Strong and Moving!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Native drums beating non-stop along a watery paradise? Am I in Haiti, the obviously fictional San Columbia or near Bethesda Fountain in Central Park? To protect the allegedly innocent, the writers chose #2, San Columbia, where the native drums are calling out to Dorothy Burgess, a discontent wife and mother living in New York. She is waiting for her husband Jack Holt to leave on a business trip so she can take her daughter Cora Sue Collins down to her birthplace of San Columbia where odd things are happening. Holt convinces his love-lorn secretary Fay Wray to accompany his wife and daughter there much against her will, and almost immediately after getting settled in, Wray has sent a wire to Holt to get down there immediately to investigate the strange occurrences going on. Collins' nanny is murdered in a bizarre manner after a confrontation with the spooky Madame Sul-Te-Wan (a veteran of these types of roles) and Holt is informed by friendly black schooner captain Clarence Muse that human sacrifices are being planned. Well, Dorothy Burgess, you ain't in Kansas anymore, and the witches here are even odder than the ones in Oz.This isn't classic horror in the "Dracula" or "Frankenstein" mold, more psychological horror as the audience's tensions are made tense with the subtle goings-on that build up to an odd ritual where Holt learns the horrific truth and must make a drastic decision in order to save both his wife and daughter. Certainly better than some of those poverty row zombie movies (with the exception of the classic "White Zombie" that didn't type-cast black extras as voodoo worshipers), this might not be for all audiences as it does give a one dimensional view of the island people who have no hesitation in killing off the white intruders to their homeland. Muse plays a very likable character who is strangely unemotional at the thought of his girlfriend being sacrificed (which leads to a very haunting scene), but he's certainly loyal to Holt, Wray and poor little Cora Sue Collins when the natives attack. At one point, Holt does even say, "The natives are restless", which is alternately disturbing and funny.The horror here comes mainly from what you believe is set to happen rather than what you see happen. There's no vampire swooping down on a victim, a monster attacking unsuspecting victims, or a mad scientist laughing in psychotic delight as he prepares to skewer his next victim on a pendulum. It is beautifully filmed and hauntingly presented, with a conclusion that is quite disturbing. It's obvious that there's no saving the hero's wife and that scream queen Wray will help save the day. In a sense it also reminded me of "The Cat People" with its ghostly atmosphere so dark and haunting, and thus is also quite ahead of its time.

Until only a few months ago, I had never even heard of this one – despite the involvement of director Roy William Neill (THE BLACK ROOM [1935]) and the era's foremost "Scream Queen" Fay Wray! Interestingly, it supplies the logical bridge between the distinctive Gothic and psychological backdrops of the two most notable early voodoo-related films – namely WHITE ZOMBIE (1932) and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943). The atmosphere here is similarly thick, without the need to resort to an actual prowling or possessed creature: indeed, having the lady concerned – very well played by Dorothy Burgess – actively believe in the power of voodoo (that is, until she sees the error of her ways on being asked to perform the ultimate sacrifice!), provides the biggest chill in this case! Incidentally, the two central female characters (with Wray being, naturally, the wide-eyed heroine) not only create the requisite contrast but make up for the rather uninteresting male lead – burly Jack Holt! Perhaps not a classic of the genre, then, but a perfect example of "a film that has fallen through the cracks"; in fact, the copy I acquired is a hazy VHS-sourced recording of an old TCM screening.

**SPOILERS*** One of the first films about voodoo and voodoo blood sacrifices to come out of Hollywood that caught the unsuspecting public by surprise. Not only does the film have human sacrifices preformed to the screaming and howling cries and chants of whipped up,to a red hot fury, local island voodoo worshiper's but in many cases these gruesome murders are preformed by the very parents, mostly mothers, or spouses of the victims themselves!In the movie "Black Moon" we see how voodoo can be implanted into a person's brain at a very young age and drive the person crazy to the point that he or she will murder their own flesh and blood to satisfy their voodoo God. This happens to Juanita Lane, Dorothy Burgess, who's mind had been messed up by voodoo since she was a little girl on the Caribbean island of St. Christopher. Now grown up married and with a little girl of her own Juanita answers the call of her Voodoo God to travel back to St. Christopher from her home in NYC to finish the job that the natives there, who made her a high priestess, demand! Murder by ritual sacrifice her seven year old daughter Nancy, Cora Sue Collis, in a blood voodoo ritual at the time of the next new moon!The tranquil and beautiful scenery of St. Christopher hide the sheer terror that lies just beneath it's surface in the island's centuries long practice of voodoo. This all come shockingly to light when Juanita arrives there as a guest at her father's Dr. Raymond Perez, Arnold Korff, villa. Dr. Perez unlike his daughter's husband Stephen Lane, Jack Holt, knows the secret behind Juanita's very strange behavior and was dead set against her coming there. With Junita now at St. Christopher she becomes attracted to the very thing that both her father and later husband were trying to get her exorcised from: Voodoo. And it's that strange fascination or addiction that would lead to a native uprising that will threaten the lives of the few remaining whites or foreigners, about a half dozen, still living in St. Christopher including Juanita herself.***SPOILERS*** Even though the blood-letting in the film is kept at a minimum just the thought of what the movie is all about is enough to make your stomach turn. In the end Stephen finally realizes that his wife is beyond help and has to do the unthinkable in order to save his still unaffected, by the island's voodoo priest Kala (Laurence Criner) and his top aid and little Nancy's nanny Rova (Madam Sul-Te-Wan), daughter Nancy from being sacrificed to the island's voodoo God. Stephen is thus forced to commit an act of extreme violence that even if it was the right and only thing to do on his part he'll be cursed to both live and suffer with what he did for the rest of his life!

I'm not sure, but Black Moon may be the first horror film to be set in the West Indies and focus on voodoo. Of course, it would be the Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur film I Walked With a Zombie that would go on to become the best known early example; but Black Moon is still a worthy effort. The plot focuses on a woman born in the West Indies. She left at the age of two when her parents were sacrificed in a voodoo ritual, but apparently she is under some curse and decides to return to the island. She takes along her husband, nanny, daughter and his secretary and upon returning to the island, is elevated to the level of a God by the locals; which leads to danger for her family. The film was obviously made on a low budget as it all looks very cheap throughout. This improves once the film reaches the West Indies as the location shoots take some of the focus off the cheap looking sets seen earlier on in the film. The film is very slow burning and takes a while to get going, but once it does it's constantly interesting. Director Roy William Neill (who would of course go on to become best known for his Sherlock Holmes films) does well at implementing the atmosphere needed to ensure that the film is successful. It has to be said that there isn't a great deal of tension in the early parts of the film; but this is made up for by the ending which is strong. Overall, I wouldn't quite say that this film is a classic; but it will certainly be of interest for fans of thirties horror.