User reviews

Voodoo Black Exorcist 1974 is a creepy movie about an eerie mummy who was reborn from death. It deals with a Caribbean native couple, after an unfortunate murder , they're condemned by the tribe to a grisly execution . As the dormant mummy called Gatenebo comes to life to carry out a relentless vengeance. As the mummy is transported to an European museum and to be relived on an ocean luxury cruise liner. Things go wrong when the mummy awakes to commit bloody slaughters by beheading and terrorizing passengers and other folks . Along the way, he falls in love with Sylvia : Eva Leon who bears remarkable resemblance to his old flame : Tanyeka Stadler , as he thinks of being her reincarnation. This dude means business so watch out when you nerves start to shatter!

Thrilling film with plenty of chills, thrills, scary moments, gory scenes and a lot of grisly killings by beheading, slashing and scratching. The typical monster movie of the Fifties is lousily adapted to Seventies time, in which a terrifying mummy gets revived executes terrible murders and wreak havoc, proceeding a criminal spree on an Atlantic Ocean lux cruise liner through the Caribbean isles and eventually disembarking in Puerto Principe. Here prolific screenwriter Santiago Moncada and filmmaker Manuel Caño blending terror with mummy included and monster movie set on a ship, an issue to be treated in subsequent movies as "Death Ship" by Alvin Rakoff, "The Relic" by Peter Hyams and "Deep Rising" by Stephen Sommers, among others. It stars Aldo Sambrell as the scary big bald guy holding a heavy make-up as a prune-faced mummy , he was a notorious secondary who played a large number of characters through a long career, however, as main star performed limited roles. Co-stars the ravishing Eva Leon as the girl whom the monster reminds him his former sweetheart Kenya and a plethora of Spanish familiar support cast, such as : Alfredo Mayo, Antonio Casas, Luis Marin, Fernando Hilbeck, Julio Peña, Fernando Sancho as a stubborn police inspector and several others.

Produced in low budget by J. A. Perez Giner from Profilms, considered to be the Spanish Hammer. It packs a thrilling and frightening musical score by Fernando Garcia Morcillo. As well as tarnished and faded cinematography by Roberto Ochoa, bring really necessary a perfect remastering because of film copy is washed-out. The motion picture was ridiculously directed by Manuel Caño. He was a craftsman who written, produced and directed all kinds of genres. He made a few films, such as : "Siempre en mi recuerdo" , "Sonria por favor" , "What do I care if Miami explodes?", "Perro de Alambre" and two Tarzan movies with Steve Hawkes : "Tarzan and the Rainbow" and "Tarzan's the greatest challenge" . And directed another horror movie in similar style : "The Swamp of the Ravens". Furthermore, he produced "A hatchet for a honeymoon" by Mario Bava and "Kill Buster" by Julio Coll with Tom Tryon. Rating : 4/10. Below average. Only for Spanish terror enthusiasts.

Different, incoherent Spanish film about a Caribbean mummy aboard a cruise ship killing people that remind him of those that killed him thousands of years earlier. At least I think that is what the main plot thread was? It is difficult to tell with the poor, hatchet-job editing, the cheap feel the film has, the dull, sophomoric direction, and the acting talent of washed-out understudies. The film opens with the mummy character when he was young and vibrant - we see him with his love, get in a fight over a girl, and then watch his girl beheaded in front of him and then he is "paralyzed" and prepared for mummification. The opening scene really is done so poorly that you really aren't sure of many of the character motivations. Many flashback scenes would be used throughout the film using that ever-so-clever red tinting(Ho...hmmmm). The budget is low in this one: the heads decapitated look like mannequin heads with animal blood caked around the necks. One scene where a dancer(she is the best part of the film in all of her buxom grandeur!)is wrestling with the mummy - we don't know why he wants to kill her - has the two fighting in front of a mirror and then shows the cameraman in the mirror shooting the scene. Many more examples of such amateurism can be found throughout. What did I like? The film is watchable and funny for its ineptitude. The mummy in the sarcophagus actually looks creepy at times. And did I mention that dancer? The end is an even bigger letdown than the film(as if that were even possible?). It is so ridiculous. As for the performers? Nothing too good. The guy playing the self-proclaimed "fat, old" cop waiting to retire is probably the best just for comic relief. The rest sub-par. Except for, did I mention already, the dancer?

