Voodoo Moon

I really think that 10, maybe 15 years down the line, this movie will be fondly looked upon as a horror classic. I had seen Kevin VanHook's "The Fallen Ones" on SciFi and was quite impressed with it (much more than most of their movies), plus having Jeffrey Combs (a personal all-time favorite since "Re-Animator"), John Amos, and Dee Wallace (along with a great sticker price!) made it a good choice to pick up.

This film kicks ass from the opening scenes and doesn't let go until the end. I only wish it had been a bit longer and gone into some greater depth and detail. Kevin VanHook is clearly a fan's filmmaker, and I'm willing to bet he makes movies the way he'd like to see them as a fan. The budget may be relatively low on this one, but the effects are first-rate (which should really be expected, considering that VanHook comes from an effects technician background). VanHook is one filmmaker I'm going to be keeping an eye out for - he may not ever graduate to the big leagues, let's face it, big-name genre directors are few and far between (which is a shame in and of itself), but I'm hoping his writing/directing resume becomes a long one.

I highly recommend picking up a copy and sitting down to watch it with a bunch of munchies, as you won't want to pause it to run to the kitchen. My only gripe on the DVD is that there's no Director's Commentary - but it does have a couple of Making Of/Behind-The-Scenes extras.

For a science fiction channel movie it is pretty good...most of their movies consist of a computer generated monster of some sort in the water or killer dinosaurs or something. This one was sort of a combination of two Stephen King novels "The Stand" and "It" and while no means better than the books it is at least better than "It". Never saw "The Stand" so I don't know if it was better than that one. This one has a man battling what is essentially the devil many times in the past, each time helping someone out and they in turn are in his debt. Well the final showdown is about to take place, in a town where it all began so many years ago as the devil apparently killed many in a town including the man who would battle Satan's parents. So all those the man has saved start to go on the move for the town so they can help in this final battle. Of course, along the way the devil is trying to knock off as many of these friends as he can. Nothing to shocking and there are some plot points that needed to be worked out a bit more such as the Dee Wallace character and the main characters sister, still though it passed the time and had a few good gory effects, of course it had some bad ones too as you know the sci fi channel has to use that computer they own to add horrible computer graphics where using old fashioned techniques would have worked as well if not better such as the church steeple in the middle of the lake. Really why use cgi there? Simply imposing a real steeple would have looked more real and would have been cheaper too. Oh well. All in all not a bad flick it has this and that and look for Jeffery Combs in the sort of comic relief role as he does a good job.

I have only seen the first 45 minutes. It's horrid. The acting is stilted. That actor from "Reincarnator" (whatever) is an energy sucker. He huffs and puffs and looks as if he might inflate and explode. That's not acting. That's behaving. Of course he's always been a total ham. CC is herself, sweet, pleasant and Cordelia. The film is shot on what looks like 16 mm school grade stock. The camera work looks like a drunk monkey stole the tripod and ran around with it while the actors just kept speaking. The scene with the priest and the cop is some of the hokiest, idiotically juvenile dialogue and infestation of hideous special effects "artistry" (please: the cop raising up? You could plainly see where the wires were jerking up his pants, and the priest fires two bullets at the guys's chest, and a third squib exploded accidentally!)

CC deserves to have actual roles, not washed out copies of Cordelia Chase.

I watched this flick mainly because of the main actors: Eric Mabius, Charisma Carpenter, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace and John Amos. The storyline caught my attention. I thought this would be at least interesting. It was horrible! I'd give this the SUPER ISHTAR Award! Even Ishtar was a better film! Attack of the Killer Tomatoes would have won an Academy Award if compared to Voodoo Moon. I even love camp B-grade films but this one was F-Grade! It is totally slug slow and boring. The script writing and directing are incredibly lame, the acting is lethargic (did they feed the actors Thorazine?). Did Kevin VanHook win a lottery in some state to fund this fiasco? I could have done better with an 8mm video camera and local talent! Because I needed to see the end, it took me three different days to finally finish Voodoo Moon. I started and stopped the DVD several times. The initial plot was interesting, but the development of the storyline was so infantile. There were many open holes that were never filled in. The ending of this movie just drops off into some sort of empty black hole. Kevin VanHook may have some good credits to his name for video effects but after looking at the other films he as written, directed or produced, I think I will totally avoid any future films he purports to deliver. Pure BUNK!

I liked the idea of Voodoo Moon and I was particularly excited to see a movie with Charisma Carpenter and John Amos. I was so disappointed! The storyline was incomprehensible. There were elements introduced throughout the movie--an appearance in a graveyard, pictures drawn, and childhood memories--that never added up to anything pertinent to the storytelling. As for the sister, her power was alluded to many times, but never really explained. Worse, the acting stunk. I say this, despite the fact that I adore Charisma Carpenter and respect John Amos. I usually applaud their acting, but that is impossible to do with their lifeless performances in Voodoo Moon. The movie committed the worst possible crime: it bored me. I couldn't keep my attention on it. Many opportunities for suspense are wasted by the director and the actors. There is absolutely nothing to recommend in this film.