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    • Source: Sugar Hill (1974 film)

      • Sugar Hill is a 1974 American blaxploitation horror film, directed by Paul Maslansky and starring Marki Bey as the title character who uses voodoo to get revenge on the people responsible for her boyfriend's death. It was released by American International Pictures. According to the film, the zombies are the preserved bodies of slaves brought to the United States from Guinea. AIP had previously combined the horror and blaxploitation genres with Blacula (1972) and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream (1973).


      Plot


      The story centers on Diana "Sugar" Hill (Bey), a photographer in Houston whose boyfriend, nightclub owner Langston (Larry D. Johnson), has been killed by mob boss Morgan (Robert Quarry) and his men when he refused to sell the club to Morgan. Sugar seeks the help of a former voodoo queen named Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully) to take revenge on Morgan and his thugs. Mama summons the voodoo lord of the dead, Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), who enlists his army of zombies to destroy the men who killed Langston and now want the club. Investigating the killings is Sugar's former boyfriend, police Lt. Valentine (Richard Lawson).


      Cast


      Marki Bey as Diana "Sugar" Hill
      Robert Quarry as Morgan
      Don Pedro Colley as Baron Samedi
      Betty Anne Rees as Celeste
      Richard Lawson as Valentine
      Zara Cully as "Mama" Maitresse
      Charles P. Robinson as "Fabulous"
      Larry D. Johnson as Langston
      Rick Hagood as "Tank" Watson
      Ed Geldart as O'Brien
      Albert J. Baker as George
      Raymond E. Simpson, III as King
      Thomas C. Carroll as Baker
      Big Walter Price as Preacher
      Charles Krohn as Captain Merrill
      J. Randall Bell as Dr. Parkhurst
      Peter Harrell, III as Police Photographer
      Judy Hanson as The Masseuse
      Gary W. Chason as Lab Technician
      Roy L. Downey as Stevedore
      Garrett Scales as Crew Chief
      John E. Scarborough as Uniformed Cop


      Production


      The film, budgeted at $350,000, was shot on location in Houston at such locations as the Heights branch of the Houston Public Library (a historical landmark), used in the film as a "Voodoo Institute". Sugar Hill was the last film Quarry did for AIP, after a run that included the Count Yorga films. Also appearing in the film was Cully, who played Mama Jefferson on the TV show The Jeffersons. Charles P. Robinson, known for his role as Mac Robinson on NBC's Night Court, portrayed the character of Fabulous. Hank Edds created the makeup effects for the zombies in the film.


      Release


      The film was released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures in February 1974. It was cut to 83 minutes for television and retitled The Zombies of Sugar Hill.


      Legacy


      The film was broadcast on Tele 5 as part of the programme format SchleFaZ in season 2. The film was released on VHS by Orion Home Video in 1996, and on DVD in October 2011 as part of MGM's Limited Edition series.
      Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle called it "a humorously dated blaxploitation feature" whose zombies "represent a throwback to the classic zombie conceptualization of the '30s and '40s". Adam Tyner of DVD Talk rated it 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Creepy, sexy, sleazy, and a borderline-surreal amount of fun, Sugar Hill is a perfect movie for a Halloween marathon and probably my single favorite blaxploitation flick, period". The "unique blend of exploitation film and Southern gothic horror" in Sugar Hill was described by Bloody Disgusting in 2020 as an "underseen outlier" in zombie films following in the wake of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).
      Rapper MF Doom sampled several audio clips from the film under his alias King Geedorah on the album Take Me to Your Leader (2003). A poster for the film appeared on a primary character's bedroom wall during a pivotal scene in 'Salem's Lot (2024) to establish the film's 1970s period setting.


      References




      External links


      Sugar Hill at IMDb
      Sugar Hill at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
      Sugar Hill at the TCM Movie Database

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