User reviews

You can't hold too much against this knowing that it was made in four days, and I had expected it to be campy anyway. (It's not all that campy in reality. With the exception of Kevin Kalisher and Huntley Ritter, who don't take themselves seriously, the rest of the cast plays it halfway straight; Riley Smith is exceptionally bad.) The ridiculous story is actually paid attention to, which kind of shocked me; I assumed the whole purpose with these ultra-low-budget horror movies was to cater to the basest sexual fantasies and not give a damn about the story, but they use lots of words like "technological" and "physicality" in the script to get their point across. (Although it's possible that the story is important only to explain why there's so few cast members.) Nobody cares about this stupid storyline, and the only things that are interesting in the film are the mocking of cults and the soft-core homoeroticisms (which aren't all that edgy). I would have enjoyed it more if there were just some random killings for no reason. The film is grainy, with a TV-quality look and acting level. There are a few "sexy" scenes that are alright -- the boys writhing in bed in their boxers, feeling themselves up; or being tied down and making orgasmic faces while wine is poured on them -- and some of them are kinda funny. And I liked the digs at L. Ron Hubbard and the intended irony of a story about religious cultists told with intense gay overtones, but it still isn't any good. 3/10

This is one of those movies that should have been way better than it turned out to be. I dread to think what the Blockbuster-approved edit must have looked like, because the director's cut on DVD was a bore of the epic proportions. Naturally, you don't expect it to be "The Godfather", but an acting class or two might have come in handy.

Also, there were so many cute guys in this movie, but they were woefully under-exploited. I like watching a bevy of hotties writhe around in their BVDs as much as the next guy, but even I have a right to expect a little more. It wasn't a total loss, though; at least we got a peek a Drew Fuller's (covered) junk and truly upsetting haircut. And there's Huntley Ritter looking even cuter than he did in "Bring It On" (and acting about as well). There's always a silver lining, kids. You just have to look really hard for it. And occasionally, you have to make use of your pause button.

Cheap and mind-blisteringly dull story and acting. Not a single good line, not even a line bad enough to be good, and no memorable delivery. Even the blooper reel included with the DVD showed how inept the actors were and how little fun any of them were having. The esoteric and occult basis was apathetically inauthentic, and the antagonists failed to be creepy or believable. The 'homoerotic' overtones were pointlessly tame and dissatisfying, and were limited to young boys caressing their chests while flaccid in their boxers. I'm not gay enough to appreciate it, but a little action might have at least kept me and my girlfriend awake.

As a director, David DeCoteau has an extensive resume ranging from laughably cheap horror films ("Creepozoids"), late-night Cinemax adult "entertainment" ("Beach Babes From Beyond"), gay-film-fest favorites ("Leather Jacket Love Story"), and lame horror films ("Curse Of The Puppet Master"). That he uses about five aliases while directing should be a sign, but there is something indescribably alluring about watching a movie that is, simply, 100% pure trash. DeCoteau does not disappoint in this respect with the supernatural film "Voodoo Academy."

The plot centers around Carmichael Bible College, which apparently only enrolls six students each term. The college is run by the odd Mrs. Bouvier (Debra Mayer) and classes are taught by Hollis CarMichael (Chad Burris), an ex-Catholic priest who espouses a religion resembling a bizarre and clunky hybrid of Christianity and Scientology (check out the electro-charged confessional). However, as we learn before the opening credits even roll, Bouvier is in reality a wicked voodoo priestess and Hollis her nefarious assistant. When one of their rituals results in the death of a student, the duo recruit wholesome, clean-cut Christopher (Riley Smith) to fill his place. From the beginning, Christopher suspects something is amiss, and he soon begins to find out that dark and sinister forces are at work.

