20 Scariest Horror Movies About Voodoo & Hoodoo
All of us are afraid of the unknown, and what is more unknown than black magic and sorcery in the shape of voodoo and hoodoo? That said, it is not a surprise that there are so many horror movies about voodoo and hoodoo. In this article, we are bringing you the scariest horror movies about voodoo and hoodoo you can watch right now.
Child’s Play (1988)
When serial killer Charles Lee Ray is mortally wounded in a police shootout, he uses voodoo magic to transfer his soul into Chucky, a “good guys” doll. Young Andy receives the doll as a birthday present, and Chucky soon embarks on his killing tour.
However, Charles does not want to be trapped in a doll’s body forever. His only way out is to transfer into the first human being to whom he revealed his true identity…
Waxwork (1988)
Four young and rich teenagers are bored in an uninteresting town. The opening of a wax museum in their neighborhood brings a welcome novelty to their monotonous and empty lives. Although the owner is spooky and suddenly appears and disappears as he pleases, the playful teenagers happily accept his invitation to visit the unusual museum.
The exhibits in the wax gallery faithfully and realistically depict numerous horror icons – there are zombies, Count Dracula (M. O’Keefe), werewolves, Frankenstein, mummies, and even the Marquis De Sade (J. K. Campbell).
Each exhibit is like a small stage depicting an event from their lives, so the four teenagers, who are the only guests that evening, are fascinated by the morbidity and impressiveness of the entire play. And when the first of them gets too close to get a better look at the scene, he suddenly becomes part of it. It turns out that the exhibits are actually portals of sorts – and when you break through the barriers between the two worlds, you enter a plane of existence where all these horrors are real.
So young Tony (D. Ashbrook) finds himself face-to-face with a werewolf, prudish China (M. Johnson) is invited to a vampire ball, and as the night wears on and new guests find their way to the wax museum, more and more of them face their worst nightmares.
Venom (2005)
In a small town in the swampy area of Louisiana, a voodoo witch doctor digs up a coffin in a cemetery. But then she collides with the truck of local outcast Ray, who rescues her from her car, leaning dangerously over the swamp.
She insists on taking out the trunk as well, and when he tries to do so, the trunk opens and snakes attack him. Succumbing to the snake attack, the dead Ray finds himself on the autopsy table where he comes back to life and starts killing everyone who gets in his way. And these are mostly local teenagers. The witch’s granddaughter Cece tells her friends that Ray is possessed by the souls of villains that her grandmother had in the form of snakes stored in a chest, and that only magic can stop him, however, she is inexperienced in this.
Cece, Eden, Eric, Rachel and Sean take shelter in Cece’s grandmother’s house, which is protected by a spell, so Ray can’t get in, but he finds a solution. Among the attacked teenagers, Eden is the ablest to stand up to him.
Angel Heart (1987)
Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a private detective who receives an unusual phone call. Namely, he was tipped off to investigate a satanic cult in Harlem where an unknown man wanted to talk to him. The man’s name is Louis Cyphre and he asks Harry to find him a missing person. Harry accepts the job for five thousand dollars and follows a trail marked by numerous corpses.
Harry’s investigation will take him from New York to Louisiana, where he meets a young woman with a mysterious past, Epiphany Proudfoot, in a hotel, with whom he begins a love affair. Although he is warned not to interfere where he does not belong, Harry does not give up and gets more and more involved in the dark story of the forbidden rituals of the voodoo cult…
The Skeleton Key (2005)
Nurse Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) quits her job at the hospital to become a home care provider in a swamp town in Louisiana. Family lawyer Luke Marshall (Peter Sarsgaard) offers her a tempting sum of money to take care of the paralyzed Ben Devereaux (John Hurt).
His wife Violet (Gena Rowlands) gives Caroline the keys to the house, so after a while, the curious young woman discovers a terrifying room in the attic where witches lived many years ago.
Caroline doesn’t normally believe in magic, but a series of inexplicable events make her think that it was Violet who cast a spell on Ben, paralyzing him. With Luke’s help, Caroline wants to help Ben.
The Believers (1987)
Recovering from the death of a woman who died in a freak accident, a psychologist moves with his son to New York City where he starts working for the New York Police Department.
He soon finds himself embroiled in a series of brutal murders that lead him to the Santeria religious cult, which beliefs in child sacrifice. He doesn’t even realize how the creepy cult leads to his own son.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
In 1994, three young filmmakers – Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams – headed into the Black Hills to make a documentary about the local legend of the Blair Witch and never returned. A year later, their recorded material was found. “The Blair Witch Project” is their legacy.
He bears witness to the terrifying journey of three filmmakers through the Black Hills forest, revealing the horrific events that took place in front of their cameras. The filmmakers have not yet been found.
May the Devil Take You (2018)
Alfie, a young woman with a dark family background, tried to find out the answer to the cause of her father’s misfortune and illness. However, the presence of Alfie’s step-sister, Maya, further confuses the atmosphere.
