It’s largely been a very good year for mainstream horror, with the likes of Final Destination Bloodlines and 28 Years Later breaking through in a big way in theaters. Unfortunately, they can’t all be winners. Case in point, the long-awaited Witchboard remake arrived at the box office this past weekend. Despite earning decent reviews, it was largely ignored and arrived with a thud.
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Hailing from the folks at Atlas Distribution Company, Director Chuck Russell’s Witchboard pulled in a mere $197,000 on 580 screens over the weekend. That makes for an absolutely tragic $339 per-screen average. It didn’t come anywhere near the top ten, landing at number 17 on the charts well behind even the re-release of Shin Godzilla ($1.6 million). This is not meant to be a pile on, more to point out that this movie deserved better.
Russell is a genre legend, having helmed A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, perhaps the best version of The Blob and even Jim Carrey’s smash hit The Mask. More to the point, his remake of the 1986 supernatural cult classic has been met with a positive response, currently boasting a 66% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s not likely going to win any awards, but it sure as heck deserved a bigger audience than this.
The original Witchboard was written and directed by Kevin Tenney. Released in 1986, it was a decent hit and spawned not one but two sequels in the form of 1993's Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway and 1995's Witchboard III: The Possession.
The remake takes place in present-day New Orleans and sees a cursed artifact unleashe a vengeful witch, drawing a young couple into a deadly spiral of possession, temptation and occult terror. The cast includes Madison Iseman (Annabelle Comes Home), Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building), Mel Jarnson (Mortal Kombat), Charlie Tahan (Ozark), Antonia Desplat (The Killer’s Game) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things).
So, what went wrong? Was it just bad timing? Weapons is on a tear at the box office right now which is distracting the horror crowd. With another $25 million over the weekend, it’s now fast-approaching $150 million worldwide already. Did Atlas just not have the resources to market it effectively enough for the intended audience? Whatever the case, this one got buried. One can only hope it finds its audience on VOD and streaming here in the coming weeks/months.
Witchboard is in theaters now. For more, check out FANGORIA #122 from the archives, which features Witchboard 2 on the cover.
