"What happens thereafter has at least the virtue of being a fairly original plot, with twists and turns as surprising as they are implausible. It would be too much of a spoiler to say exactly how the voodoo of the title is employed, but suffice to say it blends elements drawn from actual Haitian Vodou alongside the voodoo-doll convention popularised by western pop culture."
"The performances, though, are the film's real weakness: much of the acting is the kind you might encounter in an escape room or ghost train experience at a theme park. The dialogue is no great shakes either, a mixture of soap opera melodrama and crime procedural cliche."
"The shot choices don't help: one sequence of a woman fleeing for her life as she runs downstairs is filmed in a way that recalls Mrs Doubtfire sprinting to turn the oven off. This might seem fussy, but it's the kind of creative choice that serves to take the audience out of the story-world."
Abigail, a woman traumatized by losing both daughters in a car crash, faces a home invasion by escaped convicts after a police warning. The film attempts originality by incorporating voodoo elements that blend authentic Haitian Vodou practices with Western pop culture voodoo-doll tropes. However, the film suffers from subpar acting reminiscent of theme park attractions, clichéd dialogue mixing soap opera melodrama with crime procedural tropes, and questionable cinematographic choices that undermine tension. A notable scene of a woman fleeing downstairs is filmed in a manner recalling comedic rather than suspenseful cinema. The film's treatment of voodoo is so divorced from reality that cultural concerns become moot.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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