Movie Review: Spell

Even though spooky season is over, I’ve been in the mood to watch all things Halloween like. That’s how Spell, with Omari Hardwick and Loretta Devine, fell on my lap. I had heard a couple people on Facebook talk about it, but watching the movie for myself? Truly was a good experience and that’s why I wanted to start this series. Filled with books, movies and shows, that have the same theme; magic. Spell had an all black cast which I truly and utterly loves. There’s references of hoodoo all throughout the movies, along with some minor info on some of the magic performed. I haven’t seen a movie or show like this… ever honestly. It was refreshing seeing an black cast, performing magic the right way.

Info on Show

Where to watch it: I watched this on Hulu

• Apple TV: $5.99
• EXPix: subscription
• Philo: subscription
• Sling TV: subscription
• Vudu: $2.99
• YouTube: $2.99

First Impressions

When I saw the cover, I didn’t know what to expect. Well, I’m lying, I thought it was going to be cheesy. Completely judging a book by its cover, I thought I wasn’t going to really like it, the good thing about me is that, I always (try to anyways) give new shows, movies, and books a fighting chance to grab me. Omari Hardwick is an amazing performance actor, when he’s in films, I feel like he really submerges himself in it. And I truly enjoyed how Loretta Devine took a chance at playing the evil but lovely and also twisted mother role in the movie.

Creator(s)

The creator and writer for Spell is screenwriter Kurt Wimmer. His written movies like Equilibrium, Law Abiding Citizen, Salt, Breaking Point, Children of The Corn, just to name a few.  He got his BFA in Art History at the University of South Florida. Then he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a screenwriter for the next 12 years. He considers Equilibrium to be his first theatrically-released film.

Director, Mark Tonderai, who also directed one of my favorite shows, Locke & Key released on Netflix in 2020 says he’s been waiting for a film like, Spell, to come across his path.  Tonderai began his career with writing, producer, and presenter for radio. But being a black director, he started to feel restricted in his creative abilities, until Spell came along.

Intro

The movie starts off with a blank screen. You hear a man saying the name Marquis, Marquis, and a young boy crying as if he was hiding from this man. Then you hear sounds of a door being broken down, the young boy saying no, and whipping sounds. The next scene you see Marquis (Omari Hardwick) looking at himself and scars in the mirror, as almost a reminder of what he survived. As he’s making his way through the house, he hear’s his wife struggling in the closet because she’s locked herself in it. And that’s how the movie starts off

Premise

Because of the opening scene, we are to assume (with good intention) that his father was abusive. Later we get to meet the main characters kids and see that their’s a disconnect between them because of the trauma the main character went through with his father. All until he finds out while at work his father past and he needs to go to the land to retrieve his fathers things. On his way to his father’s house is when he gets into an accident and the real stuff happens.

I don’t want to give too much of the movie away, but I enjoyed how Elloise (Loretta Devine) would put salt on the windows to ‘protect’ Marquis from evil and how she used herbs to put him to sleep or wake him up.

Final Thoughts

I truly did enjoy this movie for the simple fact that it had hoodoo in it. This movie is marketed as horror but I think it’s more of a thriller and knowing what I know, this movie was made purely out of entertainment. I would recommend this movie to anyone honestly, but if your in the mood for a semi scary movie to watch that has references to magic; then this is the movie for you. If you plan to watch this, please comment down below and tell me what you think.

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