The film itself is an unabashed ode to trashy, campy dialogue as well as young men in designer underwear. Indeed, most of the film consists of scenes where at least one of the students is topless, working out, bathing, or simply skulking through the shadows in Ralph Lauren boxer briefs. That these students look quite good without their clothes on is an added bonus and is in fact the main reason anybody should even begin to rent or buy this film. Even Hollis -- a priest! -- has a topless scene. The plot, as little as there is, is telegraphed in the opening sequence, the actors by and large are wooden, and the special effects are imminently laughable. Never mind the lack of dramatic tension, the often grainy and washed out look of the film, and the absurdity of the premise, which features several scenes that exist only to present footage of the students touching themselves.

Still, this film has much to offer. As mentioned before, the film is pure trash in the best sense of the word. Few movies offer this degree of ridiculousness and remain watchable. The boys are all quite attractive and fit, and it's nice to see male flesh on display in horror films for once. And as horrible as the acting and dialogue can be, it's still better than sitting through another showing of "Star Wars Episode II." It's also nice to realize that filming this picture prepared Drew Fuller (who plays Paul St. Clair) for his role on the equally trashy but beyond redemption TV series "Charmed."

A note to viewers: This film should only be watched in its unedited form (the DVD is labeled "Lunar Edition" and "Director's Cut"). There is a massive amount of homoeroticism in this film, and the edited version removes most of it. And if you cut out the shirtless young men, you lose most of the reason the watch this film.

5 out of 10.

And a few more "no"s on top of that. Voodoo Academy is, without a doubt, the least ambitious film of all time. What exactly is it trying to do? Tell a story? Obviously not; as has been pointed out, most of it's just barely-legal guys rubbing themselves. Could it, then, be an attempt at subversive homoeroticism? Well, maybe, if not for the fact it never ever ever goes beyond the most innocuous and nonthreatening forms of male contact. (Which is, to the delight of none, repeated about eighty thousand times.) Well, it is sort of a horror movie; is it trying to scare us? Not unless the director meant to do so through the utter tedium and vacuousness of his "work."

Never in my life have I enjoyed a movie less. This is the most boring and unnecessary thing I've ever seen. It's like Voodoo Academy takes the genres of horror, zombie, and gay movies, puts them in a grinder, then runs them through a coffee filter--only instead of it being the kind of coffee filter that filters out coffee beans, it's the kind that takes out everything vital, edgy, or in any way interesting. The result is 74 minutes of film every bit as exciting as a glass of warm water--only without the ability to rehydrate you after the 10-day gin binge that will inevitably befall you if you watch this abomination of human effort.

In reviews and user comments I've read online about these films,

the writers will say things like `It's almost as if it's gay.' and `It

seems sort of gay.' The equivocal reactions are understandable.

Allow me to be more bluntly clear: This is a horror film which,

unlike Hollywood films, is more intent on pleasing a gay male

audience than a straight one (though technically none of the

characters are gay.)

In `Voodoo Academy,' along with his film `The Brotherhood,'

director DeCoteau has created what might be called `the non-gay

gay film.' These are films which are clearly designed to appeal to

a gay audience, yet nevertheless stop short of being overtly gay.

On the surface, they seem intended for a straight audience. The

characters are not gay and they don't engage in any romantic

activities together. (And certainly the marketing makes no

indication of a gay angle.)

Yet at the same time, it's clear that something is going on here.

There are lots of gratuitous shots of young men in designer

underwear. There's no straight romantic subplots and hardly any

women. Unlike Hollywood films, which bend over backwards to

please a straight audience (and avoid any possible hint of gay

subtext), these films are clearly more interested in pleasing a gay

male audience than straight ones.

As for the film itself, it's not very good. A bland young man enrolls

in a small (6 students) college, where something strange is going

on. Long stretches of the film are given to providing expository

information which ultimately proves irrelevant. Scenes lack

tension. And the overall story is fairly dumb and ends abruptly.

The technical stuff is good, but the acting is wooden and the

scenes just drag.

"Voodoo Academy" features an "Academy" like no other, one that houses only six male students in one bedroom. These teenage guys are instructed in religion by a sinister young priest, who enjoys tormenting and comforting them simultaneously. The sole administrator of this "Academy" is a young and seductive headmistress, and she retains her handsome charges on a short leash, so to speak.

