'A Voodoo Possession' had a somewhat interesting idea, though not one that blew me away and as said already voodoo is not something usually watched by me. Danny Trejo also had me interested, one doesn't see him in good projects often but he tends to be one of their least bad aspects. Expectations were not exactly high but it was not as if it was watched with the want of it being bad.
My attention was sort of grabbed by the opening scene, which was the most unsettling 'A Voodoo Possession' got. The best thing about the film is the set, which does have an atmospheric creepiness that deserved better film. Like as was said in my recent review for 'The Cloth', also featuring Trejo, 'A Voodoo Possession' otherwise manages to be a complete mess at the end of the day. It wastes everything that the film was seen for in the first place, and ruins a not bad premise with execution that describing it as sub-par is being far too kind.
What few slightly competent effects 'A Voodoo Possession' has is eclipsed completely by the pretty abysmal standard of the rest for a vast majority of the film. The acting also could have been worse, but that is not to see it was great or note-worthy because that's not the case. Most don't seem comfortable and look inexperienced. Trejo himself is not enough to save things, he is not in it anywhere near enough, his role and scenes don't contribute majorly and he tends to try too hard.
In fairness, a lot works against them. The dialogue does make one cringe, with a lot of cheese, intentional and unintentional, is incredibly awkward and there is an equal amount of nauseatingly cloying and over-sentimental melodrama. The characters have very little development and not enough personality to make one relate, some behave like idiots and make decisions one gets frustrated with them with.
For a film about voodoo and possessions, 'A Voodoo Possession' offers nothing new. Even worse is that it's often incoherent, with such aimless and all-over-the-place and sprawling plotting, and then it's too obvious to be scary, too dull to be tense or suspenseful, too cheesy to be fun and too ridiculous to be thrilling. None of those positive attributes are present at any thing and all the negative attributes are plastered all over.
Visually, 'A Voodoo Possession' is chaotic and drab apart from the set, and the music and sound generate no atmosphere let alone suspense, being over-bearing instead.
Overall, a couple of good points but a complete mess on the whole. 2/10 Bethany Cox
