Original Witchboard director shares his reaction to the Witchboard remake
Writer/director Kevin S. Tenney’s 1986 horror classic Witchboard (watch it HERE) is getting the remake treatment couresty of director Chuck Russell, who was bringing us the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the remake of The Blob back in the days when Witchboard was gathering its earliest fans. JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols was able to watch the remake last year (you can read his review at THIS LINK) and talk to Russell and star Madison Iseman about it (you can watch the interview HERE) – and a wider audience will be able to check it out when it gets a theatrical release on August 15th. While we wait, Tenney was able to catch a private screening of the film, and he took to social media to share his reaction.
After he had the chance to see the new film with his wife, Tenney wrote that they had “a fantastic time. This is not a low-budget horror movie, folks. This looks like a $20 million Blumhouse film, with a strong cast, masterful direction, and gorgeous cinematography. Although it’s an entirely different story with different characters, it does manage to pay homage to three or four sequences from my original film.” Coincidentally, the original Witchboard and Russell’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors shared multiple crew members, which Tenney mentioned in a comment: “My entire Witchboard camera and electric crew followed DP Roy H Wagner from my film to Chuck’s Nightmare on Elm Street 3. I even visited their set to have lunch with Roy. Small world, and an even smaller business, huh?“
According to Deadline, Russell intended to go beyond the original Witchboard IP “with a deeper storyline, high intensity scares and imaginative visuals”. As such, the screenplay he wrote with Greg McKay sounds quite different from the original film. Here’s the synopsis: Emily, her fiancé Christian and a group of their friends open an organic café, refurbishing an old carriage house in New Orleans’ French Quarter. But a darkness descends over Emily when she discovers an ancient pendulum board, once used to summon spirits. Christian seeks help for Emily from occult expert Alexander Babtiste, but Babtiste has secrets of his own, knowing the fateful bloodlines that binds them all to the Witchboard. A modern coven of White Witches, a masked ball at Babtiste’s mansion, and the legacy of Naga Soth, the Queen of Witches, are all part of a dangerous game that puts Emily’s very soul at risk. The film stars Madison Iseman of the short-lived I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series, Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building), Antonia Desplat (Shantaram), Charlie Tahan (Ozark), and Jamie Campbell Bower, who caught a lot of attention for playing the villainous Vecna in season 4 of Stranger Things.
The Witchboard remake is an A-Nation Media production, and Russell and McKay are producing the film with Kade Vu and Bernie Gewissler. Eric Schiermeyer, Sarah Buxton, John Paul Isham, and Walter Josten serve as executive producers. Although the film is set in New Orleans, it was shot in Montreal.
The original Witchboard, which is one of my all-time favorites, had two sequels that followed different characters and featured different evil spirits. The main connection between the films was the presence of a Ouija board. Russell’s Witchboard seems separate enough from the original that it might as well be considered Witchboard 4, even if it switches out a Ouija board for a pendulum board. And I’m definitely interested in seeing a Witchboard 4 that’s directed by Chuck Russell. Tenney even told a fan, “If you think of this film as Witchboard 4 instead of a literal remake, I think you’ll enjoy it. And like I said earlier, it does NOT look like a low budget indy.“
The Witchboard remake has earned an R rating for strong bloody violence, gore, language, drug content, some sexual content and brief nudity. Tenney confirmed, “This is indeed an R rated horror film with some cool kills and mostly practical FX.“
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