The opening scenes show a man and woman making love in a
canoe until the woman’s husband arrives, ruining the romantic moment. The man
kills the husband, but then in a violent ritual, the woman is executed and the
man is entombed. These scenes, completely devoid of dialogue, are effective in
commanding our attention. While the man is being entombed in a psychedelically
lit cavern, an authoritative off-screen voice tells us about life repeating
itself. “Blood will be spilled, terrible things will happen again, and
everything will start again.” No, it’s not the best narration. But no
matter. Oddly, the film then cuts to a rocket taking off into space, and the
opening credit sequence is shown over images of the moon. A strange choice for
a mummy film, but this movie doesn’t allow us to take it seriously. Every time
we might get the inclination to do so, it delivers some goofy bit of humor.
Back on Earth, the coffin is being loaded onto the ocean
liner. And there are actually some carefully crafted shots, like the one when
the coffin is being moved to the cargo hold of the ship. The camera stays on
the face on the lid of the sarcophagus. Poor Freddy is left to guard the
coffin, instructed by Dr. Kessling that he’ll even have to sleep there in the
cargo hold. Geez. But I suppose they must take precautions. After all, there
are some strange characters aboard this ship. Like the guy who flirts with a
married woman using the line, “I have a slaughterhouse in Chicago.” How
could she not fall for him? Or the drunk woman who is first shown with a giant
deck of playing cards, and then shown reading the Tarot and predicting an
unexpected visitor will come aboard the ship. In a slightly better movie, this
character would be played by Shelley Winters. She and her hapless husband
provide much of the humor of the film.
Of course, it’s not long before the coffin opens and our
friend emerges. Hey, where did Freddy go? The mummy immediately wins me over by
showing his distaste for cats. Interestingly, we then get shots from the
mummy’s perspective, and apparently all he wanted to do was go above deck and
look out at the ocean. While he does so, we see his skin slowly return to its
former glory. Well, as the narrator warned us, “Everything will start again,”
and it turns out everyone involved in those opening scenes is traveling on this
ship. The executioner from the ritual is now a bartender. And the woman the
mummy once loved is Dr. Kessling’s secretary/lover, Sylvia. You see, this is
actually a love story of sorts. However, seeing her makes him return to his
ugly mummy state for some reason. Hot redheads can have that effect on men, I
suppose. But after a bit of rest in the coffin, he’s able to deliver a gift to
Sylvia. Sometimes it’s tough buying for a woman, particularly if you’ve just
met her and don’t know her taste. However, most men know that women don’t
generally like receiving severed heads.
At one port, Dr. Kessling is supposed to meet a
colleague, but the mummy – looking human – takes the other scientist’s place.
And this is where it gets weird, because the mummy actually wants to help Dr.
Kessling with his research on voodoo, telling him he could provide more help
than the other scientist ever could. Ah, all any of us wants is to feel needed,
I suppose.
By the way, the other character that is there mainly for
humor is the detective trying to solve the murder of the bartender. At one
point he says: “You see, I have a system. When I don’t have a lead, I drink
gin and wait.” You’d be surprised how many crimes are solved with this
system. Then later, when Dr. Kessling asks him how he’s doing, the detective
replies: “Terrible. Moody. Perplexed. It’s so damn hot here, don’t you
think?” There is some unintentional humor as well. During the fight scene
when the mummy retrieves his special ring, be sure to look in the mirror and
say hi to the camera man, who is plainly visible. And the mummy tells the
scientist that he learned English from being in museums for so many years,
which of course makes me wonder just where was Dr. Kessling transporting the
sarcophagus from? And where was he taking it?
And if you’ve been wondering about the exorcist, I’m
going to spoil the surprise and tell you there isn’t one. No exorcist in Voodoo
Black Exorcist. This movie was released in 1974, a year after The Exorcist,
and I’m sure that other film’s popularity had something to do with the choice
of English titles for this film. It’s not a great movie, but it is truly
enjoyable. The end, however, feels rushed.
Voodoo Black Exorcist is being released on Blu-ray
and DVD today, May 23, 2017, through The Film Detective. The film has been
digitally remastered, restored from the original 35mm film elements, and it
looks good. The Blu-ray contains no special features.
No comments:
Post a Comment