What got me about the movie is that one scene seemed to be very well produced, then there would be a sloppy edit, then a horribly produced scene. Lots of scenes using some technique that basically turns everything red, the obligatory mirror smashing scene, with 2 members of the film crew (including the guy holding the camera) visible for more than a full second. Lots of extremely sloppy editing, but I actually thought the plot was good. I watched this off of a 16 horror movie DVD set, so it wasn't like I paid a mountain for it, and I actually enjoyed it. There are several voodoo dancing scenes, that were babe-a-licious. Bad cinema at it's best

Painfully dull Euro-horror thats a retread of the Karloff Mummy set on a cruise ship.

Ages ago a voodoo priest who was having an affair with a married woman kills the husband in a fight. The woman is decapitated and the priest is put into a wooden coffin and buried.

Now. The coffin is dug up and put on a cruise ship. The dead priest comes back to life and begins looking for his reborn love at the same time he's chopping off the heads of some of the passengers.

Its slow. Its dull (with the opening bit about the affair replayed over and over and over again with an all but obscuring red tint) and it has some of the worst paper mache heads you'll ever see flying all over the place.

Cinematic sleep meds.

This film is an attempt to cash in on the blaxploitation craze of the 70's, even if it uses white actors in blackface - a big no no.

It stars Aldo Sambrell, who was a Spanish stuntman turned supporting actor who appeared in numerous low budget genre films from sword & sandal epics (Saul and David), spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West), Italian war potboilers (The Fighting Corsair, Attack Force Normandy), and found work right up through the Caligula cash-ins (Orgies of Caligula), barbarian craze (Tuareg: The Desert Warrior) & sleaze movies of the 1990's. He was still working three years ago.

It borrows from numerous movies that would be familiar to those who follow the genre.

Lots of decapitations and native breasts.

Hilariously bad Spanish horror made watchable by director Manuel Cano's kinetic direction. Could have been a guilty pleasure with better editing and a more coherent plot.

Voodoo Black Exorcist is a cheap Spanish horror flick that is a riff on the well-established mummy sub-genre. It essentially adds some scenes of gory violence to the mix, while it's early 70's continental Euro vibe is unusual for this type of movie. It begins with a prologue set thousands of years ago, where an African voodoo priest is entombed alive for having an illicit affair with the woman of a high ranking leader. In the present day, his sarcophagus has already been found and is transported overseas in an ocean liner from where the corpse reanimates itself and goes on a killing spree.

This one stars Aldo Sambrell in a rare leading actor role as the voodoo mummy. He is probably best known for appearing many spaghetti westerns, including all the films in Sergio Leone's 'Dollars' trilogy, where he always appeared as a Mexican bandit who didn't have much in the way of dialogue but always looked very convincingly bad ass. So it's good to see him get top billing here for a change. The film as a whole is undeniably a bit clunky with its low budget never hidden. Yet it commendably maintains its efforts in trying to entertain us, with various decapitations, a voluptuous exotic dancer and a breezy and cheesy Euro score. Certainly it's rough around the edges but any fan of lower budget 70's Euro horror should be able to take it and derive some entertainment value from this one.

Amusing random trash complete with blackface, terrible gore FX, bad dubbing, buxom flame- swallowing exotic dancers, topless "voodoo rites," flashbacks in heavy red tint, a Carlsbad-type cave with stalactites, documentary second-unit footage obviously shot on the streets w/o official permission, and so forth.

I wasn't at all clear why the reincarnated mummy killed several characters he had no apparent grudge against. But then, senselessness is always welcome in a truly bad movie. "We can only believe in gods that dance," one character says. Apparently those gods condone Afro-Cuban as well as Western bump & grind. In a probable first, we see mummy in combat with firehose.

This movie may be nuts, but it isn't boring, at least for bad cinema aficionados. Though I can't say I'd really want to see it again, unlike some true camp classics. Once is enough.

Oh come ON ... are you guys for real? Have you ever heard of Aldo Sambrell before?? Let's start from scratch. First off, the version of this film that our critics here have been commenting on is a cut, full frame, tattered, torn, worn-out, washed-up, nearly colorless, public domain full frame English language version of a Spanish/Italian horror film made in 1973 that is essentially a ripoff of Amando de Ossorio's NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS -- also from 1973 -- mixing voodoo hijynx, sex romps, white Europeans treading on cursed grounds, and "The Love Boat". All we need is Isaac Washington mixing drinks & giving advice.

I'll grant that it's a crummy film, somewhat unimaginatively staged, abounding with laugh-out-loud inept hilarity (my favorite is the image of the cameraman caught in a mirror just before someone's head is smashed into it: D'OH!!), the racial sensitivity of a Three Stooges quickie, and a subterranean ending that makes no sense. It looks to have been shot & edited in under 3 weeks for about as much money as I pay every month for my student loan settlement, made by someone who was either stoned, drunk, or perhaps driving while talking on a cell phone. The remaining English language full frame print has all of visual charm of a pack of cigarettes that has gone through the wash, having been run through various wood chippers, golf ball washing machines, escalator motors, and other mechanical devices that used to pass for film projectors.

WITH ALL THAT SAID, I would rate this as one of the overlooked party movie masterpieces of all-times, and it allows fans of his work to use the very seldom spoken/written line "STARRING THE INSANE ALDO SAMBRELL". Aldo Sambrell was a Spanish stuntman turned supporting actor who spoke enough Italian to get into, gee, four decades of low budget genre films from Sword & Sandal Peplums, Spaghetti Westerns (he totally owns Sergio Corbucci's NAVAJO JOE even if Burt Reynolds ices him at the end), Italian Euro War potboilers, cult Euro Horror Goth-Fests, some Exotica Action Adventure thrillers (see THE DOG if you ever get a chance), probably a Bud Spencer film or two, and found work right up through the CALIGULA cash-ins, Barbarian Craze & Atom Bomb Sleaze movies of the 1990's. He is an utterly priceless actor with swarthy, somewhat menacing looks, athletic abilities, and utter conviction to the occupation of acting who's presence made *DOZENS* of otherwise disposable fluff B to D grade movies more interesting than they had to be. He's still around somewhere, and rivals the great Spanish supporting actor Victor Isreal as the premier madman of cult cinema -- He didn't just play his roles, he *WAS* his roles, and was one of those actors rumored to go into town after the shoot wrapped for the day dressed in character to better flesh out his role over a few drinks at a local cantina as dazed locals gawked in awe.

Here he gets the starring role, based on his somewhat ethnic appearance, of a Carib prince who dares fall in love with someone out of his caste, kills her husband in self defense, and is sentenced to an eternity of damnation as a voodoo mummy crated up in an ornately carved wooden sarcophagus that just happens to find its way into the hold of a cruise liner upon which the re-incarnated Earthly form of his former beloved is taking a get-away-from-it-all pleasure cruise. Someone obviously saw HORROR EXPRESS, as a dimwit decides to investigate what treasures may be secreted into his coffin, and sure enough Aldo's creaky, creepy corpse is soon prowling the corridors of the Love Boat looking for other descendants of those who condemned him (lots of convenient coincidences, but then again it's a small world some days) to chop off their heads, present them as gifts of homage to She Who Was Before, and revive his body with their blood (hence the translated Spanish literal title, BLOODY VOODOO).

Silly for sure, but if you can watch this with not just a suspension of disbelief but a complete disregard for belief, this movie is a Euro Horror party movie HOWLER: Beheadings, nudity, a swanky musical score by Fernando García Morcillo, familiar supporting cast players such as Sambrell's Spaghetti Western cohort Fernando Sancho, sexy Eva León, the always dependable Julio Peña, Alfredo Mayo, Enrique del Río (with real-life spouse María Antonia del Río as the Ugly American comic relief) and a silly but likable story by Santiago Moncada, best known for having scripted the ultra-creepy BELL FROM HELL and Sergio Martino's ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. This wasn't one of his better days but again, it looks as though the film was made incredibly quickly, was meant to be placed on a double bill with something just as forgettable and was not meant to save the world from global warming, unseat elected presidents or put and end to childhood obesity. IT'S JUST A STUPID LITTLE HORROR MOVIE, and with that caveat in mind, a case of beer & some friends to howl at it with this is one of the more entertaining little cheapies from the age of Euro Horror, lost and forgotten for decades. It would be useful to pinpoint exactly which films came first -- NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, HORROR EXPRESS or VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST since all three share common plot ideas & even some nearly identical scenes. I'll grant this is the lesser effort of the three, but then again it was created from nothing other than maybe twenty pages of script, three or four canisters of film, a bunch of people getting together for a vacation cruise who just happened to be actors & filmmakers. It's a fun, wild little film that was never meant to be taken so seriously: Lighten up, guys!!

