utgard14
Dismal cheapie from AIP that stars a rough-looking Tom Conway as a mad scientist in the jungle using voodoo to turn women into monsters. It's a mostly dull affair with a few campy moments that are worth some laughs. But these are sadly few and far between. Most of the time it's just boring. Conway has seen better days. He looks sickly here. But he still (over)acts his pants off, which is appreciated. Marla English makes for a fun bitch; she's easily the highlight of the movie. Mike Connors is the "hero" who exists just to give the mad scientist's put-upon wife (Mary Ellen Kay) a stud to walk into the sunset with. The monster suit for the 'voodoo woman' is the same as the suit from The She-Creature with some minor changes. She-Creature is a much more fun movie, though. Also the drum beat played throughout sounds a bit like the opening to Sympathy for the Devil.
poe-48833
The Monster's definitely the "motive" for this kind of movie- which makes one wonder why the filmmakers always insist on keeping the critter off screen as much as possible. (In this case, Paul Blaisdell's She Creature is given a makeover- head only- and relegated to the surrounding foliage throughout the movie.) Tom Conway has that "far away" look in his eyes, as if he's fondly recalling something funny he heard once, and he more or less sleepwalks through his part- but with enough innate acting ability to carry it off; kind of like Basil Rathbone in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN... Marla English is center stage and this goes a LONG way toward making VOODOO WOMAN watchable.
lemon_magic
Random thoughts that popped into my head while watching "Voodoo Woman":1) Poor Tom Conway. Either he thought this role was beneath him (but took it anyway to keep the wolf from the door) or he was completely out of his depth, because he gives a completely squirrelly and disconnected performance where he is obviously reading from cue cards most of the time. Plus...that HAT!!! 2) Poor Lance Fuller. The guy had a certain way about him, but alas his talent is strictly 3rd tier, and it doesn't help that the character he plays is a greasy slimeball.3) Poor Mike Connors. He pretty much carries the movie, but he should have carried it straight out the door and into the dumpster.4) The lead female - someone should have gently taken her aside and told her the difference between "tough noir temptress" and "irritating, hateful harpy". She actually looked pretty good in the role, but every time she opened her mouth, I wanted to punch her.6) The final scene where the murderous harpy tries to retrieve the final remaining chunk of gold from the edge of the volcanic pit where it came to rest, only to lose her balance and fall in...is the single most badly staged and unbelievable choreography of a "fall" I can remember seeing. Apparently it never occurred to the poor lady to bend her knees.7) This wasn't nearly as bad as earlier AIP fodder like "Beast With A Million Eyes", and I am sure someone had fun watching it as the bottom half of a Drive in double feature...but 40+ years down the road, it has not aged well. Good AIP/Corman stuff almost always had the germ of something interesting and creative driving them...but this poor cast- off just comes off trite, rote, and derivative.8) At the end of the day, people who were trying to make a living in the movie business got paid. At least there's that.
Michael_Elliott
Voodoo Woman (1957)* (out of 4) Really bad film about a mad scientist in the African jungle turning a woman into a monster by using voodoo. I love these old "B" movies and AIP was always one of the best but this film here is just downright boring, slow and not interesting in anyway. The film is full of dialogue, which is poorly written and slows everything down. The performances are all equally bad but not bad enough to where we can laugh at them. The film is bad from start to finish but it never gets to the point to where you can laugh at it, which means the film is just hard to watch.
AD
