Walter Reed stars as a writer named J. Peter Weils who travels to an island in the tropics in order to expose a voodoo cult as fake.
Weils is dating a beautiful woman named Venus de Viasa (Ziva Rodann) who is drawn to the cult for reasons she doesn't understand and she flirts a lot with Weils son Warren (William Wellman Jr.) much to the dislike of his wife Sara (June Wilkinson).
Weils finds a dead body washed up on the beach so he goes to see the leader of the Voodoo cult. Her name is Mama Rota-loi (Ruth de Souza) and he warns her that he is not easily manipulated and he will see her cult exposed for what it is.
The ending is very interesting and it's only then that we see what and who Mama Rota-loi really is.
I really like this film a lot. Many years ago I owned the original lobby cards for this movie. Some people find it a slow going movie, and it is, but I like time for the story to develope.
The acotrs all do well with their roles, and de Souza is very good at being evil as the Queen of the Voodoo cult. There is a lot of talk about June Wilkinson in this film, and don't get me wrong, she looks great and does a good job, but I have always been crazy for Ziva Rodann.
Rodann is my main reason for wanting to see this movie. I've seen her in a lot of stuff, and this is one of her best roles. I wish she had done more. A very lovely woman indeed. The rest of the cast includes Ricardo Campos, Clea Simoes, Pedro Paulo Hatheyer and Pedro Santos.
The print for this movie is washed out and not in the best of shape, but it is very watchable. This really needs a blu-ray release, but it's one of those movies that I don't think it will ever happen to.
This is a highly recommended, obscure horror movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment