Voodoo Moon (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

Pretty bad.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 23 December 2006]

Voodoo Moon tells the tale of Cole (Eric Mabius) some sort of guy who has magical powers who is seeking Daniel (Rik Young) who happens to be the devil & made the town where Cole was born murder each other, or something like that. The whole town that is except Cole & his psychic sister Heather (Charisma Carpenter) who are now on a revenge mission to kill Daniel. To aid them in this task Cole psychically summons various people whom he has used his powers to save in some capacity & owe him a favour. Erm, eventually they all meet up & fight & that's about it.

This Canadian American co-production was edited, written & directed by Kevin VanHook who also makes a cameo appearance as a 'Cemetery Gardener' & I thought it was pretty damned bad. The script is painfully slow, most of the film seems to take place in a large farmhouse where not much happens. The character's are also pretty poor, while two of the people Cole summons to help him are given stories shown in flashback none of the others are & they feel underdeveloped, inconsequential & pointless. Daniel the devil is given no motivation for anything, he doesn't seem to have any sort of plan & he dies too easily. Then there's the magical powers that some of the character's seem to have, I know Cole has magical Voodoo type abilities but it's very sketchy & why the hell does Frank Taggert (Jeffrey Combs) get his neck broken & then comes back to life? What? It's baffling & a bizarre story arc that seems at odds with the rest of the film. Why do all these events suddenly take place now? There seems to be no significant reason why everything takes place at the point in time that it does, none whatsoever. The action is lightweight & dull, there's barely any violence & gore plus it's a real chore to sit through.

Director VanHook does OK although it's all rather forgettable, flat, bland & unexciting. There's no atmosphere or scares & a lot of the CGI effects are pretty bad. Forget about any blood or gore as there isn't any.

With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 one has to wonder where the money went, I'm sorry but this is a very bland forgettable film that doesn't distinguish itself in any area. The acting is of a suitably low standard & it's a shame to see a fine actor like Jeffrey Combs in crap low budget horror films like this & All Souls Day (2005).

Voodoo Moon is rubbish, I'm sure no one sets out to make a bad film & I'm positive no one here did but lets call a spade a spade shall wee, it's crap. Definitely not recommended.

Live Action Comic Book

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 3/10 · 22 September 2007]

I rented this movie because it has Jeffrey Combs, in an all too bizarre role, and did not even think to glance at who the director for this feature was. When I saw the name Kevin Van Hook, I immediately regretted this rent. His film Frost is quite possibly the worst movie ever made. However, while Frost was utterly terrible, Voodoo Moon is just terrible.

Van Hook's comic book background shows in this film which could have benefited from being a mini-series, but who would view a mini-series from an unknown director? My reasoning behind the mini-series idea is that Van Hook has interesting ideas and characters but fails to flesh them out. A perfect example of this is when Mabius seeks refuge at a farmhouse and a handful of new characters are introduced. Van Hook doesn't even give us a vague background on the majority of these new characters as you certainly won't care about them.

Maybe Van Hook should stick to comic books were he can produce issue after issue and give us the characterization that he fails to deliver in this film.

VIOLENCE: $$$ (Nothing too graphic but there are a handful of murders and Mabius uses magic occasionally to subdue his adversaries while he isn't lying in bed gathering his strength... which he does often).

NUDITY: $$ (Your typical no account "actress" bares herself as she is tied down to a cross in a church. This scene has substance but the nudity was not needed to make the scene work).

STORY: $$ (Like I said, Van Hook tries to do too much here, introducing characters with no background, utilizing boring monologues between fight scenes and creating bizarre and downright insipid characters, like Jeffrey Combs' and Dee Wallace's character. Two amazing actors whose talents are wasted).

ACTING: $$ (Quite wooden! I imagine this film will appeal most to folks who adored Charisma Carpenter's Buffy role and fans of Eric Mabius. However, the two leads have no chemistry and are out shined by Rik Young's villainous role. John Amos is adequate as a tough guy biker but much like every character in this film, his role was one-dimensional.

