Voodoo Black Exorcist Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Voodoo Black Exorcist Blu-ray Movie Review

That Old Black Magic

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 26, 2017

The original Spanish title of the 1974 exploitation quickie Vudú sangriento translates as "Bloody Voodoo", but the U.S. distributors eliminated "bloody" from the title and added "black" and "exorcist", even though nothing in the film remotely resembles an exorcism (though some of the characters are indeed of African descent). Why? Well, William Friedkin's The Exorcist was currently terrifying audiences, and blaxploitation was enjoying a boom after the 1971 release of Shaft. The English title neatly checks off the boxes of the latest trends, promising shivery delights that the film can't deliver. Indeed, what Voodoo Black Exorcist (or "VBE") does provide is bad acting, poor dubbing, inept editing, laughable effects and a nonsensical excuse for a plot—but it does so with a verve that has won the film a small but loyal following. VBE is the latest public domain release to be restored by The Film Detective, which has done a good job of reviving the film's image from elements that are less than ideal.

Late in VBE, a Haitian policeman investigating strange events aboard an ocean liner provides a good summary of the film's plot: "Heads decapitated! Sarcophaguses! Mummies! Voodoo rites! Lying scientists! Full east sun! I don't like this. There is more mystery in this world than all of us think." There's certainly plenty of mystery in VBE, which jumbles up all of these elements (and more) in an unintelligible stew, of which the basic ingredients are borrowed from The Mummy. Centuries ago, a voodoo priest (Aldo Sambrell), and the woman he loved (Eva León, in black face) were ritually sacrificed, with the priest entombed in a sarcophagus. Now, the priest emerges from his imprisonment as the sarcophagus is being shipped on an ocean liner to somewhere or other. Upon being regenerated by sunlight, after which his mummified condition comes and goes for no discernible reason, the revived priest discovers that one of the passengers (also Eva León) resembles his lost love, and he sets about restoring their coupledom in an unfathomable manner that eventually leads back to the caverns where they were buried. Deaths, injuries and screaming passengers ensue.

Contemporary audiences were no doubt titillated by VBE's topless women and mock-ritual dances, but today the film is best watched for laughs, as exploitation director Manuel Caño (sometimes credited as "Michael Cannon") sets up inept shots that don't cut together, while the makeup team deploys prosthetics so obvious that the joke seems intentional, and the post-sync doesn't even try to match the English dubbing to the actors' lips. If Ed Wood had filmed in color and with a slightly bigger budget, the result might have looked something like VBE.

Voodoo Black Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Considering the film's public domain status, the source material used by The Film Detective to create this 1080p, AVC-encoded BD-R of Voodoo Black Exorcist is in surprisingly good condition. Although there are sections with obvious damage such as vertical scratches, large stretches of the Blu-ray image are relatively clean and unblemished. Sharpness and detail vary enormously, which I suspect is a reflection of the Techniscope source. At its best, the image is of sufficient quality that, as is often the case with cheap productions, the Blu-ray does no favors for the practical effects, rendering their fakery even more obvious. The greatest strength of this presentation is its colorful palette, which is dominated by strong blues and reds. Blacks range from deep and solid to pallid and washed out, but again I suspect this is inherent in the source. Film Detective has left the film's grain pattern intact and undisturbed and has mastered VBE with a high average bitrate of 32.69 Mbps. The company may be sticking with burned media, but their mastering practices put some of the major studios to shame.

Public domain restorations should be graded on a curve. The video score for this presentation takes the nature of the source into account.

Voodoo Black Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

VBE's original mono soundtrack is provided in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The track is free of clicks, pops, audible hiss or other distortion. The dynamic range is surprisingly broad for a public domain source, and it does justice to the melodramatic score by horror regular Fernando García Morcillo (The Cannibal Man). The greatest technical presentation in the world can't help the dubbed dialogue, which routinely sounds detached from the person speaking and is sometimes hard to understand (not that it makes any difference).

It should be noted that the English SDH subtitles included with this Blu-ray are rife with misspellings, grammatical errors and inaccuracies. One could argue that they suit the quality of the film, but that's no excuse.

Voodoo Black Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras are included.

Voodoo Black Exorcist Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a fan of VBE and do not mind Film Detective's continued use of burned media instead of pressed discs, then this new Blu-ray represents an upgrade. If you're a newcomer to the VBE experience, proceed with caution.