Voodoo Man Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Voodoo Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Do do that voodoo that you do so well.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 22, 2015

There’s a moment relatively late in Voodoo Man where a little coterie of zombie-fied women is traipsing through a supposedly cavernous environment, one which is obviously the result of some art director’s low budget fever dream. One of the extras playing one of these women is obviously very into her role, somehow almost subliminally transmitting an energy that she understands the full “interior world” of her character and is out to communicate that completely to the audience. One can imagine a star struck young woman like this being awed by the “glamor” of show business and/or the moviemaking industry, even if this particular starlet’s dreams were being realized (more or less, anyway) in the less than luxe environs of Monogram Studios, the “dean” of the Poverty Row aggregations that churned out a variety of programmers during the heyday of the “real” studios and their assembly line production systems. Voodoo Man is a somewhat odd entry even by Monogram standards, for it involves a certain “meta” aspect, at least tangentially, that gives this putative horror enterprise a kind of winking subtext. Bela Lugosi portrays the very model of a modern mad scientist, in this case a certain Dr. Richard Marlowe, who, it turns out, is involved in a kind of Frankenstein enterprise, or perhaps more accurately a kind of The Bride of Frankenstein enterprise, since the good (?) doctor’s efforts surround an attempt to reanimate his long dead wife. The film is short, daft and downright silly at times, but it has a weird kind of mood that some with appropriately set expectations (as in: low) may get a kick out of.

The first of what will be several laughs for many audience members viewing Voodoo Man comes fairly early in the enterprise, when a pretty young woman pulls into a gas station (replete with pumps festonned with those old Mobilgas flying horse logos—did Pegasus need petrol?). A kind of unctuous attendant named Nicholas (George Zucco) is perhaps a bit more interested in this particular customer than a typical “fill ‘er up” (so to speak) worker should be, and after dismissing his goofy assistant (this film is filled to the brim with various goofy assistants), he moves that what is supposedly a “top secret” accoutrement in his office: a hotline to Dr. Marlowe and/or his henchmen, letting them know another prospective victim is driving down the country road toward her unfortunate fate (whatever that may be). But here’s the funny part: this supposedly hidden conduit to the nefarious activities of Marlowe is kept hidden by—a cabinet door. That’s right folks, the entire gambit that Nicholas indulges in, luring poor women who happen to stop by his gas station (and there are a lot of them, evidently) is centered around a phone hidden in a box that’s right there on the wall of his gas station office. Luckily Monogram’s low budget ethos never collided with any investigatory prowess on the part of any of the goofy assistants wandering through this particular gas station office.

The somewhat unusual “meta” aspect of Voodoo Man shows up in the guise of Ralph Dawson (Tod Andrews), a screenwriter for Banner Productions (the actual production entity within Monogram which oversaw the film) who works for impresario S.K., a none too subtle winking reference to Sam Katzman, the film’s producer. S.K. has tasked Ralph with working up a screenplay built around a news story the honcho has read about a series of young women who have been mysteriously disappearing along a lonely stretch of rural highway. Ralph has other ideas on his mind, including his upcoming nuptials to pretty Betty Benton (Wanda McKay). Any fledgling screenwriter wanting to follow in Ralph’s perhaps hapless shoes will probably already see what’s coming—pretty Betty is going to be threatened by the evil Dr. Marlowe.

Before that can happen, another pretty girl named Stella Saunders (Louise Currie) falls under the doctor’s spell after she, too, travels by way of Nicholas’ gas station and gets waylaid due to the efforts of the doctor’s henchmen, who just so happen to have a convenient saw horse handy with which they block the highway, forcing these soon to be damsels in distress to drive off into the scrub in a putative effort to find a detour. Stella falls under the mesmeric spell of the doctor, a spell increased during some patently goofy voodoo rituals where Nicholas gets to dress up like a bargain basement Aleister Crowley and spout mumbo jumbo while addlepated assistant Toby (John Carradine) beats absent mindedly on a bongo drum. It turns out Marlowe’s wife Evelyn (Ellen Hall) has been dead for just a few decades, but the doctor’s efforts to transfer “life force” (or something like that) from his zombie-fied captives has at least kept her looking relatively fresh. Marlowe just can’t seem to catch the ultimate break, though, and Evelyn, while looking okay (for a dead woman, anyway) can’t quite make it back to a fully conscious state, kind of like the zombie equivalent of one of the patients in Awakenings. Once Marlowe figures out that Betty will be the perfect candidate to finally create a successful life force transfer, things move into a silly endgame.

While there’s an undeniable low rent feeling to much of Voodoo Man, and the ridiculousness of some of the zombie elements is almost too ridiculous to fathom at times, the film has a rather unexpectedly moody quality. There’s also a surprisingly bittersweet feeling surrounding the despicable if traumatized Marlowe and his attempts to reunite with his beloved wife. The film’s “comic relief” probably strains too much for too little pay off, and both Carradine and Zucco seem slightly embarrassed to have stooped this low for a paycheck, but within the lo-fi ambience of a typical Monogram outing, Voodoo Man actually manages to crackle with a certain amount of mad scientist electricity.

Voodoo Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Voodoo Man is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. In moments where "one take" director William Beaudine offers extreme close-ups (especially with "horror" underlighting), detail is quite good (see screenshot 1), but overall this is a fairly soft looking transfer, one that is also hobbled by somewhat anemic and variable contrast. Gray scale is decently modulated within the less than optimal contrast, but blacks can be a bit on the milky side at times. The grain field resolves naturally and is quite thick and textured throughout the presentation. There is the expected amount of age related wear and tear like nicks and scratches pretty regularly on display.

Voodoo Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Voodoo Man's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is pretty tinny and boxy sounding even by the lo-fi standards of its poverty row studio and the recording technologies of its era. There's nothing unlistenable here, but the music sounds brash and harsh at times, and some of the dialogue is very shallow sounding (in more ways than one).

Voodoo Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind offered on this Blu-ray disc. The main menu offers options for Play and Chapters.

Voodoo Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You have to come to films like Voodoo Man with an understanding of their production provenance, and without any high-falutin' expectations to get in the way of just sitting back and enjoying some good old fashioned (non sensical?) fun. The zombie rituals in this film are extremely funny, whether intentionally or not (one assumes "not"), and the whole "meta" aspect of a Hollywood screenwriter getting involved in all the nefarious goings on gives this film an almost whimsical quality. Lugosi is commanding in a rote role, and the supporting cast is at least colorful if nothing else. When taken on its own merits, and with an understanding that video and audio quality here are variable, Voodoo Man comes Recommended.