Runtime: 91 minutes
Directed by: Paul Maslansky
Starring: Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Don Pedro Colley, Betty Anne Rees, Richard Lawson
From: AIP
Happy Halloween, everyone... or at least a Happy October 31:
It's been WAY too long since I have watched any blaxploitation so I might as well do so at this time of year and thus I came across a film that is on Prime; bizarrely, on there the opening credits are fullscreen but the rest is 1:85.1.
The plot is not a complicated piece of work: the titular Sugar Hill is a young lady who has a boyfriend, Langston; he runs a successful nightclub. A white gangster and his henchmen wish to buy the club; Langston refuses. A few minutes later, those villains beat him to death in his own parking lot. Now, this was one of several moments of unintentional hilarity: this beating not only took place while they were wearing tan pantyhose over their heads (barely obscuring their faces) but they still had on their distinctive colorful 70's outfits. Lord, there is the typically great 70's clothing you get in blaxploitation, along with the expected funky score.
Anyhow, Sugar decides to get revenge by... finding an old voodoo queen she's known for years and she resurrects Baron Samedi, who himself resurrects the undead to kill whitey. The deaths as seen on screen aren't graphic but some have rough implications. For example, one dies after being eaten by hungry hogs and another is in a coffin filled with large snakes. The actor that plays Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) is the most memorable aspect of the film, as he was an intimidating-looking dude who nonetheless had charisma and his smile when he realized some fool was about to die...
Of course the movie is on the silly side and AIP thought it was a good idea to have the swamps of Louisiana (actually filmed in Texas) to have a soundtrack as if it was in the deepest darkest jungles of Africa-it was sounds from Tarzan movies, obviously looped repeatedly-but overall this was a good time. Marki Bey was also memorable as the lead character and as I am me, I was greatly amused by one of the bad guys (only known as FABULOUS) being Mac from Night Court. As typical for a lot of blaxploitation, this was simply fun.
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