Really Surprised!

Just so...so bad

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

When her boyfriend is brutally murdered, after refusing to be shaken down by the local gangsters running their protection racket, Sugar Hill (Marki Bey), decides to call upon the help of aged voodoo queen Mama Maitresse; Sugar entreats her to call upon Baron Zamedi, the Lord of the Dead, for help in gaining a gruesome revenge.Whether or not this is a blaxploitation horror film, I have no idea. There is definitely a theme of the black heroine (a poor man's Pam Grier) taking on white crooks. And the police detective has a pretty impressive fro going on. But the line between blaxploitation and a film that just happens to have black stars is a blurry one in the 1970s...What I do know is that this is a fun picture from Sam Arkoff and AIP. Not particularly scary and never taking itself too seriously, we get about half a dozen people attacked (one at a time) by a zombie horde. And these are real zombies -- the voodoo kind -- not those flesh-eating zombies that have taken over the horror world today.Not the best film, not the worst, but definitely one that probably gets overlooked too often and is worth a peek for those who are into the voodoo zombies and already saw the bigger name films like "White Zombie" or "Serpent and the Rainbow". I get the impression that this film was an influence on Adam Green's "Hatchet" series, though that may just be my imagination.Interestingly, despite being made after George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", this film finds its roots more in the racially-inspired zombies of the 1940s and 1950s. Namely "King of the Zombies" (1941), "I Walked With a Zombie" (1943) and "Zombies of Mora Tau" (1957).

One thing you can say about this movie, besides the fact that EVERYONE is good-looking (even the prince of darkness, Baron Samedi, is hot in a gold-toothed, evil, soulless kind of way) -- is that you always know who the bad guys are. They're the white ones.Oh,there are a couple of black bad guys too, portrayed as jive-talking stereotypical 1970's Uncle Toms, but if you see a white person in this film you can just sit back and wait for the N-Word to fly. Which, okay, it's a blaxploitation flick and it was the 1970's and I get that. The problem is that it's not a bad movie, and could have been a pretty good one without all the heavy-handedly racist scenery chewing by every white person in a six-mile radius.Diana "Sugar" Hill (Marti Bey, one the sexiest women of color to hit the screen since Lena Horne), a photographer of either high fashion or porn, I couldn't figure out quite which (one photoshoot of women tossing a beach ball looks suspiciously fetishy)is in love with Langston (Larry Johnson), the owner of a bar called Club Haiti. Club Haiti is coveted by a local gangster, Morgan (Robert Quarry, looking like a refugee from The Godfather), and Morgan doesn't really care whether Langston sells him the club legally, or gets beaten to death by thugs. Turns out to be the latter, and after Langston is confronted by several gangsters dressed like Huggy Bear and beaten to death in the alley, Sugar vows revenge.How does a beautiful, intelligent, determined black woman get revenge in a 70's movie? Why, she goes to the swamp and asks the local voodoo queen, Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully) to summon the power of EVIL.Mama Maitresse obliges by conjuring Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) and that's when things get very weird indeed. Colley plays Samedi with appropriately unholy glee, bellowing operatically at everyone, flashing his gold teeth, and casting flirtatiously evil glances at anything female who happens to cross his path. "He is a great lover," cackles Mama Maitresse as Sugar gazes at Samedi in astonishment...and maybe a tad bit of lust.With Samedi's army of Zombie slave corpses at her disposal, Sugar dispatches each of Morgan's men in ways both amusing and unpleasant. One is slashed to pieces by zombies in a warehouse; another is eaten by pigs in a cornfield ("You know," purrs Sugar, just before pushing the hapless gangster into the pigpen, "these poor piggies have gone almost a WEEK without any garbage? They're righteously hungry, I'd say.") She picks up another man in a pool hall by pretending she thinks he's hot; when he gropes her and leers "You n****r chicks just can't keep away from the white stuff, can you?" she rolls her eyes and murmurs "Something like that, yes." By 'something like that', she means "I'm going to put you under a voodoo spell and make you stab yourself in the chest with a dagger, you scumsicking pig, and then I'm going to laugh." And she does.My personal favorite death is meted out to Fabulous, played by Charles Watson, A.K.A. Mac from Night Court. Watson plays Morgan's chief enforcer as a dedicated wearer of plaid shirts and outrageous hats. Sugar takes him down by paying off the proprietors of his favorite massage parlor and, when he is naked and facedown on the table, she unleashes a squad of hideous zombie girls to, uh, massage him to death.As the bodies begin to pile up, Sugar is visited by Valentine (Richard Lawson, the black paranormal investigator from "Poltergeist"), a detective with whom she apparently has had more than a casual friendship in the past. Valentine wants to know why the murderers of Sugar's boyfriend are dying so creatively; Sugar wants Valentine to STFU and maybe give her a little tumble for old time's sake. At one point, Valentine seeks out Mama Maitresse, who puts her hands on his head, scrutinizes him, and spits "This man is NOT A BELIEVER!" before she stomps off, followed by a deeply amused Baron Samedi.Morgan's girlfriend Celeste is played (with icy venom) by Betty Ann Rees as a cool blond with limited intelligence, great legs, and a very bad racial consciousness. When Sugar visits Morgan to discuss the Club Haiti and Morgan asks Celeste to get Sugar a cup of coffee, Celeste rolls her eyes and snaps "I ain't waiting on no ni--" before Morgan cuts her off. She spends most of the movie making nasty remarks about black people, once getting beaten to a pulp by Sugar for her troubles; at the end of the fight she shrieks "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, YOU BLACK BITCH!" as the bartender calmly wipes counters and picks up broken glass behind her.Celeste is, in fact, such a thoroughgoing nasty bitch that you actually cheer at the end when she gets her comeuppance: after Morgan is dispatched by zombies in the old mansion, Baron Samedi shows up to collect his fee -- and Sugar pays her debt by handing Celeste over to a fate worse than death. When last seen, Celeste is being carried, shrieking, into the swamp by a wildly cackling Samedi, who no doubt is trying to figure out how he can sexually humiliate Celeste with her mouth taped shut.The movie is surprisingly good. The performances are smooth; even the most overblown characters, like Celeste and Samedi, manage to take their portrayals right to the edge of parody before turning back without breaking character. The problem is that everyone is so over-the-top, scenery-gnawing evil or good that Sugar, who really stands somewhere in the middle, never finds her feet.Also I think I wanted her to end up with Samedi. Their kids would have been gorgeous.

