House of the Witchdoctor (2014)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Admirable film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

While the twist ending is one decent twist, the hour and fifteen minutes that comes before it drags this film down, down, down. Bad acting, bad directing, poor effects and two bad guys who are obviously rip offs of the two bad guys who have a REALLY bad day in A History of Violence (except their acting stinks), drag this down. At lengths boring with a bit of nudity to spice it up, this barely helps the watcher to enjoy this. So what might have been a decent movie just spirals down into a below average waste of time.

Most Horror movies nowadays suffer from a complete lack of originality. House of the Witchdoctor doesn't. It's an entertaining, evil little bugger with teeth. And guts. And, of course, it has Bill Moseley.The storyline is a nice twist on the usual "Five friends spend the wekend and get butchered" theme. There's also some really bad acting, especially the two evil guys display some extremely funny buffoonery, but this, too, is fun to watch. At least if you don't have a problem with trash, cause this is basically a Trash movie with a better budget. I think most Horror fans would enjoy the ride, you get your share of blood and gore, some laughs (a lot of laughs actually) and, um, Bill Moseley. Did I mention that before?If you like 80s Horror as I do, you might also notice the smell of those days that reeks from this movie. Which is a good thing.

The first half of House of the Witchdoctor hearkens back to the uncomfortably gritty ultra- violence of 1970s films such as "I Spit on Your Grave" and "The Last House on the Left." The final act of "Witchdoctor" eschews the standard rape-revenge formula in favor of the occult and supernatural, and delivers quite a bit of unexpected humor in the process. Solid performances from a great horror cast make this a joy to watch. Allan Kayser is convincingly savage in his role as one of the criminals. Bill Moseley and Leslie Easterbrook deliver darkly humorous performances as suburban parents with a twisted secret. Genre fans may also recognize Dyanne Thorne of "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS" in a bit part as a neighbor.

I enjoyed this film very much. It was terrifying, full of gore and even a splash of dark magic, but still grounded in human emotion and completely tasteful. The violent and sexual scenes were relevant to the story and well executed. And there were moments of subtle humor that gave a momentary reprieve from the heavy atmosphere. The acting was strong - I believed every scream. David Willis was exceptional as Buzz, possibly my favorite character. This film is one of the best of its genre that I've seen in a while; I was beginning to think there weren't any good horror writer/directors left out there. I highly recommend seeing it to anyone who can handle graphic images.