Review: 'Voodoo Possession'

Title: VOODOO POSSESSION
Year: 2014
Director: Walter Boholst
Writer: Walter Boholst
Starring: Ryan Caltagirone, David Thomas Jenkins, Kerry Knuppe, Catherine Haena Kim, Darius Devontaye Green, Danny Trejo

VOODOO POSSESSION opens with one of the coolest, most creative death scenes I’ve seen in a long, long time. There isn’t a whole lot of gore in this scene, really just a bit of blood, but the idea and image this burned into my head is pretty crazy and disturbing. Unfortunately the rest of the film does not live up to this opening sequence.

An American television film crew heads to Haiti to search for a missing American doctor (David Thomas Jenkins). One member of the crew, Aiden (Ryan Caltagirone), happens to be the older brother of the doctor. Their search takes them to an insane asylum that is now in ruins and suffering from a voodoo curse.

VOODOO POSSESSION doesn’t suffer in the areas most low-budget horror films tend to suffer. The acting is pretty solid. None of it is great, but it’s all pretty good. The production value is nice. Everything is shot well and looks good. There are a few cheesy lines of dialogue here and there, but for the most part the dialogue is all pretty good. The script, however, does serve as the film’s biggest problem.

Writer/director Walter Boholst has a script that is very complicated. I think he set out to do something ambitious and ended up trying to go too big instead of just simplifying things. I admire the effort, but more isn’t always better.

For starters the film is too talkie at the beginning. Too much info is given on voodoo. I don’t know if any of it is right and I really don’t care. I get that the film has to do with voodoo, but we don’t need a history lesson on the religion. I felt like the film spent 45 minutes giving me the ins and outs of voodoo. I felt it was all a bit unnecessary.

When we finally move past the voodoo lesson and get into the meat and potatoes of the script, everything gets confusing. The story has far too much going on. Every time you think you have the basic plot figured out, more info is tossed out at you and it all just ends up turning into a big mess.

Lastly we end with a finale that feels like it belongs in a different movie. The overall tone to VOODOO POSSESSION is pretty serious. Yeah, there’s a few jokes mixed in, but it takes itself very seriously. The movie ends with our hero having a showdown with a demon known as the Tormenter. I love that the filmmaker’s chose to use practical effects, but the creature just looks too silly to be in this movie. Again sometimes simpler is the way to go.

VOODOO POSSESSION has some cool ideas behind it and a great opening scene. Unfortunately the rest of the film tries to be too big and never quite knows what it wants to be. This is one curse you don’t want to get.

Rating: 2/5

Own VOODOO POSSESSION today: http://www.amazon.com/Voodoo-Possession-Danny-Trejo/dp/B00FMGPVPG