Review: Sugar Hill (1974)

The title character (played by Marki Bey) is incensed when her club owner fiancé Langston (Larry B. Johnson) is beaten to death by thugs in the employ of white drug lord Morgan (Robert Quarry). For some reason, Sugar’s solution to all of this is to visit the ‘old voodoo priestess (Zara Cully), who gets Sugar in touch with top hat-sporting, maniacally laughing Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), lord of the undead. He unleashes a horde of previously dead African-American slaves conveniently buried in the swamp land, to help Sugar do her bidding. His help, of course, comes with a price, and apparently that price is tang. Anyhoo, on Sugar and her zombie army march to seek revenge against Morgan and his cronies. Richard Lawson plays Valentine, a cop and old acquaintance of Sugar’s, who is worried for her. Betty Ann Rees plays Morgan’s bitchy, racist moll who loathes Sugar (I guess she doesn’t have a sweet tooth).

 

No, not the 1994 urban drama, but a 1974 blend of “Coffy”, “Foxy Brown” and voodoo-flavoured zombie pic, from director Paul Maslansky (yep, the “Police Academy” producer in his sole directorial effort!) and screenwriter Tim Kelly (ironically his last screenwriting credit). Unfortunately, the blend of crime pic and zombie/voodoo movie doesn’t quite come off. Marki Bey ain’t no Pam Grier (she’s a bit wooden), and the title character comes across as a strangely unsympathetic, almost villainous character that throws the whole thing out of whack. Yes she has a sympathetic bone to pick, and yes the villains are (white) criminals, but for some reason I could never fully sympathise with Sugar the way I could “Coffy” or “Foxy Brown”. I know it makes no sense since all three are vigilantes with understandable motives, but the fact that Sugar’s revenge involves unleashing an army of the undead somehow made her seem less righteous to me. The fact that I’m not overly interested in voodoo-themed horror probably didn’t help, either. I also could never quite work out if Sugar was in charge or if Baron Samedi (a Haitian mythological character often used in popular culture, most prominently in “Live and Let Die”, whilst former WWF/E wrestler Papa Shango is also somewhat of a derivative of Samedi) was, as it seems to alternate confusingly.

 

The imposing Don Pedro Colley is a bit silly as Baron Samedi, and certainly nowhere near as memorable as Geoffrey Holder in “Live and Let Die”. He’s a poor substitute, right down to the maniacal laugh. And then you see him as a construction worker by day (occasionally a taxi driver too) with even more makeup on than the guy from The Village People. Having said that, Colley gives it all he has and kinda grew on me a bit. He’s certainly seven flavours of WTF? And that’s ultimately the film’s chief selling point: It may not be a good film, but it sure isn’t as boring as say “The Black Godfather” or “Dolemite”. It’s pretty frigging weird and quite watchable, even if it doesn’t remotely come together as a good film in the traditional sense despite solid performances by Robert Quarry, Betty Anne Rees (as the bitchy, racist moll Celeste), Zara Cully, and the underrated Richard Lawson (now best known as Beyoncé’s father-in-law!) as a maroon suit-wearing cop named Valentine. Like the late Thalmus Rasulala, he’s a cool cat and a much better actor than he has to show for it in his filmography, one feels. Unfortunately, whilst Lawson probably gives the best performance in the film, it’s in the dullest role. Quarry’s no Shelley Winters in “Cleopatra Jones”, but there’s been a lot worse blaxploitation villains out there, and he’s an experienced enough actor to get the job done. Hell, if you give Colley points for camp value, the only real dud performance comes from the seriously wooden Larry D. Johnson and his godawful spangly grey jacket.

 

The voodoo scenes offer up nice shots of snakes, alligators, and swampy waters that you just don’t normally get in a blaxploitation film, setting it apart from the pack. Meanwhile, wait until you see the goofy-yet-memorable zombies with their silver ball bearing eyes. They’re goofy as fuck, but undeniably amusing. The one great thing about the film is that the zombies here are former slaves, whilst the villains are white. That’s really clever (albeit not too far from “Blacula” as well) and deserving of a better film.

 

This one’s just so-so, if so, so freaking weird. It’s probably someone’s favourite blaxploitation film, but not mine. I’m not going to give this one a great score, it’s no “Blacula”, but at least it’s not deathly dull. I suppose it’s one of the better voodoo films, all in all. However, as someone who doesn’t like voodoo films, perhaps I’m not the best judge. At any rate, you’ve not seen anything quite like it. Top-notch, catchy opening and closing song ‘Supernatural Voodoo Woman’ by The Originals (a Motown act) is a highlight.

 

Rating: C+