Customer Reviews

Voodoo Moon

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lately, there's been a lot of direct to DVD horror movies released by Anchor Bay (It Waits, Room 6, Demon Hunter); just about all of which have been nothing worth seeing. I expected the same from Voodoo Moon, but surprisingly it's not a total crud-fest like I had expected it to be. Eric Mabius (Resident Evil) and Buffy and Angel's Charisma Carpenter star as siblings with tragic pasts, that soon find themselves holed up with a few other people as demonic forces threathen them. Predictable to the extreme, Voodoo Moon is surprisingly enjoyable for what it is, with Mabius being a surprisingly decent hero, and Carpenter looking as beautiful as ever, though her comedic talents which Buffy and Angel fans know by heart, don't get to be put on display. The action scenes are mostly decent, and the rest of the cast, including Re-Animator icon Jeffrey Combs and the Howling's Dee Wallace, are good as well. All in all, if you're looking for an enjoyable B-movie romp that doesn't take itself super seriously, check out Voodoo Moon.

After viewing this little gem I can honestly say I don't care what other reviewers have to say. It's that good. High protein horror trip that provides some terrific fun in the old battle of Good vs. Evil.
One has to be a bit skeptical with a production that is written, directed, and edited by the same person. That person, in this case, is Kevin VanHook, who has done a commendable job of storytelling without getting his audience wrapped up in annoying theatrics. No bobbling cameras, filtered color, or gore for gore's sake. Straight forward action with some excellent special effects; so well done and very effective.
A truly professional cast with John Amos almost stealing the show.
Now for the best part. The ending. NO SPOILERS HERE. But what a great piece of cinematic genius. You'll sit back and say...wait a minute...oh my God...that's cool...real cool.
Viewing "VOODOO MOON" will cast a spell on you.
You'll want to see it again.

This is a pretty slick offering from IDT/Anchor Bay Entertainment. Well
acted, well edited, and well directed, it features some good, effective CGI effects work and fine cinematography. Kevin Van Hook ("The Fallen Ones") gives us a suspenseful, action-packed thriller about a demon fighter named Cole (Eric Mabius) out to finally put and end to a particularly loathesome and murderous creature of darkness that calls itself "Daniel" (and which typically presents itself in human form as a seductively handsome young man...all the better to set one up for destruction). Cole has waged battles with "Daniel" over many years and certain psychic indicators tell him the climactic "last battle" is imminent. Gathering assistance from people he has saved from Daniel in the past (characters excellently portrayed by fine actors like Dee Wallace Stone, John Amos, Jeffrey Coombs and others), as well as help from his own sister, Heather (Charisma Carpenter), Cole prepares for the final confrontation...and, at a sunken townsite ("Merrifield, Tennessee") under a lake...that last battle is joined.

This is an entertaining genre flick...sort of like an earthbound, contemporary version of a Jedi Knight vs. a Sith Lord....the Good side of The Force vs. The Dark Side...and well done all around.

The movie is somewhat mis-titled and I suspect that was just a marketing ploy. There is little to do with any moon anywhere in this (except that there IS one in the night sky whenever supernatural battle is joined), and the involvement of Voodoo is minimal. The only substantive depiction of Voodoo is only at the beginning of the film...a sequence depicting a confrontation betweeen Cole and Daniel in "Haiti"...that, and another brief early-on sequence where a Voodoo Hougan warns Cole that he has had a "goofer dust" premonition that Daniel is incarnating again. When Cole is explaining to his sister about his personal demon-fighting prowess, he explains to her that he has studied the Evil-defeating techniques of the Church, as well as those of the Hindus, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Native Americans, and, most recently, the practitioners of Voudon ("voodoo"). He indicates that he has combined all of these into a kind of unified system to use against demonic forces (he is saying, in effect, that he has created for himself a kind of non-contact, spiritualistic version of Bruce Lee's "Jeet Kune Do"). And this he will use against Daniel.