Sexual overtones abound, and the director obviously has high regard for young male bodies. These young actors occasionally strip down to their designer underwear to sneak about the "Academy," and their sexuality is the entire focus of the movie. If you're not interested in the male form -- stay away!

Burdened by weak and awkward dialogue, this low-budget exploitation piece just stumbles along with a few laughable special effects tossed in between the yawns. The mood is claustrophobic, with tediously long takes, a handful of cheap sets and few costume changes. These visual elements come interspersed with seemingly unending sequences of banal dialogue, intended as character and plot development. It gives one the feeling it was filmed in three days...

I have seen a lot of bad films. Most of the time I can enjoy a crappy horror film for what it is. But this really takes badness to new extremes.

It is bland, the plot for what it is never really goes anywhere and takes its time over it. There are no shocks, no horror, no suspense, just a load of guys rubbing themselves for an hour and a half and then a quick finish.

A blight on the crappy horror genre, avoid at all costs.

Some movies are just bad. Not so bad it's good but bad. Really bad. The second star I gave was for the hot guys in underwear. There were no other redeeming values to this film.

I've seen movies with worse acting so that's technically a plus.

O.K.; all you fans of the weird; the first thing you have to do to enjoy this movie is see what is really going on. It's obvious that the guys in this College are Gay. After all, even the very whorish Mrs. Bouvier can't even seduce the boys and then knows that because of their being gay, virginal, and young, they've got to be Virgins, and remember that Virgin Sacrifices were common in ye days of Ole. Well, let's stop right there on the subject of these boys Virginity! Now, I liked this film. It's a hoot! Here's a Wanna-Be Ron Hubbard known as the Reverand Carmichael with a woman playing a little bit of Tammy Fay Baker in her characterization, and there's Drew Fuller not knowing that he'll be on Charmed in a couple years, but for now he's got to make the best of a bad decision, but when you come right down to it, I'm sure that when they all read the script they probably couldn't believe that they all had agreed to make such a turkey, so they've, it seems, decided to play it as a high school play with a bit of ham, tongue and cheek, nd shameless showing off while pulling out all the stops with the hoke! And no joke, it's works! You can tell that the guys are all gay when Billy, when first meeting Christopher, calls him Crisco, and Christopher tells him that his name is not Crisco, and Billy, looking at Christopher in a sexy way says that he was only trying to get under his skin! And then when they're all having dinner and the wine is poured, Billy says, "Soooo, we're gonna get trashed" is a gay type sound to his voice, and later when he reaches for Christophers wine and Mrs. B. slaps his hand, it's a campy slap and funny, but for some reason no one sees all of this. They don't even see Billy telling one of the other guys that he loves him in a gay, jokingly way! And listen to most of their voices, they're all playing it in a monotone way, and that' not easy to do! Now, everyone gets the wrong idea about these guys rubbing their bodies in bed at night. Yes, the scenes are sexual, but remember that this only happens when the guy goes up to the attic-voodoo-altar, and remember that they've been drinking that wine, and then the wine is poured on the guy who is tied down to the voodoo altar and then when the Reverand massages the wine all over the guys body, the other young men feel the same thing although their asleep.

The Gal playing Mrs. Bouvier looks like three different women in the movie. The sophisticated owner of the school, the whorish vamp who tries to find out how virginal her young men are, and the incarnation of a female Devil, who when Christopher accuses her of killing her husband, she calls him a very Evil Boy! That whole scene is campy as hell!

So, this movie was not meant to be a rival to Gone With The Wind, but if you can relax and stop making wild comments about how bad it is; you'll find out that it's quite good, and very entertaining, and isn't that what movies are all about? Entertaining?

I was surprised that the acting was as good as it was for such a low budget horror flick. It's not great cinema by any means, but it was mildly amusing and if you like hot young guys writhing around in their underwear, you'll really like it.

A high-concept, homoerotic, genre film that - for all its bare chest rubbing, hair gel and glossed-lipped poutiness - falls flat on its face. Even worse acting only tops a lousy script.

