Voodoo Passion (1977) User Reviews

Lesser Franco

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Voodoo Passion (1977)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Jess Franco film about a woman who goes to visit her husband in Haiti and soon discovers another woman living in the house who claims to be her husband's nympho sister. The wife buys the story but soon she begins to be haunted by dreams of voodoo and a mysterious woman coming to warn her. Ada Tauler, Jack Taylor, Vicky Adams and Karine Gambier star in this film, which is a remake of Franco's 1970 film Nightmares Come at Night, which wasn't the best film in the director's career but it's certainly better than this. The biggest difference between the two is that the original went for more of a psychological style while this one here is nothing but non-stop sex scenes, which grow quite boring after a while. There's some beautiful locations, a nice music score and great sets but that's about the only thing this film has going for it. There is one hot lesbian scenes and some really bad dialogue, which gets some laughs but you'll do better searching out other parts of Franco's career.

Turn up the sound

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 21 August 2014]

Since 'Voodoo Passion' (or 'Call of the blond goddess', that is the original title, literally translated) is regarded by many Franco experts as one of his lesser works from the 1970s, I didn't exactly rush to get the DVD, but when I finally did, it turned out to be much better than many say. I don't know how anyone can prefer a bungled work like 'Nightmares Come At Night' over this surprisingly round work of art. The movie lives very much from the music, maybe that is an underestimated factor. Turn up the sound, it helps a lot. Jess Franco, apart from being a director, also had a passion for jazz music, and he used jazz combined with voodoo drums to create obsessive intensity here. In the middle of the movie, the music suddenly stops for a while (when Susan tells Jack how scared she is), and the scary silence makes you aware how much everything was in a musical flow before, driving on and on through the dances and rituals.

The story as usual can be told in 5 lines: Susan (Ada Tauler) comes to an island (the tag line says it's Haiti) to marry Jack House (Franco regular Jack Taylor). A woman he introduces as his sister Olga (Karine Gambier) turns out to be his lover, so much for a normal marriage. Susan has nightmares of herself killing people under the influence of voodoo, and the housekeeper Ines (Vicky Adams) seems to have something to do with it. A conspiracy against Susan has begun... Debutante Vicky Adams plays the priestess with mesmerizing charm, stealing the show every time the camera catches her, thus she well deserved to become the first listed in the cast, although her role is smaller than those of Susan and Olga.

Voodoo trash from Franco

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 5 August 2016]

"Der Ruf der blonden Göttin" or "Call of the Blonde Goddess" or "Voodoo Passion" is a film by the notorious Jesús Franco and the years was 1977, which means it will soon have its 40th anniversary. It is one of those films he made in German-language as this is a Swiss production. And it is one of his films without the gorgeous Lina Romay. Her absence may have hurt the film, but it also struggles a lot from its disastrous script. The lead actress is Nanda Van Bergen and she shows us how little talent she has. Due to the location, this film includes much more nudity and sex scenes including more exotic actors than usual for a Franco film. But the really bad thing is that none of the actors are really attractive in my eye, which means that you have to be really desperate and horny to be able to enjoy this one. And it is certainly not for anybody in search of an interesting plot. This film was stupid, uninteresting and they did not even use the Haitian landscape for some stunning cinematography shots. Without a fount, one of Franco's worst. I am glad this one was pretty short and I absolutely do not recommend the watch.

Voodoo Passion

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 20 February 2022]

Susan (Ada Tauler) has come to Haiti to live with her husband Jack (Jack Taylor) and when you realize that this movie is also called Porno Shock, Voodoo Passion and Call of the Blonde Goddess, you know what you're in for.

Housekeeper Inès (Muriel Montossé) explains that this is a place of sorcery. And then Susan finds her sister-in-law Olga (Karine Gambier) naked in her bed and she just might be more into her brother than she should be and definitely loves listening to the lovemaking he's enjoying with his new bride. Look, when your new sister-in-law says things about your husband such as "He likes me to come sleep with him. I'm his baby doll." you should worry.

Then the nightmares begin - Nightmares Come At Night is a description and another movie that Franco made that is the same plot - and Susan dreams about violence and murder so real that she's sure that she's become a killer.

I really feel like I've seen that plot so many times and yet it works for me every time.

Voodoo Uncle Jess (Slight Return.)

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 9 June 2022]

Looking through a pile of DVD's,I found that I had a title by auteur film maker Jess Franco which I had somehow forgotten about owning! This led to me getting ready to experience some passionate voodoo.

View on the film:

Revealed in the superb book Flowers of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema of Jess Franco Volume Two by Stephen Thrower that the Sintra region of Portugal was used for the exterior sequences, co-writer (with producer Erwin C. Dietrich) /directing auteur Jess Franco joyfully embraces the great outdoors, via Uncle Jess's distinctive wah-wah, button-mashing distorted panning shots over the bare flesh of Susan and Olga (with Karine Gambier giving a wicked overripe performance as Olga), as co-star Jack Taylor unexpectedly also fully strips off in order to embrace the ladies with passion.

Grooving to regular composer of this period Walter Baumgartner Jazz bongo score, Uncle Jess enters the house of Jack and Susan to a gloriously kitsch atmosphere, lining each room with mirrors in every corner and decadent items such as a two foot high ceramic leopard, that are captured in Uncle Jess's unique playing of the zoom-in like a trombone, as things start to heat up between the trio, and Susan begins to have nightmares of murder.

Paying (some) level of respect to Voodoo culture by having Jack discuss with Susan the deep religious importance Voodoo has to the locals, Uncle Jess stages the performance as Voodoo rituals like Jazz dance numbers, where swirling camera moves Olga getting intimate with a bottle of Remy Martin, whilst the screenplay by Dietrich & Uncle Jess gives the trio wonderfully chewy dialogue as Susan's nightmares lead to her waking up to Voodoo passion.

