A vulgar, poorly made, poorly executed, poorly conceived, sort of first person horror movie. It beats me why it has received some incomprehensibly high ratings. My suppositions are that the heavy imagery and portrait of "hell" has generated shock among viewers, who have appreciated the prolonged and dense succession of scenes in such environment; my other guess is that some movies inherently receive higher ratings due to some element that does not concern the movie's content itself. For example, if a movie imitates iconic, consecrated, forms of horror, rendering homages, it usually predispose viewers who appreciate these references to rate them higher than they actually deserve. That is clearly the case with The House of the Devil (2009), an absolutely mediocre movie which imitates 80's, early 90's horror, giving it an aura of cult; it is also the case of The Void (2016).
Having said that, my view is that VooDoo is very bad movie. I am a horror movie veteran; I don't mind gore, heavy imagery, as I see them as instruments (among many others) to elicit typical horror emotions/responses. The problem is the artificial use of instruments: this happens if the instrument is an end in itself. You replace plot, drama, acting, for cheap instruments to elicit responses that cannot otherwise be provoked due to the general mediocrity of the movie. The skillful use of soundtrack in horror movies can contribute enormously to its quality; however, if it is used for the sake of cheap scares, it becomes and end in itself and artificial resource. In VooDoo, this is the case with the second part of the movie.
The movie has no proper unity. The two clearly distinguishable parts of the movie are almost independent. The build-up is too long, as is too long, or simply inapt, the scenes that take place in the otherworldly dimension. This may have been on purpose, an attempt to portrait a state of continuous despair/suffering. The elements that compose this movie (mystery, horror, shock, gore, tension, drama) are not properly distributed.
The portrait of the evil entities is quite laughable. If you don't have the resources to transform your vision into reality, it is better to be subtle. Also, the prolonged exposition to the entities makes evident their shlock make-up.
On the other hand, this movie simply does not make any sense. It is not proportional (such a response to the victim does not make sense in any level; it is not plausible, if you like). Voodoo, mind you, is an African religion. Yet, the entities, their way of acting, the environment, evoke the stereotypical Christian views of evil. One may argue that voodoo was modified in America. However, it is still immensely incoherent.
In sum, I do not recommend the movie. I usually have a high tolerance for horror movies, being my favorite genre of movies. But I cannot recommend this movie on any level. It is a bad movie on the whole, and it is a bad, unimaginative, horror movie. I never cease to be amazed at writers' lack of imagination in portraying evil. 3/10, and I think this is rather generous. Very amateurish.
