Bad Voodoo review
A revenge movie that turns to the dark arts to exact its vengeance.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Bad Voodoo
Directed by Andrew Adler and Andre Hepburn
Screenplay by Devin Fearn
Manny Perez, John Fiore, Christina Moody, Justin Genna, Alex Joseph Pires, Jimmy C. Jules and Charlie Alejandro
Bad Voodoo Review
There probably aren’t as many voodoo horror movies as there should be. Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow is always at the top of the mind when you think about it. The entire Child’s Play/Chucky utilizes it too…but you probably have to think about it for a minute before you remember that. There are others…but naming them off the cuff isn’t an easy endeavor. It’s weird to think about. We have countless movies in other subgenres…but very little set in the world of voodoo. It’s ripe for adaptation. Voodoo dolls are their own kind of fun…but there’s a lot more too the practice than that. Bad Voodoo uses it to tell a story of revenge. Dolls and all.
The set-up for Bad Voodoo is a bit complicated to explain in a paragraph. It’s easy to understand in the film…but there are a few elements to putting it together that aren’t easy to summarize. Basically, a couple is seeking revenge on the people responsible for the death of their young daughters. It involves a prison break that includes the girls’ father who was in a coma following the car accident that claimed his daughters’ lives. The way the story is told kind of makes you think that the accident was more the father’s fault than the car that hit them…but leave that to the side for now because Bad Voodoo has thought of that and addresses it within the narrative.
Anyway, the couple who lost their lay a trap that involves Abigail (Cristina Moody) being “kidnapped” by the men she deems responsible for the accident. She’s the mother, by the way. This really does sound more complicated than it is. Though I guess the setup is a bit more complicated than it really needs to be in practice too. Either way, within a short time the tables will be turned on the escaped convicts, and they’ll find themselves chained up in the couple’s basement. Bad Voodoo is, at its heart, a revenge story. What makes it unique is that it’s a revenge story with voodoo.
Abigail and her husband aren’t just dabblers in the dark art of voodoo…they’re committed practitioners. And they’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. What follows are some dark rituals that mean to bring everyone responsible for the death of their children to justice. If you were able to spot the monkey’s paw like catch in that statement…yes, Bad Voodoo has a bit of a Tales From the Crypt twist to its brand of justice. But maybe not in the way you expect. I was actually reminded of Tales From the Crypt a couple of times while watching Bad Voodoo. It has the vibe of a story that would have felt right at home in the series.
We get some fun voodoo doll stuff…but Bad Voodoo is more interested in expanding the usage of the practice than limiting it to inflicting pain via proxy. It brings full supernatural shenanigans to the table. Transmogrify, summoning spirits, a voodoo priest that appears out of thin air…all bets are off once the magic comes into play. There are some fun bloody moments once the rituals get rolling.
While Abigail is trying to exact her revenge she’s also dealing with a police investigation. The authorities know that her husband was involved in the prison break…and suspect that Abigail knows more than she’s letting on. A local cop that she has a history with is trying to help her…the detective who she blames for botching her daughters’ case is in the mix as well. Every knock on the door is an annoying distraction for Abigail. This is her big night, after all.
Bad Voodoo has a lot of dramatic moments dealing with the guilt and grief surrounding a tragic event. But it knows that you probably want to see someone get their arm broken via voodoo doll too. The rituals are deadly…and the movie brings the promise of justice for everyone to blame full circle in a satisfying way. It’s well paced and the usage of voodoo gives it a unique angle for a revenge movie. There are issues, of course. The ones you expect to find in an independent production. Some of the scenes could have used another take…but everyone is going for it whether it lands or not.
If you’re interested in some voodoo horror, Bad Voodoo packs plenty of it into its revenge drama. A couple of fun narrative turns at the end of the story let the story end feeling fresh and alive. If you can look past some of its rougher moments…Bad Voodoo is doing some new stuff.
Scare Value
Bad Voodoo is rough around the edges, but it is doing some things that we don’t see a lot of in horror movies. There’s drama underneath the supernatural revenge that keeps things grounded in a good way. This is the story of suffering parents and how far they’ll go to exact vengeance. And how much grief and guilt can cloud your mind…opening yourself up to reap what you sow.
2.5/5
