Knives, axes, stormy nights, and a ouija board – written by William Bleich and directed by Jack Bender, the TV movie Deadly Messages comes as a sample of the good old days of Television where the story alone was enough to keep the viewer’s attention.
It starts with the Ouija in a New York apartment where Laura Daniels (Kathleen Beller) and her boyfriend Michael Krasnick (Michael Brandon) leave the place to Laura’s roommate Cindy (Sherri Stoner) as they go out on a date. Cindy plays with the Ouija board, unleashing a mysterious killer armed with a knife to appear, stalk, and terrorize Laura. But it turns out Laura isn’t Laura and the killer isn’t who he is believed to be at first.
Deadly Messages is fairly successful in melding mystery, horror, and thriller genres to craft an engaging tale with some interesting twists that keep the audience guessing until the end. The plot itself, however, is not free of holes. Why the police is so dismissive of Laura’s story despite the axed door of her apartment – not once, but twice – and Cindy’s disappearance is hard not to notice. Then the police ignoring the failure of a rational explanation for the documented messages received by Cindy via the Ouija also makes a question – though one that has been cleverly covered by making Michael ask the same and receiving no response. This story sure wasn’t meant to win the police department any fans.
There are a few clichéd scenes known to horror/thriller fans (the stalker turning out just to be the lover and nobody believing the protagonist who is under attack), but they don’t undo the good production work visible to viewers. The movie has several romantic scenes and seemingly fell short of just one more to put the Romance tag on it.
On the whole, it’s an entertaining story and good for a light scare on a stormy night with a Ouija by your side.
