‘Do You Want to Play’ Gives the Ouija Board a Digital Upgrade

The Ouija board has been a horror staple for decades, but Do You Want to Play gives the familiar ritual a distinctly modern twist by replacing the wooden planchette with a smartphone app. Ahead of its World Premiere at this year’s Tubi FrightFest, director Nick Lyon’s supernatural thriller asks what happens when an ancient evil no longer needs to be summoned around a table, but can spread instantly through the devices we carry every day.

Screening on Sunday 30 August at 3.45pm, Do You Want to Play follows American high school student Emily, played by Quinn Aune, whose life changes after experimenting with a digital Ouija app during a Halloween party. Instead of a harmless party game, Emily unwittingly becomes the host for the soul of a sadistic killer who once terrorised the town of Westlake. As the possession tightens its grip, her boyfriend Tommy is forced into an uneasy alliance with Owen, the wealthy creator of the supernatural app and his former best friend, alongside a defrocked Jesuit priest turned occult investigator, in a desperate attempt to stop the evil before it spreads throughout the school.

Lyon’s concept centres on the idea that old superstitions have simply found new technology through which to thrive. In the production notes, the filmmaker explains that he was less interested in portraying technology itself as the threat than the way curiosity can become ritual. He describes the film as “contemporary folklore”, exploring the notion that “once the old object becomes software, evil gains scale, speed and intimacy”.

The production introduces Quinn Aune in the lead role as Emily, a performance the press material describes as charting possession through “a gradual theft of self” rather than relying solely on visual effects. Aune has already appeared as Young Lucky opposite Anya Taylor-Joy’s character in Apple TV’s Lucky and as the young Kay Scarpetta in Prime Video’s Scarpetta, with Do You Want to Play placing her at the centre of her first major horror feature.

Joining Aune are Maxwell Mushallo, G. Anthony Joseph and Alexander Rain, with the story combining supernatural possession, teenage rivalry and occult mythology. The production also places a strong emphasis on practical filmmaking techniques, pairing make-up effects with restrained visual effects to create what the filmmakers describe as a grounded sense of possession. Shot in a 21:9 anamorphic format, the film contrasts warm domestic interiors with the cold glow of smartphone screens, while its Dolby 5.1 sound design uses whispers, breathing and off-screen movement to heighten the sense of an unseen presence.

Nick Lyon serves as writer, director and producer, with Jeffrey Carolan as director of photography, Sean Olson ACE editing, Cassidy Serene overseeing production design and Christopher Cano composing the score.

Do You Want to Play receives its World Premiere at Tubi FrightFest on Sunday 30 August at 3.45pm. For tickets, visit: frightfest2026

Do You Want to Play trailer

Horror trailers