Written by Vinay Ranganathan, Photo courtesy of Paramount Players
‘Spell’ is a horror film that was screened at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The film was directed by Mark Tonderai, known for shows such as “Doctor Who,” “Lucifer,” and “Black Lightning,” as well as the film “The House at The End of The Street.” The film’s basis is this: A man crash-lands in rural Appalachia and awakens in the attic of a traditional Hoodoo, a spiritual tradition similar to Voodoo, practitioner. He desperately tries to break free from her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.
The movie is primarily focused on two characters, who are Marquis Woods (Omari Hardwick), the main character who crash-lands with his family in rural Appalachia, and the antagonist Eloise (Loretta Devine), who is the hoodoo practitioner. Woods and his family are explored in the film, but not enough. The relationships in the film don’t feel very convincing, and that isn’t due to the actors, who do an amazing job at portraying their characters, but the physical character development itself. The characters are not fully fleshed out enough for the audience to care about them or the consequences, as a result, the story ends up being good, and the concept fascinating, but the depth of the characters pulling it back.
There are subtle flashbacks in the movie that deal with Woods’ past, but not enough is given to feel the full emotional weight of it. I wish this was explored more. The mystery is beneficial until it holds the characters back. Even though the character of Woods isn’t developed enough, Hardwick, who plays Woods gives his full power to the character and he does a great job at this. The brief scenes with Woods and his family are enjoyable, but don’t give out enough development for me to care about his family.
On the other side, there is Eloise. She seems very one dimensional and almost comically villainous. Devine does give a good performance, but the motivations of her character are not clear. Viewers see what she wants to do, but not why.
The relationship and mysticism between Woods and Eloise is compelling. The film sets up ways to make the magic clear, interesting, mysterious and believable. The minute Woods begins to understand this entirely separate world is interesting, it provides contrast to his seemingly perfect life.
This movie tries its best to emulate the themes of and be in the vein of great horror movies like “The Visit,” “Hereditary” and “Get Out,” but it manages this in a haphazard and mediocre way. The movie, while at times enjoyable and unnerving, provides nothing special or new to the horror genre. It has great concepts and characters that could be explored more, but it ends up being average.
