the third one. Kevin S. Tenney didn't even write that one. For Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway ~ 7/10 stars.