Voodoo Moon (2006)

Absolutely brilliant

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The Summary title of this feature is a worthy suggestion because not many direct to video's aren't worth the rent.The story has to do with two siblings (brother and sister) who survived a gruesome attack in their small southern town by the denizens turning in out one another. Local authorities claimed it was something in the water or something along those lines that authored this horrible incident but the devil was behind it all as in all the horrible things that happen in this world. The brother goes off learning about various religions to hone his gift to do battle with the horned one who goes by the name Daniel, saving people in his travels so they in turn can help him to do the final battle while his sister grows up to be a very famous and talented artist in New Orleans.The movie itself doesn't focus on the beginnings but rather start off with the brother doing practice runs on satanic incarnations in Haiti under the guidance of his voudoun priest. The dude's advancing until one day, the voudoun priest cast the bones to foretell of horrible events in the states and of course while running to his protégé's shack, he already knows and begins to be off on his quest. His first stop in the states is to reappear in his sister's life, to go along with him to meet his posse of would be disciples? in a hotel, hosted by yours truly, Dee Wallace (of Howling fame) not to far from their old town, which is completely submerged in irrigated water (the reality of that without moving the old town for college kids to go skinny dipping is very questionable.)Now without going too much into spoiler-ville, I will say that this cast has recognizable, barely seen but greatly needed actors like John Amos, Dee Wallace (as mentioned before), the dude who plays the doctor from Yuzna's Re-Annimator series (I forget his name at the moment) and the other guy who plays a local redneck/zombie-ghoul undercover henchman which I'm sure you've seen in plenty of films such as "Way of the Gun."The only complaints I have is that the film didn't go too much into all of the character's backgrounds to explain how and why they came to be the good guys best friend to do battle the devil. For instance, I personally wanted to know what the hell happened to John Amos's character before he get's saved, and I thought Dee was taken out too quickly but I guess it's a rule of thumb to eliminate the weakest characters first. But that aside, it has great fight scenes, gory within needed limits, and the CGI FX was good enough for levitating fight scenes.My favorite part is when one of the girl's (the good guys secret love babe) goes into her past with her being a speed junkie in an occult based biker gang and how the gang performed a ritual where the devil showed up in the barn. I won't go further into the town limits of spoiler-ville but, I thought that was executed nicely.So yes, I say get the movie and warm up your nachos and popcorn because it's good DVD fodder.

Slowest action possible!!! It made me bored. And for a "B" movie this one is not even funny. Poor effects. Overacting from some actors and none from others. Could barely watch it to the end. It did not kept me awake. The plot is boring. Locations? I have not saw one. Did you? It definitely sounded fun to me. "Voodoo Moon" I was expecting something like: "8 Legged Freaks" or "Army of Darkness". And I got something like a Mexican soap "terror" opera with not one zombie in it. Well shoot me in the head, Charisma "got me" to watch it but people this flick is not good even to be a pilot for a TV series. The characters are, mostly "flat" not one stands out, not even the bad guy. Bored, bored.

This movie had a lot going for it but with so many plot holes it was very easy to get lost. I mean for all their powers they let the enemy walk right into the house? That just doesn't make any sense to me. There were other plot holes and only two of the back stories were even talked about.I still don't get why the one friend who was dead kept walking around and they weren't trying to kill him. Still the cast was pretty good but had some weak points. With the right budget and consistent acting this could have been a good TV movie. It was a very original tale but with a poor script and some bad acting it lost something in the translation.

Personally, I think SciFi Channel films are hit or miss, sweet fruit or rotten onions. Don't get me wrong, I'm no high-brow and I enjoy lots of b-grade (as well as c or d-grade schlock). This one surprised me; it was much better than I'd expected. I first decided to watch it to see how the lovely Charisma Carpenter has fared post-Angel, and I was quite pleased with her performance. The rest of the cast did a good job as well, especially cult fave Jeffrey Combs! He added a bit of humor and heart to the good vs. evil plot that could've been a lot heavier. Also, I was pleased and surprised to see John Amos as the biker Dutch - this guy is in his mid-sixties yet played the part of some 30-something tough guy and he looked YOUNGER and in better shape than his GOOD TIMES days. Amazing. Anyway, I digress. The film features a good story, better-than-average effects for the budget and kept me watching (and awake). It's worth the viewing!