CurseoftheVoodoo

Curse of the Voodoo (1965)

The story goes like this. There are some white British guys hunting in Africa for Lions. They shoot one and it wanders off wounded onto the territory of a tribe that worships Lions. Rather than respect their beliefs they go onto the tribes land and finish it off. The natives frown upon this and curse the hunter that killed the lion, Mike Stacey, to a slow and painful death. Even heading back to England can’t protect him from the curse. Eventually he finds out the only way to break the curse is to kill the voodoo priest that cast the spell on him. So off he heads to Africa to kill some natives until he finds the right one. And no I’m not kidding about that part of it.

So lets deal with the obvious. I’m not exactly Mr. Politically correct but this movie is just mean spirited in an ignorant way that really bugs me. It doesn’t even have the excuse of being made in a time when those beliefs were widely held because it was written and shot in the 60s! If the movie wasn’t bad enough it sends the main character on a shooting spree without once having any character challenge if that is the right thing to do. Seriously I was shocked at what I was seeing. Now ignoring that I have to say that Curse of the Voodoo is a terrible movie. The thing is filled with stock footage of animals running here and there. This is only trumped by the random dance scenes that go on and on in a vain attempt to fill up the runtime of a movie that clearly doesn’t have enough story.

So pay attention right here for the one nice thing I have to say about the movie. The camera work and lighting were competently done. Too bad the same can’t be said of the music, which is annoying and won’t go away, and the sound. There are times where you can’t hear the dialogue clearly, which given the quality of writing perhaps isn’t’ a bad thing. The sets that are supposed to be in Africa are less realistic than those from an old Tarzan movie from the 30s, which isn’t’ a good thing. But then all the sets, including a painfully bad nightclub, look lousy so I guess you have to give them props for consistency.

If it isn’t obvious I’m not recommending this movie. In fact I’m begging people to never waste their time on it. That way my sacrifice of sitting through this turkey will not be in vain.

0 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer