To be honest, I really wasn't hating this movie at first. It definitely was much better than expected. I really wasn't expecting much from this movie in this first place, seeing how it's a low-budget horror, starring Danny Trejo, with a not so very appealing cover (that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie by the way). But the movie as it was was pretty good and entertaining. It was well shot and had a seemingly original and interesting premise, involving voodoo. However, about halfway through things suddenly changed and not for the good unfortunately.
It's as if halfway through somebody had put the script up their mouth and spat it out again. It's such a jumbled mess, in which things don't make much sense anymore and all of the character- and story development of the first half gets thrown overboard. It suddenly becomes a far more straightforward horror flick but just not a very good or interesting one though. I completely lost interest, as the movie continued to do the same things over and over again, without ever becoming a creative or very surprising one with anything.
And well, I say it's a horror but is it really? I'm somewhat reluctant to call it that. Sure, it's shot and it's told as a horror movie, with a creepy atmosphere and some creatures showing up from time to time but it's never a movie that's all about scares, or one that features one clear main villain/monster in it, that's killing people, one by one. It's mostly still a movie about fear but it isn't one that's going to put fear into you as well, no matter how easily scared you are.
And as for Danny Trejo; Well, as you would expect he only is in the movie for just a few minutes (literaly) and plays a pretty insignificant role as well. It's one of those things he had to be on set for for one day and was paid a couple of grand, just for saying a couple of lines. He probably hadn't even read the script and if you would ask him now he probably won't even remember playing in this movie. So really, if you decide to watch this movie just because Trejo's name is attached to it, then think again please.
It's all such a shame really. The movie seemed like a pretty decent and original one at first. For some reason there really aren't an awful lot of voodoo related horror movies out there, especially when compared to the amount of, for instance, slashers, vampire movies and zombie flicks, that get released each year. Guess it's a hard subject to tackle but this movie was doing a pretty good job with it, for its first half. I really don't know what happened during production or if the script was such a terrible one to begin with but something went terribly wrong along the line somewhere.
By all means, watch the first half of the movie but for your own sake don't forget to switch it off after the halfway point. Trust me, it's better to have a voodoo curse placed on you than to have to sit through the second half of this movie!
4/10
Watch trailer
No comments: