‘Voodoo Possession’ Review

Written by: Matt Molgaard

Voodoo Possession does one thing very, very well; it lives up to the title. We do indeed deal with direct voodoo possession in this picture. Sadly, that’s one of the very, very few positive things I can say about the production as a whole. In fact, I really don’t feel the flick merits much of any time whatsoever, so expect a brief breakdown on this one.

The story sees two feuding brothers separated by time, animosity that stems from infidelities and betrayal; a sudden and unexpected disappearance and the subsequent mission to find the brother who’s gone AWOL. Cody Chase disappears in Haiti while practicing medicine. His estranged brother, Aiden and the one time love interest of both, Bree set out to find the man, only to stumble into a violent world of voodoo magic and bloody murder.

If convoluted narratives and perplexing time jumps tickle your fancy, you’ll love this one. It’s all over the place. The scenes jump around like a kid suffering from ADHD after eating a triple layer cake in 15 minutes. One moment we’re here, in the present. Suddenly we’re stuck in a flashback, before jumping to an out of body vision, before venturing into voodoo Hell, before… You’ve got to see where I’m going with this. I’m going in all directions at once, because that’s precisely what the picture does, and it’s not – in the slightest – appealing. If anything, it’s just confusing.

 

There aren’t many positive elements to point out here, but the one thing that did impress was the effort from leads Ryan Caltagirone and Kerry Knuppe (no I’m not going to heap praise on Danny Trejo. He does a fine job in the film, but he’s got damn near zero screen time; he’s been included in order to staple a marquee name on the cover/poster with the hopes of driving sales and nothing more). These two feel a bit frigid in the grand scheme of things, but that should be attributed to the generally disappointing and amateur nature of the movie. If you drop these two actors in a production that boasts not only a quality script, but a budget and strong cast mates, they’re good, refined thespians. They both clearly, clearly know how to act. They were simply swallowed by a dull concept and cheap final finish.

Would I recommend Voodoo Possession? Well, I don’t think so. If you miss it, you’re not losing out on anything, in any way. That said, Caltagirone and Knuppe probably deserve a chance to win audiences over. At the end of the day a couple solid performances just can’t save this completely disjointed picture. Just not happening.

Rating: 1.5/5