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Rating: 2 out of 5
When watching Spell, the plot seemed to be a few movies rolled up into one. The first one is the Hills Have Eyes. People getting trapped in some remote, boondock area with some crazy-ass people. The second film that this movie reminded me of is Tales from the Hood. The story with all the creepy-ass dolls that look like certain people. Finally, the film has to sprinkle in Stephen King’s Misery into it. Someone being trapped in the home and the captors seem a little nice but off only to have different attentions. When you combine all those films and add a black cast, you get the very strange, sometimes boring and what is going on movie, Spell.
Marquis T. Woods (Hardwick) is a very successful man with a loving but overly spoiled family. I’ll get to that in a second. Marquis receives word that his abusive father has passed away. While flying to his father’s funeral in rural Appalachia, Kentucky, in a plane that he really didn’t need to be in. You haven’t heard of Delta; an intense storm causes Marquis to lose control of the aircraft carrying himself and his family. Marquis awakes in a bed while his wounds are being treated. He soon learns he is in the attic of Ms. Eloise (Devine). Eloise seems nice but strange and claims she can nurse him back to health with a hoodoo figure she’s made from his blood and skin. The hoodoo figure is bizarre and creepy. I wouldn’t want it in my own room. Marquis is distraught, wondering what happened to his family while Ms. Eloise brushes off his concerns. Marquis soon learns that he is a prisoner in Ms. Eloise’s home and that he must fight against her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.
Like I said in the opening, this film had all those other movie creepy vibes in it. The story is pretty straightforward and a little confusing at the same. Actually, it reminded me of Skeleton Key with the whole transferring of souls. Okay, let me take a second to get my thoughts all in order because they are all over the place. After the plane crash and being locked up in the basement, it was like, what is going to happen to this man. Things got creepy when Eloise put that strange little doll on the window seal. I was like, okay, this is about to either get crazy or stupid.
The one scene that was off the wall was when Eloise and the townspeople were doing this church thing. As the townspeople are sitting around, Eloise gives her preachy sermon and then sacrifices animals for the people. One dude gets a tongue, but the craziest scene was when they take the eyes of a freakin goat and transfer them into a blind man. His goat eyes were freaky. Trying to look like Naruto there for a second.
Yet, the movie just tries to have this psychological aspect that people have seen before. Voodoo dolls and transferring of souls have been done too many times in Hollywood, and they have become a complete and utter bore right now. There is no wow factor to this film that will make you think.
Omari Hardwick as Marquis T. Woods was okay in this role. He was the father that worked hard for what he got, but his children were spoiled brats, and it just threw off his character. If you had an ounce of care for his family, then it would be pretty good, but you don’t and really want to move on. Loretta Devine, as Ms. Eloise, is the real star of the film with her creepy and intense ways. Just thinking about her makes my skin crawl, and how do you feed a man another person’s hand. That is crazy, and to call it chicken broth.
Spell is one of those films that you can skip because you will have seen it a bunch of times from other films. You don’t need to get far to just turn off this movie because it will put no spell on you. Watch out for the little dolls and just move on with life.
