1976’s Crypt of Dark Secrets is yet another low-budget horror film that takes place in the bayous of Louisiana.

Seriously, what is it about the bayous that seems to attract the darker side of everyone’s imagination?  I’ve been to the Louisiana bayous and …. well, actually they are pretty creepy.  I guess if you were going to make a horror movie, the Louisiana bayou would be a good place to film.  It’s not like you have to spend a lot of money trying to create atmosphere or anything like that.  That bayous have got their own built in, free atmosphere.  You just have to start filming.

Anyway, Crypt of Dark Secrets does not feature a crypt but it does feature an island that’s sitting in the middle of the Louisiana swamp.  There are many legends about the island, with the locals saying that it’s protected by voodoo and “the ghosts of Aztec priests.”  There is always a fog on the island, regardless of how hot or otherwise sunny the day may be.  And there’s always a cool breeze in the middle of the fog.

There’s also a black snake that is often seen swimming in the water around the island.  Whenever the snake slithers onto the land, it turns into Damballa (Maureen Ridley), a swamp witch who is apparently at least a century old.  She protects the island and she has the power to not only conjure quicksand but to also raise the dead.  She also knows where a pirate’s treasure has been buried on the island but she’s certainly not going to let anyone find it.

Damballa has fallen for the island’s latest resident, a Vietnam vet named Ted Watkins (Ronald Tanet), who just wants the world to leave him alone.  He lives in a small house on the island and he refuses to keep his money in the bank, despite the fact that his military pension has made him a very wealthy man.  When three local losers, Max (Harry Uher), Earl (Butch Benit), and Louise (Barbara Hagerty), overhear that Ted keeps all of his money in a breadbox, they decide to pay him a visit and take that money for themselves.  Ted ends up dead and Max and Earl are shocked to discover that money is now covered with blood and basically useless to them.

Damballa does a naked dance over Ted’s body, which brings Ted back to life.  Despite Ted telling Damballa that he isn’t interested in vengeance and that he decided to leave hate and violence behind when he got out of Vietnam, Damballa teams up with the local voodoo priestess to get revenge on the three thieves.  As Damballa explains it, evil has to be punished.

Ted’s status as Vietnam vet adds an interesting subtext to Crypt of Dark Secrets.  During the same year that Taxi Driver was solidifying the image of the crazed Vietnam vet in the minds of many American filmgoers, Crypt of Dark Secrets featured a vet who just wants to be left alone to his own devices and who has no desire for further violence.  Indeed, for a film that centers around vengeance, Ted is remarkably forgiving.

As for the film itself, it’s fairly slow but, having been shot on location in Louisiana, it’s got a lot of authentic swamp atmosphere and its portrayal of voodoo is an interesting one.  (Voodoo, the film suggests, is the way that unwritten laws are enforced in the swamp.)  The performance are a mixed bag, with Ronald Tanet giving a convincing performance as Ted while Maureen Ridley delivers her lines in a strangely formal fashion that doesn’t feel right for her swamp witch character.  The actors playing the thieves are all convincing, as are the actors playing the inevitably portly Southern cops.

Crypt of Dark Secrets is flawed but it gets by on atmosphere.