This was a damn good movie! I finally saw Eve's Bayou as I continue to earn my Black Card via L. and the list of films compiled which has been dubbed Black Movies 101. I didn't know almost nothing about this except the little girl starring in it and something about a swamp. This little girl named Eve along with her older sister, little brother (who is not important to this tale), and her parents live as a happy family in the 1960's which means its science fiction. I'm kidding. Her father Louis is loved by everyone and is a doctor that pays house visits. And by house visits I mean he fucks his patients. His wife Roz takes care of the house and family and everything seems cool. During a party Eve spots her father and this lady Matty fixing to fuck. She gasps and her father plays it off. She ends up telling her older sister Cisely about it who tells her she did not see what she thinks she saw.
During summer all of the hell breaks loose. Cisely is going through puberty. Eve knows that her daddy is a ho...fo sho. Eve hangs with her aunt and fathers sister Mozelle who uses voodoo and such to help people. Eve also has this ability. Mozelle is called a Black Widow because all three of her husbands have been killed. Eve saw this shit happening while she slept after the party. Eve begins to act like more of a heathen because her mother went to a psychic and now she keeps them all trapped in the house. Cisely broke out and got a new hairdo and got the taste slapped out of her by her mother. Cisely starts acting stranger and reveals that one night she went to see their father and sits on his lap and next thing you know they smooching and he slaps her. She leaves to go to therapy. Eve goes to a voodoo lady and using hair from her fathers comb wishes that he dies. She spots Matty's husband and confirms that her father is fucking his wife. This girl is a menace.
Now that she has some doubt about wanting her father dead she tries to plead with the voodoo lady and she is like “You made your bed now lie in it.” Eve finds her father at a bar with Matty and tells him to please come home. Matty's husband shows up and asks if Louis is fucking his wife. Louis plays it all off and as they leave he tells Louis to never speak to his wife again. So of course he has to say one more thing and ends up getting shot and killed. Eve finds a letter from her father explaining his side of the situation with Cisely that night for his sister saying that she came downstairs and kissed his goodnight like a daughter and then like a lover and he drunkenly smacked her away. Eve confronts Cisely about it and uses her psychic power to see what really happened and then the movie ends.
This family was messy as hell and I was here for it. I liked that while the father was a dog they didn't make him change his behavior towards his children. It was like every adult in this had their own story going on that could be its own film. This was a well shot movie with good directing and effects. There is one scene where the aunt Mozelle is telling Eve a story about a lover and one of her husbands using a mirror that was incredible. It was the first time I've seen something like that in a film and I was really impressed with it.
Jurnee Smollett as Eve Batiste
Debbi Morgan as Mozelle Batiste Delacroix
Samuel L. Jackson as Louis Batiste
Lynn Whitfield as Roz Batiste
Diahann Carroll as Elzora
Lisa Nicole Carson as Matty Mereaux
Meagan Good as Cisely Batiste
Roger Guenveur Smith as Lenny Mereaux
Vondie Curtis-Hall as Julian Grayraven
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