Charisma fans beware

[bikepoloplayer · 3/10 · 28 March 2007]

I'm a huge Charisma Carpenter fan. This said, I was disappointed by this movie. Her charm did not come through, in fact NONE of the actors seemed to be doing much acting in this movie. I think the best performances came from Rik Young who played the evil Daniel, and Jeffrey Combs who seemed to have fun playing a good zombie, although his performance was terrible until the point where his character died, then he became downright hilarious, in a probably not really trying to be funny kind of way, I'm not sure if I was laughing at his character or with the actor playing the character.

The sad thing is, I've seen most of these actors/actresses do great jobs in other shows/films, I would have to blame the director on this flop.

Generally poorly explained happenings, flat acting, and terrible special effects. But Charisma is still beautiful.

It made me bored.

[caboing · 1/10 · 9 October 2006]

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.

Good Concept but POORLY Delivered

[Gypsybelle · 1/10 · 18 May 2007]

I watched this flick mainly because of the main actors: Eric Mabius, Charisma Carpenter, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace and John Amos. The storyline caught my attention. I thought this would be at least interesting. It was horrible! I'd give this the SUPER ISHTAR Award! Even Ishtar was a better film! Attack of the Killer Tomatoes would have won an Academy Award if compared to Voodoo Moon. I even love camp B-grade films but this one was F-Grade! It is totally slug slow and boring. The script writing and directing are incredibly lame, the acting is lethargic (did they feed the actors Thorazine?). Did Kevin VanHook win a lottery in some state to fund this fiasco? I could have done better with an 8mm video camera and local talent! Because I needed to see the end, it took me three different days to finally finish Voodoo Moon. I started and stopped the DVD several times. The initial plot was interesting, but the development of the storyline was so infantile. There were many open holes that were never filled in. The ending of this movie just drops off into some sort of empty black hole. Kevin VanHook may have some good credits to his name for video effects but after looking at the other films he as written, directed or produced, I think I will totally avoid any future films he purports to deliver. Pure BUNK!

A brother and sister combine forces to thwart evil.

[brahmsviolin · 1/10 · 22 July 2006]

I liked the idea of Voodoo Moon and I was particularly excited to see a movie with Charisma Carpenter and John Amos. I was so disappointed! The storyline was incomprehensible. There were elements introduced throughout the movie--an appearance in a graveyard, pictures drawn, and childhood memories--that never added up to anything pertinent to the storytelling. As for the sister, her power was alluded to many times, but never really explained. Worse, the acting stunk. I say this, despite the fact that I adore Charisma Carpenter and respect John Amos. I usually applaud their acting, but that is impossible to do with their lifeless performances in Voodoo Moon. The movie committed the worst possible crime: it bored me. I couldn't keep my attention on it. Many opportunities for suspense are wasted by the director and the actors. There is absolutely nothing to recommend in this film.

Dreadful movie!!!

[Samantha-Kimmel · 1/10 · 25 October 2006]

I have only seen the first 45 minutes. It's horrid. The acting is stilted. That actor from "Reincarnator" (whatever) is an energy sucker. He huffs and puffs and looks as if he might inflate and explode. That's not acting. That's behaving. Of course he's always been a total ham. CC is herself, sweet, pleasant and Cordelia. The film is shot on what looks like 16 mm school grade stock. The camera work looks like a drunk monkey stole the tripod and ran around with it while the actors just kept speaking. The scene with the priest and the cop is some of the hokiest, idiotically juvenile dialogue and infestation of hideous special effects "artistry" (please: the cop raising up? You could plainly see where the wires were jerking up his pants, and the priest fires two bullets at the guys's chest, and a third squib exploded accidentally!)

CC deserves to have actual roles, not washed out copies of Cordelia Chase.

Kept me watching (and awake).

[jester-30 · 6/10 · 4 July 2006]

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!

Kick-ass good vs evil with zombies and more!

[deathstalker77 · 9/10 · 6 October 2006]

I really think that 10, maybe 15 years down the line, this movie will be fondly looked upon as a horror classic. I had seen Kevin VanHook's "The Fallen Ones" on SciFi and was quite impressed with it (much more than most of their movies), plus having Jeffrey Combs (a personal all-time favorite since "Re-Animator"), John Amos, and Dee Wallace (along with a great sticker price!) made it a good choice to pick up.

