Correction of a Falsified Image
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somewhat o f a supematural power that easily plays with and might even
control their owners if misused. Opening the window to the locked-away
altar gives the viewer the feeling o f discovering a secret passage into a
secretive world that is gated by two Voodoo dolls serving as guardians o f
the crossroad into the unknown.
By placing the Voodoo dolls on top o f the altar, Parker makes
three mistakes. First, even though Voodoo dolls are traditionally
perceived “as messengers to the spirit world,” in Creole Voodoo, dolls
function predominantly as talisman and gris-grisu (Alverado, Voodoo
Dolls 11). They are charms, which were in high demand during the reign
o f Marie Laveau in the nineteenth Century, and which nowadays are
often purchased as Souvenirs in New Orleans’ Voodoo shops, in order
“to attract money and love, stop gossip, protect the home, maintain good
health and achieve innumerable other ends” (Guiley 148). Hence, they
are not necessarily placed on top o f an altar serving a religious purpose.
Second, as gris-gris, Voodoo dolls can be used for good and bad
work, that is to say, they can be used for Crossing and uncrossing, for
inflicting harm on someone, as well as for protecting and blessing
yourself or a loved one. In Angel Heart, the two primitively constructed
dolls represent the misuse o f power. They are magical dolls that, in
combination with the color spell, help Louis Cypher to hoodoo, that is to
say, to cross Harry Angel and to tum him into a will-less and helpless
man following instructions given to him. Thus, Alan Parker plays on the
overall prevailing misperception o f Voodoo dolls as “the harbinger of
bad luck and malevolent practices that can easily attack your soul”
(Reuber 17). He refers to the evil-spirited and demonic connotation that
the colonizers o f Louis X[