Sugar Hill (1974)

Sadly Over-hyped

Pretty Good

Boring

As Good As It Gets

Following a nightclub opening, the murder of her boyfriend sends a woman deep into the realms of a local voodoo master and soon sends a squad of zombies to do her bidding, forcing a police officer to stop her before she completes her vengeance-filled mission.This here was a rather enjoyable entry with a lot to like about it. One of the best features of it is that it manages a fantastic mixture of zombies and voodoo here, as both are mixed together to provide a lot of fun. Although it's not entirely PC for today's standards, the attributes which are shown here to attract that manage to make for quite a solid showing here with the racial slurs and different setups to cater to that audience all giving this one a lot to like. What also helps that is that the film has the voodoo ceremony occurs early in the film which is a really fun approach to the film with there being some really fun confrontations throughout. That there's a lot of gang-members here who are involved with this are killed off at a rather nice clip here, and it does it at great intervals which gives it a feeling of never being dull or boring at all. The confrontations themselves are incredibly fun, with the one in the cornfields being really creepy as there's the unknown factor of what's happening, there's a wonderful atmosphere to it and a fantastic payoff. There's more fun from the other zombie attacks, including the one in the train-yard and a later one in a bar while the other great one is the only one without the use of the zombies, where one is forced to take his life through the use of voodoo as it winds toward the inevitable where it becomes really tense and quite chilling. The zombies are really great-looking as well, with the dirt-covered rags that are effective in giving them a long-dead, decaying look, and with they're memorable eyes and dead stare, they're quite impressive-looking. There's also the full-on fun of their resurrection sequence, which here is one of the better examples of this type of scenes around. The image of the heaving ground giving way to a series of scenes with the heads coming out of the ground is simply spectacular. Combined with all the good over the incredibly suspenseful and creepy location where it all takes place, these here are what work for the film. There wasn't a whole lot wrong with this one. The main one here is that the film has a really different view of zombies than most other films. This one has them as a gang of mindless assassins sent out to do whatever their master commands them to do, and that is such a major change from what's normally accepted in a zombie movie. That alone might be enough for some of the die-hard fans to cry foul, but then the fact that they manage to resort to using tools and weapons like any normal villain, albeit indestructible one, really loses the distinctive touch of the zombie genre. The other issue here is that there's a really useless subplot in here about buying up the club which takes up some time is also wrong, which is where the middle section loses some ground compared to the other segments. Overall, though, it's not as bad as it could've been.Rated PG: Violence and Language

1974's "Sugar Hill" marked the end of Robert Quarry's brief horror stardom beginning with 1970's "Count Yorga Vampire" (a total of 6 features), although he worked continuously in smaller roles in lower budgeted films. In the early 70's, AIP maintained its policy of old fashioned horror, all PG titles, even after the departure of James H. Nicholson, the ideas man, leaving Samuel Z. Arkoff, the financier and distributor, alone in charge. The 2 Count Yorga films were profitable, as were the Blaculas, and other black-themed takes on familiar subjects arrived, like this one here, plucked from obscurity (like "The House on Skull Mountain") by recent showings on Turner Classic Movies. Zombies and voodoo no longer go together in this age of flesh eating Romero copies, but provide all the intrigue in a script filled with clichéd characters and dialogue. Marki Bey stars in the title role, turning to voodoo to avenge the beating death of her fiancée by the hired goons of crime boss Morgan (Quarry), complete with Southern accent and horny moll (Betty Anne Rees, a prior victim in 1972's "Deathmaster"). Betty and Marki even engage in a catfight, ala Pam Grier, a nice touch considering neither would continue acting much longer. Richard Lawson ("Scream Blacula Scream") pads out the running time in a dead end investigation that fails to stop the bloodless carnage carried out by the walking dead, ancestral slaves still in shackles, lifeless eyes covered in creepy webs. Easily the real standout is Don Pedro Colley, a far cry from his restrained performance in 1970's "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," playing the role of Baron Samedi, leader of the dead, a part essayed one year before by Geoffrey Holder in the James Bond thriller "Live and Let Die." Among the supporting cast, the lone familiar face is top henchman Charles Robinson, who appeared in ROOTS:THE NEXT GENERATIONS, before landing a co-starring role on NIGHT COURT. Director Paul M. Maslansky was no stranger to horror, having first worked with Michael Reeves and Christopher Lee on 1964's "The Castle of the Living Dead," mostly as a producer. AIP continued to have hits for the remainder of the 70's ("The Food of the Gods," "The Amityville Horror"), but never really latched on to the genre's changes escalated by "The Exorcist," and by 1980, Sam Arkoff had sold out, the company renamed Filmways, continuing to churn out hits ("Dressed to Kill"). By that time, the blaxploitation era was already long gone, waiting to be rediscovered.