Jessabelle (2014)
Returning to her childhood home in Louisiana to recover from a terrible car accident, Jesabela confronts a ghost that has been waiting for her return. The ghost does not want to leave her alone and Jezebel has to fight against it to the limit of endurance.
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Young Betsy Connell (F. Dee) is a caring nurse originally from Canada, who recounts how she once “walked alongside a zombie.” It all started when she got a job at a hospital on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian, and when she started caring for the mentally handicapped Jessica Holland (C. Gordon), the wife of local sugar plantation owner Paul Holland (T. Conway).
After learning that Jessica fell ill with a dangerous tropical disease, Betsy, while helping Paul, soon fell in love with the striking and withdrawn planter. Wanting to help him find a cure for his wife, the girl concluded that they could also turn to local witch doctors knowledgeable in the secrets of voodoo.
But after attending a voodoo ritual with Jessica, Betsy will discover that the natives are obsessed with Paul’s wife, and that her condition may be the result of the effects of voodoo.
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Anthropologist Dennis Alan travels to Haiti to research and brings a narcotic for a pharmaceutical company that completely anesthetizes the body while keeping consciousness intact.
The substance is used by tribes in their rituals, and there is also a legend about the living dead zombies, people who came back to life after clinical death and burial. Doctor Marielle Duchamp helps him in his search, and soon they both become surrounded by voodoo rituals, surreal experiences and dark people of different interests.
The Night House (2021)
The Night House follows Beth (Rebecca Hall), who tries to come to terms with the death of her husband. She was left alone in the house by the lake that he built for her, and although she tries to remain brave and calm after the tragic event, she soon begins to be haunted by nightmares and visions from the house that calls to her.
Despite the warnings of her friends, Beth decides to find out more about her husband and starts looking for answers among his belongings. What they find will be unexpected and disturbing – and there’s no going back after that.
Spell (2020)
While flying to his father’s funeral in rural Appalachia Kentucky, an intense storm causes Marquis to lose control of the plane carrying himself and his family. He soon awakens wounded, alone and trapped in Ms. Eloise’s attic.
Eloise claims she can nurse him back to health with a hoodoo figure she’s made from his blood and skin. Unable to call for help, Marquis desperately tries to break free from her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.
Zombi Child (2019)
In 1962, a Haitian man is buried alive by white colonists, only to be brought back as an undead zombie slave. 55 years later, a teenage girl Fanny makes friends with Mélissa, who moved from Haiti to France after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
After it is revealed that Mélissa’s family is associated with voodoo culture, Fanny convinces Mélissa’s aunt Katy (a mambo) to perform a ritual in order to cure Fanny’s heartbreak over a recent breakup. The ritual goes awry, however, leaving Fanny possessed by Baron Samedi himself.
The Covenant (2006)
In 1692, in Ipswich, Massachusetts, five families of witches and wizards take a vow of silence to protect themselves from the inquisitors, but one family breaks the pact and is therefore banished from the village. Over the centuries, both the vow and the powers are passed down from generation to generation. When the eldest son turns eighteen, he also gets more power. However, magic can be addictive, and if used excessively, one will become a witch.
Now four teenage wizards are attending high school, and the time has come for the group’s leader, Caleb Denver, to turn eighteen and inherit a miraculous power. Caleb, meanwhile, meets the beautiful Sara Wenham and the two begin dating, when all four young men begin to have dark and terrifying dreams. Soon they will find an evil sorcerer, a descendant of the fifth family, who wants to deprive Caleb of his power.
Thinner (1996)
An obese lawyer finds himself growing “Thinner” when an old gypsy man places a hex on him. Now the lawyer must call upon his friends in organized crime to help him persuade the gypsy to lift the curse. Time is running out for the desperate lawyer as he draws closer to his own death, and grows ever thinner.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) notices that she, like several of her friends, is increasingly having terrifying nightmares in which she is being hunted by an unknown man armed with a glove containing sharp knives.
When the first victims begin to appear, Nancy realizes that the unknown killer is becoming more and more powerful, so she decides to pull him out of his dreams in order to finally stop him.
Voodoo Woman (1957)
Deep in the jungle, a mad scientist is using the natives’ voodoo for his experiments to create an indestructible being to serve his will. When a party of gold seekers stumbles upon his village, the scientist realizes that Marilyn the expedition’s evil leader is the perfect subject for his work.
Sugar Hill (1974)
The story centers on Diana “Sugar” Hill (Bey), a photographer in Houston whose boyfriend, nightclub owner Langston (Larry D. Johnson), has been killed by mob boss Morgan (Robert Quarry) and his men when he refused to sell the club to Morgan. Sugar seeks the help of a former voodoo queen named Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully) to take revenge on Morgan and his thugs.
Mama summons the voodoo lord of the dead, Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), who enlists his army of zombies to destroy the men who killed Langston and now want the club. Investigating the killings is Sugar’s former boyfriend, police Lt. Valentine (Richard Lawson).
Tales from the Hood (1995)
In an experience more frightening than their worst nightmares, three friends tour a funeral home with a creepy mortician in this Spike Lee-produced horror anthology. Along the way, they hear a story about each of the corpses.