7/10: Have another beer and enjoy, even if it is all rather silly ...

Dull and clumsily cobbled tale more-less rehashes the story of The Mummy, although this time around the Egyptian pharaoh is replaced by a tropical island voodoo doctor(the Caucasian crackers wearing blackface makeup and Foxy Brown afro wigs will have you in hysterics...trust me...you *never* had it so good).

So, anyway...this crusty old mummy is resurrected on-board a luxury liner. The reincarnation of his love from ancient times is among the passengers, and yadda, yadda, yadda. Not surprisingly, characters get killed, girls start screaming, and everything you expect will happen does, indeed, happen.

So..."is VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST any good", you ask?

Oh, Hell-to-the-no.

Recommending this film would be as insane as recommending steel wool as a substitute for chewing gum. If, however, you're the type of person who tunes-in to back-seat cinema with any frequency, then you might possibly find it a tolerable slice of beatdown, old-school Eurotrash.

4/10

Aldo Sambrell plays Gato Nebo,a thousand year old Haitan priest who is decapitated along with his lover Kenya for adultery and murder.Then the film takes place during 70's and is set on a cruise ship to Port-Au-Prince,Haiti.After being awakened Gato Nebo starts decapitating various ship passengers with a sword.Add also a romance between reincarnated Kenya and her mummified lover and an absurd climax set in an ancient cavern in Kenya."Voodoo Black Exorcist" is an inept Spanish horror flick with fuzzy guitar score and phony looking beheadings.Outrageously silly script doesn't help either.Only for the discerning trash enthusiast.4 out of 10.

Aldo Sambrell stars as an undead Haitian, entombed in a sarcophagus that is awoken after a thousand years laid to rest. Still smarting at his execution and that of his mistress, he sets about taking revenge on anyone resembling those who were responsible for his condition, which causes his skin to age hideously after too long away from his tomb. The majority of his marauding is undertaken on a cruise ship that is ferrying the ancient crypt to a museum, where he just happens to discover the lovely Sylvia (Leon) who closely resembles his ancient, mistress Kenya (Stadler).

Three reasons to watch this ghastly attempt at a film: Firstly, the beheadings. The severed heads are hilarious. Most department store mannequins would look more realistic, but that would be spoiling the fun. Second, the near-nude dancer - she's voluptuous and shakes the booty like a pro, but even better when she encounters Sambrell backstage - take a look in the mirror when he assaults her; what the? How could it have been missed in post-production editing?

Third and finally, the incoherent storyline - there's about 5 minutes of actual material fused together by incessant flashbacks of Sambrell and Stadler running along the beach, embracing then being ritually executed. And if those reasons aren't enough, then here's the rub - while voodoo is undeniably central to the theme, alas, "black" and "exorcist" are both foreign concepts in this film. Sambrell isn't black and there's no exorcism I could detect.. but perhaps it's more relevant that this film was made in 1974, shortly after the release of "The Exorcist" and during the "Blaxploitation" craze. Misleading or otherwise, it's still appallingly bad and dull as a butter knife.

Let me state the obvious: This film has nothing to do with voodoo, there are no blacks in it and nary an exorcism occurs. This was filmed at the height of the blaxploitation/horror era when movies Like "Blackenstein" and "Blacula" were popular, as was a film titled "The Exorcist." If you think using burnt cork to make white actors "look black" is a hoot (and racist), then this film will leave you shaking your head and wanting to conjure up the ghost of Al Jolson real quick. I don't know what they used to darken the skin of these untalented actors, but to me it looks like watered-down Shinola.

I own this DVD as it was part of the 50-pack "Drive In Movie Classics" set, but I only keep it for historical / hysterical reasons, as I am a collector of old "classics." The only redeemable thing about this film is that it shows that for the most part, white producers and directors are a bit more in tune with black sensibilities.

Another terrible film in the Drive-in 50-pack collection. There are good films and bad films in collection packs this film is one of the most awful films you will find in anywhere.

Vudú sangriento AKA Black Voodoo Exorcist which ever name you find this film under - it's not worth it. It's worse than awful. I love some of the B-grade films and a couple of the Z-grades but this movie really is scrapping the bottom of the barrel. There are so many horror films on the market and you are not missing anything if you pass this film by.