Apart from these references...and an early-on stop in New Orleans (another locality associated with Voodoo) to pick up his sister...Voodoo plays no significant part in this movie (despite what the title and the graphic art on the packaging might lead one to believe). After Cole picks up his sister they head for Tennessee and all subsequent action takes place there. Apart from a gris-gris amulet Cole has that he uses to now and then shoot power bolts at Daniel , voodoo references and influences have long since been left behind. Anyone expecting hexes, ouangas, walking dead zombies, etc., might as well "fuggettaboutit" . This is more like Luke Skywalker turns exorcist. Still and all, its good entertainment.

Recommended.

Having just spent the last 90 something minutes of my life watching Voodoo Moon, I have too many unanswered questions. The first and most important is "Did the movie creators loose interest or run out of budget?" This is very much an unfinished work, a diamond in the rough that was never honed.

After the first hour, I was ready to give Voodoo Moon a 4 or 5 star rating. The characters have potential, the plot was intricately woven, everyone had a role to play in this great fight against good and evil, and there were a hundred small subplot just waiting to be resolved. The villain even alluded to `making' the hero twenty years ago. Cool! How did that happen I wondered eagerly. I was almost bouncing up and down in my seat when I heard about a really cool underwater ghost town. YAY! This was going to be fun!

Then....

Nothing. No subplots were tied up. The main plot isn't resolved. It isn't like they tie up a few loose ends then prepare you for a sequel- that's not the feeling that you get here. No ones powers were explained, the big, build up fight took ten seconds, and the main `boss' villain was defeated in a silly, too easy way.

If the movie had been developed more, polished more, it would have been great. As it is now, watch it only if you want to have some cool character ideas to play around with in your mind, because nothing will be fixed on screen.

Bottom line, I can't recommend it in good conscience.

Derivative and disjointed, VOODOO MOON nonetheless manages to be an entertaining little horror movie, with good performances and production values.
A demon has wiped out an entire village, resulting in its being flooded to make a lake for a new water supply. Two of its survivors, Corey and Heather, are gifted with varying psychic powers. He's like an exorcist and she can draw pictures that foretell the future. Corey has dedicated his life to fighting this nasty demon but now has one final showdown in which he enlists the help of people he has saved from this demon in the past. He also convinces his sister to join in his quest. It's all been done before and it's reminiscent of the tv series SUPERNATURAL and even the PROPHECY movie franchise. Eric Mabius is a buffed up, stolid hero; BUFFY'S Charisma Carpenter is his sister; Rik Craig is the demonic Daniel; the ageless John Amos looking pretty fit for a man in his sixties plays a biker; the ubiquitous Jeffrey Combs is the zombie-like cop; and Dee Wallace shows up as some kind of healer whom Corey rescued.
It's all pretty hokey but it's tale of good vs. evil is given some refreshing life.

If only the film considered religion seriously
and developed characters beyond the superficial
this could have been a great horror film.

There are very good effects and cinematography.
There is action and humor and decent acting.
The look and feel of the film were very good
and the plot was interesting.
But when the Devil has at least as much respect
for the Holy Bible and the morals and theology
of the Christian religion as the exorcist
and his friends, you have a problem.

Camp is good and this film could
have been very good camp.
I wanted to like this movie more.

The movie ended with our hero
letting his sister drive the car.
What a guy!

I thought the cat, who ends up licking blood from a severed head, was a phenomenal extra. Her name is Daisy and she is completely underrated. I hope we see more of her in the future.

First of all, Kevin Vanhook's Voodoo Moon is a B movie. It is not meant to be great cinema. If you take it at that level its not really a bad film.

Starring Eric Mabius and Charisma Carpenter as brother and sister, Cole and Heather, the last two survivors of a demonic massacre on their home town, the film attempts to portray the ultimate battle between good and evil. With that being said the film is like all good vs. evil battles except on a slightly to much lower budget. Vanhook is a hands on film maker and he has performed the task of writing, producing, editing and directing the film.