That said, if you're into barely 20-something boys in spanking white boxer shorts and white socks touching themselves incessantly all over while having a mutual wet dream, well this one's for you! Frankly, I find doing my grocery list more exciting. Surprisingly enough, the production quality is halfway decent, though.

Those of us, who like high-concept horror, will hate this one. There's barely an attempt at plausibility, and the level of horror tends to bend more towards cute than scary. Those of you who like homoerotic, this is about as erotic as a PBS film. Is it soooo bad that it's good? No. It's just silly and boring.

If you like to comment on films where the script arrive halfway the movie then this is the one. A setting and acting as in a Porn movie but nothing is happening only some groping and touching of the third kind. Which actually becomes very boring after 45 minutes of touchy feely but no action. A few of the actors I've seen in real x rated movies and there their acting then was a lot better. All the special effects are done by the great "Rondo" Whom performs all the magic whit his mind. A cult movie is written on the box. Does that mean that this film is not to be watched at all???

Get drunk with some friends and watch this movie on new years eve ore thanks giving.

This $60,000 b-movie is funny, silly, not scary at all, a must for horny young girls and gay men. Tons of Eye Candy--Young, well build guys running around in their underwear, sleeping in their underwear, writhing around and fondling themselves--In their underwear!

David Decoteau, an openly gay director, really must have had a hard on to see these guys half naked. In typical fashion to most of his latest features..there is enough young male flesh on the screen to make any woman or gay man quiver in glee (that is not a bad thing...it is good!)

Little plot, too much dialogue, maybe 2-5 different location shots this movie was made because the director is a dirty old man...though most famous for most of the 80's t&a flicks....Check this out...it is different and that is what makes it good. I'm a straight man, and I am willing to pay money to buy this. Only see the DVD..the VHS cuts 20 mins out...

8 out of 10

Where to begin with David DeCoteau? The man really has no talent. His movies are horrible, the direction lazy, the lighting bad. His only redeeming factor as a auteur is the young, hard-bodied young men he puts into his movies.

Voodoo Academy (the Extended Director's Cut featuring an additional 23 minutes of footage) is probably the campiest movie I have ever seen. I mean camp in it's true sense. Movies that are "camp" are movies that are meant to be taken seriously, but come across onscreen as utterly hysterical.

The boys in the movie get caught up in all sorts of homoerotic soft-core porn moments. They enter a "confessional" with a hunky "priest". They all sip (minus the pious one) "zombie juice" and begin to rub their boxer-brief clad bodies in ecstacy. They even bathe together and hold conversations in the one and only bathroom in the entire school.

If you are looking for a serious horror film, stay far, far away from this movie. But, if you enjoy looking at hard-bodied young men rubbing their crotches while under the influence, this is the movie for you.

I should give it a "2" on a legitimate scale, but because of the CRAP-tacular movie value of the film, I give it a 7.

Well what do you want, if you see the Full Moon on the back of the box, you know its late night cheese! All the films produced by Band under the EMPIRE label were great, Re-Animator, From Beyond, Troll, even Zone Troopers was fun. However when Empire Films folded, so did the quality of their films. So Full Moon is born, and they had themselves a pretty good little gravy train with Paramount distributing their flicks, but even they got tired of the same old vampire and Puppet Master junk, and subsequently pulled out. The pictures where pretty bad with big studio money, and without it they got worse.

Case in point with Voodoo Academy. Like most other DeCoteau films, there are allot of pretty young men running around in their boxer briefs, and a whole lotta fake lightening. Throw in an uninspired story, about 6 million candles, and actors who look like their bored and you have what I consider one of the worst Full Moon pictures to date.

I'm not going to beat this dead horse anymore by talking about everything that's wrong with this story, so I will talk about the only thing I consider good about this film, and that's the DVD Directors cut version. Now your probably wondering, if its so bad why would I want to see the director's cut? Two reasons; one, I wanted to see the footage that was so offensive that even Charles Band wanted it cut from the original release. It turned out to be 20 minutes of harmless male erotica (85 % of horror film rentals are by girls anyway) ho hum big freakin deal. The other reason I wanted this DVD is for the audio commentary.

