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Populär Culture Review
Despite all threats, Voodoo has survived. According to Voodoo
Priestess Ava Kay Jones, Voodoo is still practiced by “as much as 15%
o f the population o f New Orleans” (Jones, Voodoo online). The highest
concentration o f Voodoo followers can be found “in the [city’s]
historically Creole Seventh W ard” (Tucker 52). In New Orleans, one can
leam about Voodoo in the New Orleans Museum o f Voodoo (724
Dumaine Street), experience and participate in some o f the religion’s
rituals in the Voodoo Spiritual Temple (828 North Rampart Street), and
discuss the religion in one-on-one meetings with practicing Voodoo
priestesses, among whom we find for example Mambo Sallie Ann
Glassmann, Priestess Miriam Chamani, and Mambo Asogwe Mary
M illan alias Bloody Mary, in addition to Priestess Ava Kay Jones. As an
integral part o f New Orleans’ culture, priestesses, historians, academics,
and Voodoo followers believe in sharing the religion’s values with the
public; thus, they try to fight against the religion’s unjustified bad
reputation and false representation in for example fictional accounts such
as, Robert Tallant’s Voodoo in New Orleans (19943) and The Voodoo
Queen (20003), Francis Prose’s Mary Laveau (1977), or Jewell Parker
Rhodes’ Voodoo Dreams (1993) and Voodoo Season (2005).
This falsified image o f the religion gets even more distorted in
Hollywood movies such as White Zombie (1932), I Walked with a
Zombie (1943), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987), Angel Heart
(1987), The Believers (1988), Voodoo Dawn (1998), Voodoo Tailz
(2002), The Skeleton Key (2004), Voodoo Moon (2005), and Hoodoo fo r
Voodoo (2006). In these films, Voodoo is compared to devil worship,
witchcraft, hexing, conjure, and the like. Hollywood thus stresses and
contributes to long-established misperceptions o f the religion. This
triggers two questions: First, what is the reason for this
misrepresentation, and second, how does Hollywood depict the religion,
and by doing so, contribute to the people’s misconstrued notion o f
Voodoo?
Via a thorough discussion o f the religion and its representation in
the two films Angel Heart (1987) and The Skeleton Key (2005), this
article attempts to answer these two questions. As the article identifies
and explains the films’ inaccurate representation o f Voodoo rituals, o f
Voodoo charms and dolls, and o f Voodoo priests and priestesses, readers
will discover that neither one o f these two films depicts the beauty and
spiritual worship o f the religion. The contrary is actually the case. Angel
Heart and The Skeleton Key offer the viewer a representation o f eclectic
characteristics taken out o f their cultural and religious context. By doing