Sugar Hill (1974) ** (out of 4) Blaxploitation zombie film has a bar owner killed by some gangsters so his girlfriend (Marki Bey) has a voodoo God bring back zombies to get revenge. This is a pretty interesting little film that borrows more from films like White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie over what was normally seen in this era, which was usually borrowed from Romero's Night of the Living Dead. As a blaxploitation flick it has many of the familiar settings including some bad acting, racist dialogue and some pretty jive music but this isn't one of the best out there. The horror elements are all rather dated but it was fun seeing this type of zombie film in an era where it was usually all flesh eating and gore. The zombies are cheaply done but effective and the music score is without question the best thing about the film. The lack of gore and violence really isn't a problem. Bey is good in her role but I wouldn't say she delivers a good performance. Robert Quarry is somewhat fun as the lead gangster but he really sleepwalks through the film. In the end, this film certainly isn't a classic but it is slightly entertaining. This was Paul Maslansky's only directorial credit and he's best known for producing all the Police Academy films.

"Sugar Hill" has a lot of what made "Foxy Brown" so compelling, but adds an interesting plot device for a novel twist. I've seen lots of black gangster films where black heroes (and anti-heroes) get over on The Man and The Establishment, but "Sugar Hill" is the only film I've seen where horror monsters (as opposed to gun-play and car chases) are the vehicle for social justice. Of course, there could be others. I don't get out much. (And no, I don't count "Zombie Nightmare", which is a vanity project, not a movie.) The heroine of the story loses her man to the predations of the local Mob when the Mob moves in on their nightclub. In order to exact revenge, she manages to contact a local voodoo cult (because in this film's social milieu, all black people in the South maintain contact with their pagan cult roots, don'chaknow) and convince them to aid her cause. Hilarity ensues.On the plus side: the makeup effects for the zombies were novel and extremely effective - I've never seen any other film use 'brass eyes and cobwebs' effects and bluish "bad skin" tints like this. Someone did a wonderful job coaching the extras on how to be convincing as cold, soulless, remorseless, shambling piles of ex-humanity. And they are framed and filmed and lighted in setups out of your worst nightmares. The setups for each of the revenge scenes are well done, and there is a lot of variety in the scenarios, as well as some macabre humor - the 'death by massage therapy' scene managed to be both funny and appalling at the same time, which is a great trick. Also on the plus side: The actress playing Sugar is very striking and carries the movie effortlessly. She's convincingly merciless and cold as she delivers judgment on each of her foes, and obviously relishes her revenge. The actor playing Samedi seems familiar; I think he shilled for "7-Up" some years ago. He's got a wonderful, deep, rich patois that resonates in the viewers' solar plexus. His sadistic glee and delight in the suffering and terror he inspires in his prey is enough to make you seriously considering defecting to the ranks of the "voodoun." On the minus side: Once Sugar gets the voodoo revenge ball rolling, it's just too damned easy for her - there is no struggle, or suspense at all. In "Foxy Brown", the heroine suffers rape and beatings and humiliation before she turns the tide on her enemies, and it makes the story more compelling because of it. Even in a Jim Brown "Slaughter" film, Jim had to sweat some to win the day. For that matter, Bruce Lee took some serious hits in his various fights for justice and revenge. But here, the Mob guys are dumb as toast and go down before the voodoo onslaught like mice under a field mower.That turns the film from a heroic struggle to an exercise in righteous sadism against a bunch of mannequins.And traditionally in films and literature, if the protagonist messes with "Dark Forces" to exact their revenge, they have to pay a price themselves. But Samedi just goes out and tears Sugar's foes apart like an obedient supernatural Pit Bull and it doesn't cost her a thing, at least not overtly. The protagonist's desire for revenge and/or justice is much more convincing if the story shows them paying a real price to achieve it. So again, the film is less than it could be; instead of making Sugar Hill's story a tale of revenge no matter the cost, it becomes an plodding exercise in vicarious power fantasy and butt-kicking.But still, it's a powerful experience, if only due to the fortunate accident of the makeup and the charisma of the two lead black actors. I'm glad I managed to catch it on Showtime, and if I ever see it on DVD for a reasonable price, I'll probably pick it up for my collection.