This film kicks ass from the opening scenes and doesn't let go until the end. I only wish it had been a bit longer and gone into some greater depth and detail. Kevin VanHook is clearly a fan's filmmaker, and I'm willing to bet he makes movies the way he'd like to see them as a fan. The budget may be relatively low on this one, but the effects are first-rate (which should really be expected, considering that VanHook comes from an effects technician background). VanHook is one filmmaker I'm going to be keeping an eye out for - he may not ever graduate to the big leagues, let's face it, big-name genre directors are few and far between (which is a shame in and of itself), but I'm hoping his writing/directing resume becomes a long one.

I highly recommend picking up a copy and sitting down to watch it with a bunch of munchies, as you won't want to pause it to run to the kitchen. My only gripe on the DVD is that there's no Director's Commentary - but it does have a couple of Making Of/Behind-The-Scenes extras.

Nice premise, but a bit of a disappointment

[slayrrr666 · 6/10 · 11 July 2006]

"Voodoo Moon" is a big wasted opportunity.

**SPOILERS**

In Haiti, Cole, (Eric Mabius) is told that his skills in demon-hunting will be needed elsewhere in the world. His search takes him to Louisiana,, where artist sister Heather, (Charisma Carpenter) works. Hiding away, he calls for some friends, Frank Taggert, (Jeffrey Combs) Dutch, (John Amos) Ray, (Reynaldo Gallegos) Lola, (Jayne Heitmeyer) and Diana, (Kimberly Hawthorne) to help him out in his quest. As Cole gets stronger to fight the demon, it starts killing off his friends and those around him. Banding together with the surviving members of his friends to battle the demon.

The Good News: There are some nice atmospheric moments spread throughout. The early sequence where they are wondering through the graveyard is quite eerie, and it really ratchets up what shouldn't have been so creepy. The final resolution of that scene is what makes it so great, as the payoff is a nice shock jump. It's the only one in the film, so it stands out even more. The premise is quite interesting. Having a man assemble people from his past to hunt down a demon is something new that is quite nice. The ending twenty minutes is quite ice and features enough action to get the viewers awake and end the film in somewhat of a happy note.

The Bad News: Frankly, this one simply didn't have enough going for it. It has an interesting premise about a man gathering people he has helped in the past to fight a demon, but its wasted by a humorously inappropriate lot to battle the creature. It's not exactly a very threatening posse that's rounded up when you have a housewife, a mechanic, a biker, and two who aren't given occupations. I don't blame the guy for laughing at them, as it's a very non-threatening group. The aforementioned lack of jumps is also an issue in here. It simply makes the film all the less enticing when nothing keeps the attention going. That's a deadly combination when mixed with so little action in the middle section that it's almost criminal. The middle section is just pointless conversations to get us to know the characters and features no real action at all, and the dialog isn't anything that important. They never talk about the story, they never talk about the demon, and instead it is useless chatter that means nothing. It drags down the pace of the film to a near stand-still at that point, and it never fully recovers. The film had plenty of potential but never utilizes it.

The Final Verdict: An interesting premise ruined by a lack of action or anything else. Might be worthy of viewing for some, but it might be a struggle to do so. Only recommended to the most discriminating of horror fans, while those that like a more upbeat pace will want to keep a fast forward button handy.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, some Language, and Brief Nudity

An okay combination horror film from the sci fi channel.

[Aaron1375 · 6/10 · 24 October 2006]

For a science fiction channel movie it is pretty good...most of their movies consist of a computer generated monster of some sort in the water or killer dinosaurs or something. This one was sort of a combination of two Stephen King novels "The Stand" and "It" and while no means better than the books it is at least better than "It". Never saw "The Stand" so I don't know if it was better than that one. This one has a man battling what is essentially the devil many times in the past, each time helping someone out and they in turn are in his debt. Well the final showdown is about to take place, in a town where it all began so many years ago as the devil apparently killed many in a town including the man who would battle Satan's parents. So all those the man has saved start to go on the move for the town so they can help in this final battle. Of course, along the way the devil is trying to knock off as many of these friends as he can. Nothing to shocking and there are some plot points that needed to be worked out a bit more such as the Dee Wallace character and the main characters sister, still though it passed the time and had a few good gory effects, of course it had some bad ones too as you know the sci fi channel has to use that computer they own to add horrible computer graphics where using old fashioned techniques would have worked as well if not better such as the church steeple in the middle of the lake. Really why use cgi there? Simply imposing a real steeple would have looked more real and would have been cheaper too. Oh well. All in all not a bad flick it has this and that and look for Jeffery Combs in the sort of comic relief role as he does a good job.

