Shakespeare once said music was the food of love, but in the new indie grindhouse homage VOODOO APOCALYPSE, it is the food of the undead.
It’s 1979 – and troubled LA cop White Chocolate is down Mexico way seeking out exiled colleague Charlie Vargas who has found his soul working as a wrestler. However, duty has to call again – and it comes in the form of trafficker Jimmy Vanilla who has a grand plan to utilise his musical talents when not infecting people with the ‘Devil’s Dandruff’ to turn notes in to the night of the living dead at concerts.
So, what have two over-emotional cops got to do? Well, seek out a Chinese Kung Fu grandmaster at a local restaurant and climb high rather than get high to a mountain top to enter a ‘Cave of Death’ – and tempt a fate once done…..
OK, now this is cheerfully naff in its’ execution and people who are fans of the original 1970s films which this pays happy tribute to will spot all kinds of wonderful references (there’s even a couple of white projection cue dots in the corner at one point aping bad 35mm prints). However, this has been done much more effectively in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s collaborations of FROM DUSK TIL DAWN and GRINDHOUSE, which does make it a little late in the day as an inventive idea. Throw in a Stallone-ROCKY III homage – and you are more or less there.
The film-makers clearly had determination to throw everything and then the kitchen sink into the film, but you have to have a fair amount of consistent structure for it to be truly viable as a movie. The multiple plot strands and references do make the final product hazy and you are found wanting for more humour and craziness within.
That said, the visual style is OK (right down to the back projection elements as Chocolate and Vargas drive around town) and the casting is just right. It’s a pity that there wasn’t a lot more opportunities seized to make it an even better film.