I couldn't even get a chuckle at the awfulness of this flick - this one is not even funny - just really blahzay and, well, dumb. I highly recommend passing on this mess and find a better film.

1/10

For more on that summary, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q71Y0GSjAUA So, much is made of the 'cameraman in the mirror' bit, but can I expand on that by saying that it's not just the cameraman, but the entire crew and several passers-by that are caught in that shot? That gives you an idea of how little the makers of this film care about the final product.

Voodoo Blah Exorcist starts off with two folks getting it on (while blacked up like minstrels? It's hard to tell) then killing a cuckolded husband before being all killed and buried alive and stuff. We then get a credits sequence that has nothing to do with the film, then we're off to the old 'undead wandering about a boat' that so sent me into slumber in the Blind Dead film 'The Ghost Galleon'.

Terrible dubbing (the kind that re-verbs a lot), constant flashbacks, loads of Aldo Sambrell wandering around, very little gore, a pretty dirty looking fire-eater, some exposition, and an ending so boring I watched it twice and still can't remember how it went results in a bad movie that is kind of worth watching for novelty value but doesn't quite end up being an essential bad movie.

And that's it! I've watched all 50 films in the Mill Creek Drive In Classics box set! I'VE WASTED MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I liked this movie, it was well cool. The title automatically grabbed my attention! I was expecting a sort of shlock horror blaxpoitation. And I suppose thats what it is, but I cannot truthfully say it's what I expected. It is definitely worth checking out though!

Oh - And check out the opening scene where for some reason they couldn't get any black actors so they just painted three white folk! Very cool!

Title: 'Black Voodoo Exorcist' from about 1973, but released in the US in '75. There isn't any "exorcism" to speak of, but that's okay, the US producers were just trying to cash in on the "Exorcist" craze of that period, and the Blaxploitation craze of...several years earlier.

Plot: Who cares?

Location: Aboard a Carribbean Cruise Ship

Female Characters: Gorgeous Redhead; Bizarrely Buxom "Voodoo Dancer" w/ Grotesque Facial Makeup; Flaky Middle-aged Alcoholic Tarot Card Reader

Male Characters: Psychotic Lovelorn 3000 Year-Old Mummy; Sunburned Anthroplogist; Fat Cigar-chomping Hamburger Salesman; Sweaty Columbo like Detective; Voodoo Dancer's Bongo-Player; Various Cruise-Ship Crew Members Who Die;

Acting: Pretty good considering the international cast were all speaking different languages while filming

Music: Great! Funky Fuzz-Wah Theme; Frantic "Voodoo" Bongo Drumming throughout

Directing: Really Great! Wide-angle lens, odd camera angles, lurid red flashbacks; Almost every 70's psychedelic horror gimmick in the book is employed.

Dialogue: The translated script (from Italian and Spanish into English, apparently) gives all of these 60s-70s Euro-Trash Classics a poetic quality which is missing from similar US films. The fact that the dialog must be overdubbed and made to fit the actors' lip motions makes this task even more challenging and creative.

Horror FX: Wow... The phony decapitations are truly horrible, and the blood is even redder than real blood. Incredible.

Recommendation: Thumbs up! Get the 'Mill Creek Entertainment' DVD versions if possible - y'know, the '50 Movies on DVD for 19.95!" cardboard box sets. They've released several 'genre' box-sets like 'Horror', 'Suspense', 'Sci-Fi' etc etc. My personal fave is the 'Drive-In' 50-movie box set. That's less than a dollar per film - priced appropriately - and the print quality is wonderfully abysmal, just like you remember watching them late at night 30 years ago. The films are from all over the world from different decades, and you never know what you'll end up with, but unpredictability is what makes life exiting.

Voodoo Black Exorcist (1973)

** (out of 4)

Another really bad Spanish horror film. 3000 years ago a man is executed for sleeping with the wife of a voodoo priest. In present times someone steals his body and puts it on a cruise ship where it comes to life and kills anyone around him (even innocent cats). This is an incredibly strange little film that tried to capture the blaxploitation movement of the 70s but doing so by having white people appearing in blackface and big afro wigs!!! The main mummy is played by an actor in blackface early in the movie but his "color" changes throughout the film and that includes a couple scenes where he's totally white without any makeup.