Mike Stacey (Bryant Haliday) is a big game hunter in Africa. He is employed by safari operator Major Lomas (Dennis Price). His troubles begin when he shoots a lion. In the process of doing so he gets mauled. Not severely, but it’s still upsetting.
He shoots the lion within the territory of a tribe, the Simbazi, who regard lions as gods. They believe that anyone who kills a lion will pay a terrible price. They will make sure of that.
You might expect the tribesmen to come after Mike to kill him but what actually happens is a lot more interesting. He returns to London where he is haunted by dreams, and he sees African tribesmen stalking him. They appear to be merely visions of a mind that is becoming disturbed but there’s quite a bit of ambiguity in this movie. The lines between sanity and madness and between reality and illusion do become somewhat blurred.
There is definitely voodoo in this movie, although since we’re dealing with Africa it’s probably obeah rather than voodoo (but having voodoo in the title was obviously a much sounder commercial move).
Mike already had a few problems. Drinking too much, plus marital problems. His wife Janet has left him. He wants her back.
Mike’s wound is healing very slowly. His doctor is worried. Naturally he assumes that the signs of mental instability Mike is displaying are caused by a combination of an infected wound and too much alcohol. He’s a London doctor so he certainly doesn’t consider voodoo when making a diagnosis.
Mike’s dreams and visions (if they are just dreams and visions) become more and more vivid. He sees a face peering around his doorway and opens fire with his revolver but there was nobody there. Fortunately no-one was hurt and the police are not too worried.
Mike is quite an interesting character. He’s not an overly loveable guy but he’s not really unsympathetic. He’s a fairly decent man and he really does love his wife. He has tried to be a good husband. Maybe he’s not the husband she wanted and needed but he has done his best.
Bryant Haliday’s performance is a bit detached but that works in his favour since he is playing a man who is haunted but unwilling to reveal his emotions openly. I ended up being quite impressed by his performance.
Lisa Daniely as his wife Janet is pretty good. And Dennis Price is always watchable.
Look out for Dennis Alaba Peters who went on to play Sir Curtis Seretse in the wonderful ITC TV series Department S.
One could see this as a movie about the clash between the world of magic and the world of reason, between two radically different worldviews.
This movie is an example of the need to approach movies with an open mind. It would be a mistake to approach this film assuming it’s going to be a cheap shoddy Z-grade movie. If you do have an open mind you may find yourself being drawn into what really is a quite nicely executed slightly offbeat movie. And it does have that fascinating ambiguity that it never makes the mistake of trying to resolve too neatly.
It’s all very low-budget of course, but I don’t think that’s a problem here.
And it does have a screenplay by Brian Clemens, and quite a neatly done screenplay too.
Lindsay Shonteff directed. He was a minor director but made a few interesting movies including The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) and Permissive (1970), the bleakest most pessimistic most depressing sexploitation movie ever made (although it is intriguing). Having watched Curse of the Voodoo ii’m inclined to think I’ve been guilty of underestimating Shonteff. This is a movie made by a director who knows what he’s trying to achieve and knows how to achieve it. He pulls off some quite effective visual set-pieces which were clearly done with very little money. They rely purely on the skill of the director. This guy might not be a great director but he’s certainly an interesting one.
Curse of the Voodoo does not deserve to languish in obscurity. It’s a nice little movie that teases us with the possibility that it’s either supernatural horror or psychological horror. Highly recommended.
The Screenbound all-region DVD offers a perfectly adequate transfer.
You might expect the tribesmen to come after Mike to kill him but what actually happens is a lot more interesting. He returns to London where he is haunted by dreams, and he sees African tribesmen stalking him. They appear to be merely visions of a mind that is becoming disturbed but there’s quite a bit of ambiguity in this movie. The lines between sanity and madness and between reality and illusion do become somewhat blurred.
There is definitely voodoo in this movie, although since we’re dealing with Africa it’s probably obeah rather than voodoo (but having voodoo in the title was obviously a much sounder commercial move).
Mike already had a few problems. Drinking too much, plus marital problems. His wife Janet has left him. He wants her back.
Mike’s wound is healing very slowly. His doctor is worried. Naturally he assumes that the signs of mental instability Mike is displaying are caused by a combination of an infected wound and too much alcohol. He’s a London doctor so he certainly doesn’t consider voodoo when making a diagnosis.
Mike’s dreams and visions (if they are just dreams and visions) become more and more vivid. He sees a face peering around his doorway and opens fire with his revolver but there was nobody there. Fortunately no-one was hurt and the police are not too worried.
Mike is quite an interesting character. He’s not an overly loveable guy but he’s not really unsympathetic. He’s a fairly decent man and he really does love his wife. He has tried to be a good husband. Maybe he’s not the husband she wanted and needed but he has done his best.
Bryant Haliday’s performance is a bit detached but that works in his favour since he is playing a man who is haunted but unwilling to reveal his emotions openly. I ended up being quite impressed by his performance.
Lisa Daniely as his wife Janet is pretty good. And Dennis Price is always watchable.
Look out for Dennis Alaba Peters who went on to play Sir Curtis Seretse in the wonderful ITC TV series Department S.
One could see this as a movie about the clash between the world of magic and the world of reason, between two radically different worldviews.
This movie is an example of the need to approach movies with an open mind. It would be a mistake to approach this film assuming it’s going to be a cheap shoddy Z-grade movie. If you do have an open mind you may find yourself being drawn into what really is a quite nicely executed slightly offbeat movie. And it does have that fascinating ambiguity that it never makes the mistake of trying to resolve too neatly.
It’s all very low-budget of course, but I don’t think that’s a problem here.
And it does have a screenplay by Brian Clemens, and quite a neatly done screenplay too.
Lindsay Shonteff directed. He was a minor director but made a few interesting movies including The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) and Permissive (1970), the bleakest most pessimistic most depressing sexploitation movie ever made (although it is intriguing). Having watched Curse of the Voodoo ii’m inclined to think I’ve been guilty of underestimating Shonteff. This is a movie made by a director who knows what he’s trying to achieve and knows how to achieve it. He pulls off some quite effective visual set-pieces which were clearly done with very little money. They rely purely on the skill of the director. This guy might not be a great director but he’s certainly an interesting one.
Curse of the Voodoo does not deserve to languish in obscurity. It’s a nice little movie that teases us with the possibility that it’s either supernatural horror or psychological horror. Highly recommended.
The Screenbound all-region DVD offers a perfectly adequate transfer.
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