Decent Surreal Gialli That Focuses Too Much on the Nudity

[Reviews_of_the_Dead · 5/10 · 8 March 2024]

This is a movie that I don't know if I knew about before getting a Blu-ray screener copy from Full Moon for review. When I saw that this was from Jesús Franco, I was intrigued. I've seen movies from him and have heard/read about countless others. I was intrigued to see what we'd get here as this is credited as a gialli. Other than that, I went blind.

Synopsis: Susan (Ada Tauler) comes to Haiti to be with her husband. His naked sister asks her, if she's ever made love to a woman. Susan dreams vividly of nudity, Voodoo rituals and killing.

We start this on the beach where men are playing bongo drums and there are topless women dancing. Something this movie will give throughout is about how important voodoo is to Haiti. This also feels like filler. We shift over to a ship arriving. Waiting by a car is Ines (Vicky Adams). She is also the housekeeper for Jack House (Jack Taylor) who is an ambassador. His wife, Susan, gets off the ship. The camera shows us natives and I get the idea that there is fear there since she is white. Ines is also white, but we learn she is from here from mixed racial parents.

Susan is brought home to unpack and freshen up. She goes into her room to find her husband's sister, Olga (Karine Gambier), nude in bed. This is where she asks the question to her sister-in-law from the synopsis.

Soon after Susan visits her husband at the embassy and we meet three men with him. One of them is Dr. Pierre Barre (Vitor Mendes) who is a psychiatrist. Jack is happy to see his wife and he drives her home. It is through their conversations that Susan is intrigued by voodoo and her husband has knowledge that he shares.

It is also at once that Susan has the dreams from the synopsis. This is taking her to see a ritual led by Ines. Susan also believes that she seduces men she met with her husband and kills them. She is convinced though that no murders occurred by Jack and Pierre. The deeper she gets into these dreams, the more her sanity comes into question as secrets are revealed.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this should be labeled as adult first. This is a softcore porn. Almost every scene with Tauler and Gambier feature them nude. They get more explicit as this goes on. Adams also appears nude quite a bit after the opening act. I didn't mind seeing these women that way as they're all beautiful. It gets to be uncomfortable after a while though.

Now that I have that out of the way, a problem that I had was that the nudity seems more important than the story. There is a murder mystery here, but that feels almost more incidental. This is more interested in having sex scenes between Susan and Jack. Or having Olga listen to them and pleasure herself. Anything big thing here is have nude women dancing in ritualistic format or having Susan investigate in a nightgown that hides nothing. If you're looking for Swiss giallo, it is light on those elements of mystery and investigation unfortunately.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, we do have murders or at least Susan thinks there are. She isn't sure what is real and what is a dream. That does add to a surreal feel. We also don't necessarily know if she is giving over to her sexual desires either. I do think that Franco does well there. I should credit Tauler, because she doesn't know if she is doing these things which is messing with her head. She plays this well and I'll credit her for being nude as much as she is.

Going then to the rest of the cast. Adams is gorgeous and Gambier is easy on the eyes. Taylor is good as he seems like this loving husband who works too much. There was something off about him that I noticed from the start. The same for Mendes. Other than that, I thought the rest of the cast fit what was needed. Franco was able to find people who were willing to be nude on camera, showing full frontal if you are seeking that.

All that is left is filmmaking. Now I do think this has too much filler. We do get to see Portugal and how beautiful it is subbing in as Haiti. The cinematography is good for what was captured. The framing feels like something you'd get from softcore porn, so that wasn't shocking there. I will credit that surreal feel of whether we are seeing dreams or reality. The deaths are off-screen. I get why though since this is exploring whether Susan is going crazy. The soundtrack did fit where this supposed to take place and that atmosphere as well.

In conclusion, this movie wasn't what I was expecting. This is more of an adult film than a giallo. That falls on me though, not the movie that Franco was making. I do think that the casting was good. The women are beautiful. This does capture the atmosphere they wanted with voodoo and whether Susan is killing these people or is dreams? That works in its favor. This didn't work for me overall though. If you want to see a softcore film with beautiful women and nudity from almost everyone, then give this a watch. I'd also recommend to fans of Franco.

My Rating: 5 out of 10.

A middling Franco.

[parry_na · 5/10 · 9 February 2018]

As someone who makes a point of attempting to see every Jess Franco horror film, there comes a time when it becomes clear that the horror takes a very distant backseat to the erotica. Regular Jack Taylor - looking much better without his moustache - is only on screen for a few moments before he gets stuck in.

As is often the case, the locations - Zurich and stock footage conveying persuasively the beauty of Haitii - are beautifully shot (some tropical Portuguese locations were previously used to even greater effect in 1971's 'Christine, Princess of Eroticism/Virgin Among the Living Dead'). The music, too, a percussive, tribal, jazz-infused dirge by Walter Baumgartner, is hallucinogenic and powerful.

Olga (Karine Gambier), a bleach blonde, brightly-lipped, eyebrow-less tease is introduced as Jack's sister. {SPOILER} When it is revealed that she is in fact his lover, his wife Susan Haus (Ada Tauler) is the only one remotely surprised, such is their flirtatious relationship.

Voodoo dolls, hypnotism, night clubs, nudity, mirrors and a deceptively sunny atmosphere where every little problem can be addressed with a nice bit of graphic - but not quite hard-core - sex; it's far from Franco's most rewarding production, but it is directed very cleanly and contains none of the frenzied zooms typical of his output at this time.