DeCoteau talks at length about the process of "by the numbers low budget cookie cutter filmmaking". This is invaluable for film students like myself. Sometimes you learn how to do things right when you see how they are done wrong. All criticisms aside, Band has a very well tuned filmmaking machine (features shot in 4 days, that 24 pages a day!), and the special features of this DVD gives rare insight into Full Moon, the makers of films so bad they're, well bad.

The movie does have corny dialogue, yet funny -- an interesting story line -- yet not scary -- can be creepy. And an incredible cast. I do not agree with some other comments I've heard about the movie. Being a male -- and straight -- people may find it funny how I ENJOYED the movie. There is not a bit of male or female nudity in the film. When the cast masturbates or caresses themselves it is nothing more (if anything less) of what men do at sleepovers with other guys. Straight guys shouldn't be bothered about this movie. I did see the DVD uncut -- as far as the homoerotic tones -- there were more in Boogie Nights -- and MEN LOVED THAT MOVIE. Voodoo Academy scores a ***/**** rating in my book -- missing the last star only because of the thin story. The cast is believable and KUDOS to the director for painting a realistic picture of what guys do when they're together or in college. Men and women (gay or straight) will like the movie. I was especially pleased with the rising star Riley Smith. Very talented.

High school teacher and her assistant at a private boarding school use half naked boys as their prey in helping to raise an army of the dead. No plot what so ever, just an extended series of boys wearing designer underwear touching and rubbing themselves in bed, walking around the school in there underwear only, and taking baths together. No camp value or laughs at all. This feels like gay porn, instead of an actual film. Disappointing effort from Full Moon Entertainment.

Unrated (90 mins.) or R-Rated (74 mins.); Strong Sexual Content.

I love this movie. I love seeing horror movies that dare to be different, that don't do the same thing I've seen over and over in horror movies before. VOODOO ACADEMY is a dark, intimate little horror movie about some creepy activities going on at a school for boys. The twist is that it has a strong homoerotic overtone, which works for the story. It's also a good example of how creative horror can be on a minuscule budget. I would have given it a 10, but it suffers from some horrible acting. The female lead spends the whole movie reciting memorized lines, but at no time does she give a performance. And the dude playing a priest...well...let's just say he comes across as someone who may have been in movies before, but never actually had to speak a line of dialogue until now. The young actors playing the students are all great, and more than make up for their adult co-stars' lack of acting ability.

Well.... what CAN one say???? I purchased this video because of the half naked deamon woman on the cover obviously. I should have known during the introduction that this would be a member of my 'special' collection.

The setting is, of course, a 'Bible Study College'.

The cast is 1 priest, 1 woman in tight clothing and 6 nubile, young, notably hairless, muscular young(did i mention that?) men.

It goes from there to where you would expect.

Obviously the matron of a school such as this would cause her charges to drink a voodoo potion that makes them rub their hard, young torsos(Did I mention hairless?) in their sleep.... did I mention that they all sleep in nearly identical 'tighty whities' and white sox? I didn't? silly me!

Just watch it and, if you are male, clutch your masculinity TIGHTLY to yourself. If you are female, and like young, hairl...... you get the point....

Not for the faint of heart.

What happened to Full Moon Pictures? I mean, this is their worst movie. I'm a big fan of their movies but this time they went too far. The execs. made a dirty move because they know that the fans would buy almost anything, even if it's crap. "Voodoo Academy" is a lame excuse for making a movie. There's no interesting plot. A sexy, very sexy teacher enlists metro sexual males in her academy in order to fill an army from the other world.

There are no women except for the super hot Debra Mayer, that, is the best thing in this "flick". She's very sexy and is Full Moon's favorite mistress.

The whole gay insinuations are lame and made me almost puke. I'm mad because I feel cheated; next time I will think twice before buying a Full Moon direct to video release.

1/10. Debra Mayer saves this trash from the cero rating even though that she has little screen time.

BOOT THIS ONE TO THE TRASH CAN, NO MERCY.