Late one night, Abigail (Cristina Moody - November Lies) gets a knock on the door of her house, opening it she finds Officer Marcus (Scott Sederquist - Ghostbusters uncredited) there. He tells her that there has been a breakout from a nearby prison, and that four convicts have managed to escape and are suspected to be in the area, after their car was found abandoned nearby. Abigail doesn't appear too bothered, thinking that the likelihood of the convicts coming to her home were remote. This turns out to be a bit naïve of her, as not long after the officer leaves, she learns all too late that the convicts have already broken into her home. The four desperate men; wildcard Nonzo (Alex Pires - The Punisher), strong silent Nice (Justin Genna - Project Z: History of the Zombie Apocalypse), wounded Smooth (Justin Lombard), and the leader; foul mouthed Doc (Manny Perez - Luke Cage) quickly take the woman hostage. A series of unexpected events leads to the tables being turned, and soon the men find themselves at the mercy of a revenge fuelled voodoo practising woman, whose voodoo dolls work all too well...
I had to butcher the synopsis a little bit just to paste over some of the twists that while occurring early, are still worth keeping a bit secret. Having not read a synopsis myself beforehand, I went into this with only the film's title as a clue as to what this would be about. From the start, this appeared it would be a relatively low budget home invasion horror, and I expected it to follow the story beats of the protagonist somehow getting free and viciously murdering her captors one by one over the course of the 85 minute horror. Expectations are soon changed, the twists coming early and remaining consistent from beginning to end. I found Abigail to be an irritating lead, even with righteousness on her side, I found it hard to root for her. A lot of this come from her stubbornness to do what she wanted, rather than to stick to her agreement with the person she had made quite a serious deal with. I can't really keep that part quiet, the voodoo part of the title comes from the appearance of Houngans (Haitian born Jimmy C. Jules - The Purge: Election Year uncredited). This character is a voodoo priest and is everything you would expect him to be, from his sudden appearances out of nowhere, to his eccentric mannerisms and theatrical way of talking. Over the top, but also quietly creepy, he steals the scenes he appears in, without seeming like he doesn't fit into the film world. The convicts were a little bit more stereotypical, but I enjoyed the performances regardless, Doc was exactly as you would imagine a hardened criminal to be, and I liked how Nonzo related a story that gave a hint at was what to come to his fellow escapees. That related story might have been a bit convenient, but it set up the idea that in this film world, voodoo was a real thing. I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to things like voodoo in real life. Much like I don't believe in ghosts but wouldn't want to spend the night alone in a haunted house, I think voodoo has a more scientific explanation, but still wouldn't want to be anywhere near people who practised such things; just in case, you know?
What had appeared to be a low budget horror was actually more polished than I at first assumed. This is very much a horror drama, the entire film takes place in Abigail's home, and there isn't a lot of action in a sense. Mostly, it is characters standing around talking, arguing, or occasionally having little scuffles with each other. The horror here is effective due to how food the effects are. Voodoo dolls feature heavily, and they work as well as you would want them to. The special effects sell this very well, with details kept fully on screen at points. An early scene where a character has their fingers broken via the doll looked fantastic. Elsewhere, parts that aren't shown in as much detail work due to the imagination being called into play. A scene right near the end conjured in my mind that horrific ending shot in the 1932 film Freaks. The film barely features a soundtrack, it had some atmospheric sounds at times, but no real music at all. Sometimes I did miss a film score, but mostly, I thought the drama of this horror worked much better by not being accompanied by music to try and impart to the viewers what they should be feeling. This is also presented in an old style screen format, not widescreen, this contains the horror to a claustrophobic feeling box in the centre.
Despite not liking the protagonist character, I thought Bad Voodoo was a great little horror. I loved the horror elements and how they didn't overshadow what is at its heart a film about dealing and processing grief. I loved the drama of this as well, I always find it interesting when a film could work just as well om a stage than from behind a camera. Bad Voodoo released on VOD and DVD on February 10th.
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