VooDoo

A vulgar, poorly made, poorly executed, poorly conceived, sort of first person horror movie. It beats me why it has received some incomprehensibly high ratings. My suppositions are that the heavy imagery and portrait of "hell" has generated shock among viewers, who have appreciated the prolonged and dense succession of scenes in such environment; my other guess is that some movies inherently receive higher ratings due to some element that does not concern the movie's content itself. For example, if a movie imitates iconic, consecrated, forms of horror, rendering homages, it usually predispose viewers who appreciate these references to rate them higher than they actually deserve. That is clearly the case with The House of the Devil (2009), an absolutely mediocre movie which imitates 80's, early 90's horror, giving it an aura of cult; it is also the case of The Void (2016).

Having said that, my view is that VooDoo is very bad movie. I am a horror movie veteran; I don't mind gore, heavy imagery, as I see them as instruments (among many others) to elicit typical horror emotions/responses. The problem is the artificial use of instruments: this happens if the instrument is an end in itself. You replace plot, drama, acting, for cheap instruments to elicit responses that cannot otherwise be provoked due to the general mediocrity of the movie. The skillful use of soundtrack in horror movies can contribute enormously to its quality; however, if it is used for the sake of cheap scares, it becomes and end in itself and artificial resource. In VooDoo, this is the case with the second part of the movie.

The movie has no proper unity. The two clearly distinguishable parts of the movie are almost independent. The build-up is too long, as is too long, or simply inapt, the scenes that take place in the otherworldly dimension. This may have been on purpose, an attempt to portrait a state of continuous despair/suffering. The elements that compose this movie (mystery, horror, shock, gore, tension, drama) are not properly distributed.

The portrait of the evil entities is quite laughable. If you don't have the resources to transform your vision into reality, it is better to be subtle. Also, the prolonged exposition to the entities makes evident their shlock make-up.

On the other hand, this movie simply does not make any sense. It is not proportional (such a response to the victim does not make sense in any level; it is not plausible, if you like). Voodoo, mind you, is an African religion. Yet, the entities, their way of acting, the environment, evoke the stereotypical Christian views of evil. One may argue that voodoo was modified in America. However, it is still immensely incoherent.

In sum, I do not recommend the movie. I usually have a high tolerance for horror movies, being my favorite genre of movies. But I cannot recommend this movie on any level. It is a bad movie on the whole, and it is a bad, unimaginative, horror movie. I never cease to be amazed at writers' lack of imagination in portraying evil. 3/10, and I think this is rather generous. Very amateurish.

Seriously I was not expecting a movie to go down such a depraved path but it did and there's some genuine creepy parts aside from the grotesque descent into what seems like hell. Like the original Evil Dead, the acting is bad and though the special effects lack, that is what makes it work. I get the horror junkies not liking this cuz it lacks more depth or whatever they crave but it's horror and it did what it was meant to do. I had a girl peaking at the movie while I watched it and she went into the other room cuz it freaked her out. Entities with red eyes are something no one wants to see in their room. It's a slow starter and they could've cut out some scenes but I did appreciate the back story as to why this happens to the main character. Also reminded me of the recent Turkish horror movie, Baskin. VooDoo was a sliver better imo.

I began watching the film with low expectations....these expectations were not met. I understand that many horror directors, actors etc have previously worked in the porn industry, I really wish these people had never left it and judging by the lack of effort in the screenplay department I'm guessing they aren't aware they ever did leave. No story, terrible acting, terrible dialogue and filmed, at least sometimes, with a shaky cam for literally no reason at all. I was honestly bored through almost all of it. Thought from the trailer it at least might be fun but it really wasn't. No redeeming qualities. Avoid like the plague.

Well what can I say this film was so bad I have been compelled to give it a review! Its a mess, it's an awful mess of a film that doesn't get going, spends ages building a lack of a plot and finishes with possibly the worst ending of any film ever. I didn't give it one star for the simple reason it made me laugh on a few occasions! But don't get me wrong it tries to take itself seriously, some horrors understand they are not great and take a poke at themselves, this is worse than that.

Whoever did the makeup and special effects needs to choose a different profession, the found footage style doesn't work at all. Rubbish!

I'm getting fed up with modern movies starting off really good and then either not having an ending or the ending is poor and this is another one of those movies. Voodoo movie started really well and I thought this will be a good movie but at half way the movie changed and went downhill fast, so the first half was 6/10 and then the last half was really poor with a poor ending hence my score 3/10