Monogram Pictures was a studio in ‘Poverty Row’ during Hollywood’s golden age. ‘Poverty Row’ was a strip of smaller studios known for making B-movies, and Monogram specifically was known for action/adventure films and westerns. During the twenty year stretch from the 1930’s to the 1950’s that was Monogram’s heyday, the company did manage to push out a few horror flicks as well. One such film was 1944’s Voodoo Man, from director William Beaudine.

The titular Voodoo Man is Dr. Richard Marlowe (Bela Lugosi). Years ago Dr. Marlowe’s wife died and ever since he’s been trying to use voodoo to transfer the essence of young girls into the body of his wife to bring her back to life. He has a pretty good setup too. His house is located in the middle of nowhere which makes capturing unsuspecting solo travelers pretty easy. Assisting him is Nicholas (George Zucco), a man who owns the nearby gas station. When young girls traveling by themselves ask Nicholas for directions, he purposely misleads them towards Dr. Marlowe’s home. Once the girls arrive a couple of goons, lead by Toby (John Carradine), bring them back to Dr. Marlowe and the voodoo ceremony begins.

Dr. Marlowe’s plans come falling apart when he picks up his latest victim, Stella (Louise Currie). See Stella was on her way to be a bridesmaid in her cousin Betty’s (Wanda McKay) wedding. When Stella doesn’t show up, Betty and her fiancé Ralph (Tod Andrews) go to investigate.

Voodoo Man is a fairly minor horror entry, especially from the likes of Lugosi and Carradine. It’s not going to make a top horror list anywhere. In general a lot of the film is a bit ridiculous. I mean what are the odds that multiple pretty, young woman all go down this same stretch of road and all stop at this same gas station, all while driving alone? I would say pretty low but Voodoo Man has you believe that this happens multiple times a day.

Then there’s the actual voodoo ceremony. This couldn’t be more goofy. You’ve got a few weird costumes, some chanting, a bit of fire and Carradine just beating a drum to death. It’s a bit silly to say the least.

Those issues aside, Voodoo Man does have a bit of charm. Lugosi and Carradine are always a welcome sight and even though both made films that are significantly greater than this, they each did their fair share of schlock that was quite a bit worse. As weird as this may sound, the story is actually a bit touching. Dr. Marlowe just misses his beloved wife and will do anything to bring her back. It’s easy to see where he’s coming from.

The movie also benefits from the time period. People just talked awesome in the 40’s and 50’s. Everything was fast paced, people talked quick and had no time for chitchat. That probably explains why the film’s runtime was just over an hour. The best scene of this is when Ralph stops to get gas. He is in such a hurry and talking so quick he doesn’t let the poor attendant get a word in. He eventually lives before even getting any gas.

Also people just openly smoke at gas pumps throughout the film. This seems incredibly dangerous, but who cares it’s the 40’s! Go wild and live on the edge!

My absolute favorite thing about Voodoo Man though is that it’s a little bit meta. Ralph is a screenwriter and after he returns to Hollywood he turns in a screenplay based on this whole ordeal. When his producer asks him who they should cast he says, “Bela Lugosi?” This may not seem like much, but for 1944 I think that’s pretty cool.

Voodoo Man is now out on Blu-ray from Olive Films. It’s a standard Olive Films release, meaning it’s bare bones. The transfer looks very good, so that’s nice but I wish Olive would start adding some bonus content. I like the fact that we’re getting these little titles on Blu-ray, don’t get me wrong, but Olive could really step things up a notch by adding even the slightest bit of bonus content. Special features be damned, I still recommend this release as a cool little addition to any horror fan’s library.

Voodoo Man is now out on Blu-ray from Olive Films.