Welcome one and all to Day 1 of Back in
Blaxploitation. CAN YOU DIG IT??!!! Sorry channeling The Warriors
for a second and I'm good. What do you get when the mob takes out
your boyfriend for refusing to pay protection? Why turn to the Dark
Arts of course! Yes nothing speaks of revenge raising large
collections of the dead. This is Sugar Hill a.k.a. Zombi, Black
Voodoo and The Zombies of Sugar Hill.
Mmm, is that olive oil you are using for your hair? |
American International Pictures brings
us the story of Diana (Marki Bey of The Landlord, Class of '74,
Hangup and Starksy and Hutch) after the loss of her boyfriend
at the hands mobster Morgan (Robert Quarry of Agent for
H.A.R.M., Count Yorga, Vampire, WUSA, The Return of Count Yorga, Dr.
Phibes Rises Again, Deathmaster, The Midnight Man and Madhouse)
whose money has bought protection from the cops and lawyers. Racked
with guilt and loss, Diana speaks to an aged Voodoo priestess Mama
Maitresse (Zara Cully of The Liberation of L.B. Jones, WUSA,
Brother John, A Dream for Christmas, All in the Family and The
Jeffersons) to put Sugar in charge of zombies, she refuses.
Getting more and more enraged, Sugar
seeks out a voodoo lord of the dead, Baron Samedi (Don Pedro
Colley of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, THX 1138, Herbie Rides
Again, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Blue Iguana, Journey of Honor and
Quest of the Delta Knights) and only the cost of her immortal
soul and she will have full control of a zombie horde. She starts
wiping out Morgan's men and no one on the street has a clue who is
slaughtering them left and right.
Yes, I am white and evil. How do you do? |
The zombies however are the traditional
standing in they are subservient thralls versus the George A. Romero
flesh eating ghouls but they must have become damn ninjas as they
sneak around in the darkness these beings were bodies preserved of
slaves brought to the United States from Guinea.
Will Sugar get her revenge? Being
soulless will she feel some sort of joy? Will Baron Samedi work
birthday parties??
A few points of interest on the film
now. The eyes of zombie horde is a great effect cutting the eyes out
in the frames and shining light through it making it this other
worldly effect and very similar to the Lectroids in The Adventures of
Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. The Voodoo
Museum and Research History building was shockingly enough the
Heights Branch of the Houston Public Library. Thought for certain,
Texas would be an authority on Voodoo practitioners.
American International Pictures lost
both Robert Quarry and Vincent Price in 1974 as they wanted to pursue
other work and felt the lackluster of the previous works.
Excuse me, I was looking for the John Carpenter set. |
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