2025 Witchboard

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Posted By: Brian Schell October 17, 2025

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s an updated remake of the 1986 film by the same name, with a pendulum board instead of a ouija board this time around. There is a bit too much reliance on digital effects that are pretty obvious. It does a decent job of updating things while keeping the core of the story from the first movie – there is more to it this time around. 

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in France, 1693 with witches dancing around a bonfire in the woods. There are skulls and body parts hanging from trees. They have a man tied to a tree, and the chief sorceress orders one of her followers to cut off the man’s arm. Suddenly, men on horseback arrive and kill many of the witches. In the scuffle, the “witchboard” falls to the ground [Kevin said it’d also be good for darts]. Credits roll. 

In the present, two men break into a museum to steal the board. They fight and one guy shoots the other before being beaten with a tire iron. The shot man makes it outside, but he’s not doing well. 

Elsewhere, Emily, Christian, and Richie forage for mushrooms, getting ready to open a new restaurant. She’s given up on the search for her parents. Emily hears someone crying in the woods and goes to look. All she finds is a cat, but it leads her to the board lying in the dirt. She doesn’t see the dead body of the thief nearby. 

The other thief reports to his rich boss, who says the other thief has died. They don’t know where the board has wound up. The man’s three identical women cut the surviving thief’s throat. 

Christian introduces his friends to his Creole menu. Richie invited Brooke, who is also Christian’s ex-girlfriend. Emily is engaged to Christian, but she’s lost her ring already. Brooke is an expert on antiquities, and she examines the antique probably-pagan pendulum board. The two of them try using it to answer a question, “Will our restaurant be a success?” Suddenly, a flaming bird shoots out of the fireplace; they should have gotten it cleaned. 

The restaurant is nearing completion, and we see a whole bunch of dangerous-looking equipment in the kitchen. Meanwhile, at home, Emily plays around with the witchboard and finds that she was using the wrong kind of pendant with it last night. She hears on the news about the board being stolen from the museum just recently. She uses the board to point the way to her lost engagement ring. Downstairs, a weird chain of events leads to Richie losing his hand– to a cat! The lost hand is the least of his problems as he bleeds out in the kitchen. 

At the funeral, Jesse shows up. He had her addicted to some drugs, but now Emily is clean. After, Christian notices that Emily has a new cat, the same one she saw in the woods and the same one who stole Richie’s hand. 

That night, the witchboard activates on its own and gives Emily a nightmare about the witches’ coven back in the 1600s. The head witch, Naga Soth, is especially creepy. 

Christian does some research, and he doesn’t want her to use that board anymore. He goes to talk to Vrooke, who knows an expert on the subject of Wiccanism. 

Meanwhile, Emily gets a weird flashback while in the shower at home. She’s in the position of the witch as Pastor Grogan breaks down her door. He arrests her as a witch and has her exiled. She vows to get her revenge on Grogan. Emily wakes up in the shower after all that. 

Brooke and Christian go to see Alexander, who is busy getting ready for the summer solstice. We see that Alexander is the man who hired the thieves in the first place. Solstice is a fertility festival, and Alexander says that Christian and Brooke will fit right in, and Christian gets a fantasy about that. Alexander tells the story of Naga Soth and her curse on the villagers. Alexander is a distant descendant of Pastor Grogan. 

Christian goes home and finds that Emily knows he’s spent the afternoon with his ex. The board told her that Jesse will never bother her again, so she wants to celebrate with some sexy time. 

We cut to Jesse, selling drugs on the roof of a building. We see that the cat is there as well as he prepares to inject a girl. He ends up going over the edge and falling to his rather excessive death. 

The next day, Alexander and Brook come over to see the board. Christian and Emily want his help. Under hypnosis, he takes her back in time to Naga Soth in jail. Grogan brings her the board, wanting to know how to use it. The room starts to shake, both in the past and in the present. When Emily wakes up, we see, but the others don’t, that Naga Soth has possessed her in a kind of time-travel transfer. “Emily” then gives Alexander the witchboard, not needing it anymore. 

In the past, Emily wakes up in jail, not understanding the old-time French that everyone else speaks. The witch in the next cell laughs at Soth’s successful escape. 

In the present, evil Emily picks out some special mushrooms and takes them to Christian’s grand opening. It’s opening night, and a full house. The food critic arrives, as does Alexander and Brooke. At Alexander’s place, the board activates. We see those special mushrooms in almost every dish. Alexander knows what Emily/Naga Soth is up to and encourages her. He tells Brooke not to eat the mushrooms. 

Everyone in the place starts laughing feeling odd. The main course comes out, and each one has a very sharp knife with it. The food critic sees a rotten hand on his plate. Everyone starts fighting and stabbing each other as Emily watches. Naga Soth takes her revenge on the locals, as promised. Alexander is quite entertained, but Brooke is horrified. He, along with Emily, makes their exit as Christian tries to follow. Christian gets picked up by Brooke, who had no idea what was going to happen. 

Turns out, Brooke is on Alexander’s side and turns Christian over to them. Alexander then gives his villain speech; he wants to be Naga Soth’s master. 

Meanwhile, in 17th century France, the real Emily is tied to a stake, about to be burned as a witch by Grogan and his crowd. 

Alexander explains that Emily’s mother was a witch who was killed in a ritual. Emily has inherited the power, since she’s directly related to Naga Soth. Alexander then morphs in to Grogan as Christian throws the witchboard into the fire. As the board burns, Naga Soth dissipates, leaving only Emily behind. 

Alexander shoots Christian and fishes the board out of the fire. Emily wakes up and shoots Alexander. The police arrive and force Emily and Brooke out; Christian and Alexander have died. 

Except Alexander might not really be dead…

Later, at the Vatican, Brooke has taken them the witchboard and sold it to them for a bag of diamonds. Naga Soth then comes for the cardinal who bought it. 

Brian’s Commentary

The witchboard here is not a Ouija board, it looks more like an old dartboard. It’s still more or less the same idea; a haunted board that predicts the future. This one is obviously more modern and updated from the original, but it does keep some of the same aspects of the story. 

It’s fine. The CGI isn’t very good, but everything else looks good and it moves along at a good pace. I liked it more than disliked it. 

Kevin’s Commentary

Wicca, founded in the 1940s, is referred to as an ancient religion here. From the look of many of the shots, you’d think it was filmed with 3D in mind, but it was never released with that feature.

I thought it was pretty good, but too stretched out. Things happen, but a little too far apart. I did enjoy it more than the original.