Southern Crimelord, who doesn't take no for an answer, Morgan(Robert Quarry)desires the popular club of a black businessman, Langston(Larry D Johnson)who wouldn't sell and is beaten to death by his thugs. Diana "Sugar" Hill, who was his fiancé, vows revenge and gets help from Voodoo Priestess Mama Maitresse(Zara Cully)and the summoned spirit of Baron Samedi(Don Pedro Colley). Samedi offers to assist Sugar on one condition, that she gives her soul to him. Sugar, whose love for Langston provides a burning, thriving hate for those who murdered him, accepts. The rest of the film shows how Samedi, and his undead zombies, eliminate Morgan's men. Morgan still persists in buying the club from Sugar but has no idea that she has much more in store for him. Meanwhile, detective Valentine(Richard Lawson), once a boyfriend of Sugar's, begins to find a scent leading towards Sugar regarding the ritualistic ways Morgan's men are found murdered.Tame blaxploitation revenge voodoo horror flick, has lots of attitude and colorful characters. I really enjoyed Colley's outrageous Baron Samedi with his demented eyes, plated teeth displaying a wicked grin enjoying "playtime" with his victims, and giant top hat. Quite a flashy character, played to the hilt with gusto. I couldn't get enough of him..a real hoot. He's always present when Morgan's men are about to meet their impending doom. Marki Bey, as Sugar, is tough-talking, foxy and fine..a representative of the Pam Grier model. You mess with her and there's hell to pay, that's for sure. Bey has an authority to her and I think that's an essential ingredient in a film such as this. Nothing wimpy about this chick, and she doesn't cower to nobody. Quarry is terrific as her arch nemesis...a real, slimy, racist bastard who treats the men under him like cattle. Betty Anne Rees is Celeste, Morgan's mistreated lover. Despite how he pushes her around, talking down to her as if she were swine, Celeste isn't a sympathetic character. Nope, she a rude, crude smart-Aleck, who is just as racist as the one she pampers. I loved Celeste's reactions towards Morgan's attractions to Sugar. There's even an amusing little fight between Sugar and Celeste for our enjoyment..guess who wins this skirmish? Cully is also quite a memorable character as Mama Maitresse, a voodoo queen you don't want as an enemy. Along with Samedi and Maitresse, Morgan never has a prayer. And, those zombies..aren't they a creepy brood! Covered head to toe in cob-webs, with pale skin, eyes of silver, and long hideous finger nails, these zombies are often photographed coming directly towards the screen..quite an eerie sight. If you are not a demanding viewer, accepting that "Sugar Hill" is simply a film about supernatural revenge, then there's fun to be had. The murders, quite imaginatively set-up and executed with tongue-firmly-in-cheek, aren't graphic, but seeing Morgan and his men squirming and pleading for their lives as Samedi and Sugar smile with glee, is grand. The title song, Supernatural Voodoo Woman, is out of sight, baby!

Let me first say that I'm a 19-year-old white boy who loves the 70's and Blaxploitation films. So when I saw "Sugar Hill" on Showtime one day I was hooked! While not the best movie to come out of that time it is sure a fun ride! The film starts off with the rather beautiful Diana "Sugar" Hill in her boyfriend Langston's nightclub called "Club Haiti." After a few minutes he is attacked and killed, and Sugar wants revenge! She goes to a voodoo priestess named "Mama Maitresse" who raises her greatest voodoo god, Baron Samedi (who is a "great lover" no less according to Mama Maitresse.) Sugar asks the Baron for help and he calls on his army of the living dead to aid her. Then one by one the men who killed Langston are tracked down including a henchman named "Fabulous" (Got to love that name!) and they are killed in different colorful ways, like being thrown to hungry pigs "Hope they like white trash" Sugar says with anger in her eyes. In the end what you get is a cheesy fun film with Sugar, who is not a Foxy Brown, but a cool character in her own way.