cinema history class: sugar hill (1974)

 

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Session: Black Vampires Matter (Week 2)
Movie: Sugar Hill (1974)
Directed by Paul Maslansky

Plot:

After the mob kills her man, Sugar Hill makes a deal with a voodoo priestess and a zombie king. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

There was a definite comic book feel to this. In fact, at many points I felt as if I were watching a full-length segment of Creepshow.  As such it was a lot of fun to watch. You knew that the murderers would get their just desserts. It was just a matter of watching to see how it would happen. And seeing how creative the deaths could be.

And, to some degree, the movie is just an excuse to show creative deaths. But it's done so well, that it's really fun to watch. A big part of the credit goes to Don Pedro Colley who played the zombie king and stole every scene he was in. And Zara "Mother Jefferson" Culley was great as the Voodoo Priestess. But the fact is the whole cast was very good. 

There were some racial elements that I found particularly interesting.

The titular character, played by Marki Bey is supposed to be a strong black heroine. But Bey herself looks very white for much of the film. If you showed me what she looked like in this movie without giving me any context (other than her appearance) and made me guess her race, I would have guessed white before black. Wikipedia doesn't have much useful information, so I can't say for certain. But I'm guessing she's of mixed ancestry. Interestingly, she is made to look blacker in the scenes where she shows her righteous anger.

I also found it interesting that the racist white woman's fate was to spend eternity as the bride of the black zombie king. It was a very well-done bit of ironic justice. 

Ratings

Me: 9.5

Bob-O: 9

Christina: 9.3

Dave: 9.4

Ethan: 8

Joe 10

Sharon's reaction to the trailer: "Man, they sure did a good job of making the eyes look creepy."

Cats: Yes! There was a cat! And he played a pivotal role in the climactic scene! Very yay!