When you think of the subject of Voodoo the first thing that comes to mind is scary followed by nightmares. The recent release on DVD of Voodoo Possession attempts to make your nightmares real with a lot of bloody horror and a story filled with mystery. While the film looks and feels low budget, if you are a fan of Voodoos’ in film, than you may want to check out Voodoo Possession.
The story centers on Aiden Chase (Ryan Caltagirone) who finds out his brother, a psychiatric doctor, has gone missing in Haiti. His last known whereabouts was the insane asylum in which he was working. He arrives undercover with a camera crew consisting of television personality Bree Nelson (Kerry Knuppe), cameraman Duane (Abe Spigner) and crew member Peanut (Catherine Haena Kim) at the hospital. Acting administrator Dr. Yveline Montase (Marie-Françoise Theodore) greets them an gives them a tour of the facility. When Aiden starts getting close to the truth on why his brother disappeared, the voodoo spirits start to take over their bodies.
During their discovery tour they meet up with some very scary inmates and insatiable demons. Director Walter Boholst keeps is film moving along once all the players have been introduced and moved into place on his asylum setting. As he brings his audience deeper into the story he introduces Danny Trejo as Dr. Koss a missing hospital administrator, who becomes possessed by a demon.
The story gets very willy-nilly and trite and looses any of its horror factors as it moves into the end of the second act. When it gets to the third and final act of the film, it falls apart and become almost unwatchable. But, my job is to give a fair review of everything I agree to review and I made it to the bitter end. Being a low budget, the sets were not up to par with other films of its ilk and it looked like it was shot in a couple of rooms that were rearranged to fit the scene.
Director Boholst who is also the writer of the script gave Danny Trejo way too many lines. Danny has been in over 250 movies and I don’t think he had this many lines, ever. He’s an action actor and fewer words have a lot more meaning. He says more with an expression than most actors can with two pages of dialogue. So when you give Danny too much to say, like Sly Stallone, you don’t get very much.
BONUS FEATURES
“Behind the Scenes” Director and writer Walter Boholst goes over set decoration, script, make-up, cast to screen, props, camera and much more in this nicely made “making of”.
The picture quality of the DVD is good and displays the film as it was shot. The colors and the clarity surprisingly good considering the darkness and drab interiors needed to bring the film to life. The sound quality using the Dolby Digital 5.1 provided on the disc through my television speakers is clear and all dialogue meant to be understood came across without issue.
The film has not been rated by the MPAA, but contains language, violence and gore. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see the film as it does have some scenes that are very inappropriate for adolescents.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Danny Trejo, Ryan Caltagirone, Kerry Knuppe, David Thomas Jenkins, Treva Etienne, Tomas Boykin, Nancy La Scala and Abe Spigner
Director: Walter Boholst
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Running Time: 1 hr 34 min
Video Release Date: January 14th, 2014
Language: English
Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen “Letterbox” 2.35.:1 Aspect Ratio
Subtitles: CC for Hearing Impaired
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RLJ Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
