Bad Magic — Bad Magic(DVD)
Bad Magic appeared in 1998- it was the 10th film co-director John & Mark Polonia, and once again it was another shot on Video feature from the pair- though it’s certainly a bit more sophisticated compared the pairs early more & celebrated work like Splatter Farm. There’s a good use often trippy in-camera effects, a slightly bigger cast which isn’t just the brothers & thier buddies, and a few higher production elements- though this is still very low budget film making.
The films lead character is Renny (Vincent Simmons)- a goatee bearded African American man who has recent lost his brother Amos- who was killed by a podgy, white & baseball hat-wearing gang. Renny decides he’s going to take revenge- so he flies to Haiti to meet a witch doctor who gives him the voodoo spells he needs to take his vengeance. When back home he starts work on the spells- and kill wise we get someone on the toilet wrapped in TP then stabbed by floating knives, voodoo doll filled with pins then the head been squeezed so the human victim head explodes, multiple face scratches and rubbery faced bloody demon attacks.
As a lead Simmons moves between terrible-to- just about competent- with at his worse been when he’s doing voiceovers, and his best when he’s camping it up during spell casting. The gang are slightly better, with some nice bumbling humour been injected along the way. On the gore effects side we get a bit of blood, demon sick, and a few other things- through there is nothing too elaborate or crazed compared with some of their more deranged splatter bound pics. Though we do get some fun & trippy in-camera effects along the way. On the whole Bad Magic is enjoyable enough, sure at points the pacing is a little out, but the kooky feel & creative editing/ lo-fi effect set up, makes it worth seeing if your a fan of Polonia bros other work.
Moving onto this new DVD, and the new print of the film looks good enough for SOV. The commentary track from Mark Polonia is a usual very down-to-earth, informative & at points dryly amusing- he goes from talking about that the film originally coming about due to interest from a Blockbuster buyer who later bailed-out Moving onto the talking about stock footage used taking in snippets of their other films, and clips from the parents trip to the Caribbean. He discusses locations, memories of items used in the film's production, and cameos like himself & his wife- playing a john & his trick.
I’d say if your a fan of slightly more up-scale SOV, quirky late 90’s low-budget horror, or of course a fan of Polonia bros work Bad Magic is worth picking up, with the worthy commentary track making it worth picking up this DVD.