The story while it has some plot holes is not really that bad. The concept is pretty good even if the execution is flawed by the lack of budget. The supporting cast is solid also. We have both John Amos and Dee Wallace in decent form. Less strong performances are given by Jeff Combes and Jayne Heitmayer as part of Cole's team of zombie slayers.

Religion is used effectively in the film and the key battle is more out of the Exorcist than a film like Blade. The zombies are simply there for the gore factor. The film plays more like Shaun of the Dead than Dawn of the Dead, even though both may be counted as sources of inspiration.

With a higher budget this one could have been a contender instead of o straight to video release. The DVD includes two featurettes on the making of the film, three deleted and extended scenes, a photo gallery and a commentary by writer, producer, editor, director Vanhooks.

Rent it for an evening of lite horror fun.

IDT/Anchor Bay is definitely making a name for themselves. I almost didn't buy this DVD for some crappy reviews I read. I'm so glad I got it now. It is a full featured DVD with animated screens, documentaries, and loads of extras. Its a B movie and it has everything I love about a good B movie. A solid B+ on that scale. Decent acting great storyline and a cool plot. Some of the effects were even a step up from the B movie bar. They put in a lot of detail work and extra effort on the effects and performances. It is definitely worth the look...I'm pleased to add it to my shelf.

Voodoo Moon (Kevin Van Hook, 2005)

Oh, why do I never learn? I should check the directors on movies before I watch them. This is my fourth Kevin VanHook movie, and each time I subject myself to another one, I ask myself why in the world I would do such a stupid thing. VanHook is the American equivalent of Uwe Boll, but without the in-place settings Boll gets from the videogames he desecrates when making them into movies. Which, arguably, makes VanHook's movies even stupider. And while Voodoo Moon is the best of the four VanHook movies I've seen, it's still an execrable mess of a movie that should never have seen the light of day.

The movie centers around Cole (Resident Evil's Eric Mabius) and his sister Heather (Charisma Carpenter of TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the only survivors of the destruction of the town where they were born by a... warlock? demon? depends on which summary you read. In any case, the bad guy, Daniel (Rik Young of that really bad Beowulf adaptation) is still around, and Cole has been battling him over the ensuing twenty years while Heather has been growing up and trying to make her way as an artist. The final battle approaches, however, and Cole enlists Heather's help, along with that of a number of other people he's helped against Daniel over the years--a cop (Jeffrey Combs), a biker (John Amos), a housewife (Jayne Heitmeyer), a hotel owner (Dee Wallace), and some others whose careers we never find out, in order to make sure Daniel stays put once and for all. In order to do that, they all need to convene on the ruins of the town where it all began--which lay deserted until the county decided to make a reservoir out of it.

I can usually find one aspect of a particularly bad movie that makes it worse than it would otherwise be, even when the movie didn't have any potential in the first place, and in the case of Voodoo Moon, it's the acting. Mabius is flat as a board. Carpenter shows a good part of the reason why both Buffy and Angel were such terrible shows. Wallace sounds as if she's on Xanax throughout the entire film. Combs, well, Combs has always been popular because he's such a bad actor that he usually transcends that and achieves a kind of mentally-deficient brilliance, but not here (though he does provided some much-needed, if unintentional, comic relief). The only half-decent actor here is Amos, and it seems as if VanHook was standing over his shoulder every time the camera wasn't rolling giving him lessons in overacting.

This is not to say that other aspects of the film are any better. The script is hideous, taking dribs and drabs from a number of other flicks that were overused even when they appeared in those other flicks. (Did we really need another ghostly chase through a New Orleans graveyard?) VanHook's direction is as uninspired as ever, though at least the subject matter isn't as tremendously stupid as it was in, for example, Slayers. The settings are stock, the events are stock, it's all just derivative tripe. Avoid like the plague. *