Voodoo Moon

R1 DVD

Anchor Bay 2006

Directed By : Kevin VanHook
Eric Mabius (Resident Evil)
Charisma Carpenter (Angel)
Jeffrey Combs (Abominable)
Dee Wallace (The Plague)

Twenty years ago, a demonic massacre in a sleepy Southern town left two young siblings as the lone survivors. But for adult Cole (Eric Mabius) and his younger sister Heather (Charisma Carpenter), an obsession with their parents death and indeed the masscare of their whole town has lasted a lifetime.

Cole, however, is not unprepared, since his parents death he has studied the nature of evil and mastered techniques of exorcism and magic from such diverse traditions as Christianity, Shamanism and Voudoun. Cole is a sort of “new age” post modern exorcist, who uses everything from Bible verses to Voudoun spells to track down his enemy. While he has beaten “the great” evil many times before, each time it seems to return in a different form and more powerful. But Cole too has grown and become a great master of magic in his own right. The evil has returned once again and Cole must rise to the challenge, but this time for a final showdown. He calls together his “disciples” via a psychic connection, this motley group includes an outlaw biker (John Amos, “The West Wing”, DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER), a traumatized cop (Jeffrey Combs, RE-ANIMATOR) and a mysterious healer (Dee Wallace, CUJO and THE HOWLING). Coles sister also seems called to help but does not understand how, she is aware of her gift, but simply understands it as precognition, but her glimpses of the future may hide a stronger and more important power.

Voodoo Moon is a quirky and strange occult thriller, rather than the old good versus evil battle presented in Christian garb (also Omen, the Excorcist etc etc), we have a new age goth warrior who uses everything from the Bible to Voudon glyphs and shamanic rattles. There is something decidedly postmodern about it all and while the script attempts to cover some interesting territory, it certainly does tend to be a bit long in the tooth and wordy. The special effects are pretty good for a B Grade horror and there are especially impressive scenes, I was generally surprised that the gore and violence level was kept as low as it was considering the subject.

While I will grant you Voodoo Moon does have a sort of Buffy/Charmed feel to it but it is still a lot of fun and worth a watch.