loves it

[residentevilbrandy · 10/10 · 5 June 2006]

I just saw this movie yesterday,and I loved it! Some parts could have been corny,but they were played out well enough. Eric Mabius did a WONDERFUL job as Cole. He really took on the part of the role,very dark,you never once questioned it. One of the only things that was "iffy" about this movie was the title,"Voodoo Moon",I'm not sure what Voodoo had to do with the movie @ all. My take on this movie was that it was the battle between good and evil. Could I possibly be wrong? I also wished Cole would have been told about his son @ the end...Also since Cole senses things,would't he have known about his son,somehow...someway? Possibly a sequel?(Or even a prequel?) Maybe? Hopefully? One can only hope...

Very odd

[anijade · 6/10 · 4 September 2006]

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.

Worth the rent

[Xex-Arachnid · 7/10 · 12 October 2006]

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.

Didn't Develop The Characters Properly

[danthewrestlingmanorigin · 6/10 · 3 February 2007]

Yet another ambitious film from Kevin Van Hook. The Cast is very talented, the production values are top notch, and yet it still falls into the average category. One main gripe I had, was the film had all these interesting characters', but you barely knew who they were, and what they are about. I wanted to see more about John Amos's character for example. He was a member of a vicious biker gang, and now he's a warrior in the battle of good vs evil. Beyond that, nothing is really developed. Jeffrey Combs is brilliant as always, unfortunately he doesn't have as much screen time. Maybe my memory is deceiving me, as I watched this a couple months ago, but I don't think they explain why Combs is a walking corpse. The evil killed everyone else he attacked in the early stages of the film, and they stay dead, and yet Combs for some unexplainable reason is able to keep on ticking after having his neck snapped. The good points are the cast, which although underdeveloped, is very talented, and shine with what little they have to work with. The special effects are all well above average, although some viewers may be disappointed with the lack of gore. Voodoo Moon is worth a look, as long as your expectations aren't to high. I just expected more from Charisma's first major film role.

Surprisingly not bad, though it could've been better

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 24 May 2012]

I wasn't sure about Voodoo Moon at first, but after seeing it while less than perfect it wasn't bad and one of SyFy's more tolerable efforts. It looks decent with the effects not too cheap and the filming stylish on the most part. The acting is also better than average, especially from Charisma Carpenter and Jeffrey Combs, and the premise is great and helped in the film by a great opening sequence and a nice ending. The music also has its haunting parts, and doesn't interfere with the tone too much. On the other hand, while not as annoying and stereotypical as I have known SyFy characters to be the characters don't have much to them, if anything especially in the case of John Amos's character they were underdeveloped. The story does begin and end promisingly and has one good jump scare and a strong atmosphere, but the pace drags too often, apart from one scare the film is not very scary and the middle is too reminiscent of overlong exposition. There are worse scripts around, but generally it doesn't flow very naturally and nothing really stands out. Overall, not a bad movie and surprisingly tolerable by SyFy standards, but still lacking for me. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Could have been better

[david24p3 · 7/10 · 15 January 2007]

I've waited for this movie for over a year and I have to say I was slightly disappointed. It was a great film I think but I really think for a Sci-Fi film, i was too rooted in reality. The film just didn't let go and go into the details and didn't have anything really big happen in it.

The final battle was very anti-climactic and the electricity SFX was lame. The film didn't go into any detail of any of the characters, not even really Cole, who was the main character in the movie. Adding things like this to the movie would have made it so much better, things like actually showing what happened in the town. We are never really told in much detail what happened there.

If they had added in background of the characters, maybe showed some flashbacks and have a great big battle at the end. I mean they just really took shots at each other in turn and never really fought properly.

Those were really the only bad points I can think of, it was a really good movie. I enjoyed it, and those are just points I think could be improved on.