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Populär Culture Review
religious life with her followers, the community, and even with students
o f my folklore d a ss in fall o f 2010 and spring o f 2011, Violet Devereaux
only “practices” in the dark. The fact that she keeps quiet about her
practices indicates that she has no good intention. Third, in contrast to
Voodoo Priestesses Miriam Chamani— founder o f New Orleans’ Voodoo
temple— or Ava Kay Jones, who both contribute to New Orleans’
cultural heritage and the survival o f its Voodoo religion by educating
“the public in the true nature o f the Voodoo religion” (Jones, Yoruba
Priestess online) through “lectures, seminars, teachings, and [the]
sharing [of the] spiritual knowledge” (Chamani online), the fictional
character o f Violet Deveraux has nothing to give to her husband, family,
or community. On the contrary, she stains this religion with the
horrifying notion o f hexing and soul snatching. In this respect, Violet
Devereaux can be compared to the Devil alias Louis Cypher in Angel
Heart. Both Violet Devereaux and Louis Cypher are soul seekers and
soul snatchers who do not have anything good in mind. They have no
commonalities with a Voodoo priestess.
Condusion
After examining the representation o f the Voodoo religion in the
two films Angel Heart and The Skeleton Key, we can conclude that the
religion has once again been misrepresented in populär film. Both films
fuel the erroneous notion that Voodoo is synonymous with hoodoo,
conjure, and witchcraft, and that it comprises elements such as soul
snatching, animal and human sacrifice, as well as murder. This being
said, both films stigmatize the religion as a dangerous cult whose
membership only finds termination through death. Hence, Alan Parker
and Iain Softley consolidate the Voodoo hoodoo construct “that the film
business has been creating since the early 1940s. It is a construct that
tum s a religion focused on ancestor worship and the establishment o f
harmony between the seif and the surrounding (spiritual) world into a
counterforce o f malicious and evil intent. It is a construct that has
nothing to do with reality” (Reuber 17). Without having the opportunity
to experience and leam about Voodoo, the general public will, however,
not be able to disentangle Hollywood’s carefully spun web o f
misrepresentations o f the religion’s spiritual beliefs, rituals, and
ceremonies. Thus, they will continue to “simply enjoy” Voodoo in the
form o f suspense thrillers.
Here we can only hope for two things: First, that readers o f this
and o f similar critical contributions to this topic will pass the message