''Sugar Hill'' is a 1974 American horror

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

film, directed by

Paul Maslansky Paul Marc Maslansky (born November 23, 1933) is an American film producer and writer best known for the ''Police Academy'' movies. Early life Maslansky was born in Rego Park, New York on November 23, 1933. He played jazz for a living while br ...

and starring

Marki Bey Marki Bey (born March 1, 1947) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Diana "Sugar" Hill in the 1974 horror blaxploitation zombie film '' Sugar Hill''. Early life Bey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career 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 American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

. According to the film, the zombies are the preserved bodies of slaves brought to the United States from

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

. AIP had previously combined the horror and blaxploitation genres with ''

Blacula ''Blacula'' is a 1972 American blaxploitation horror film directed by William Crain. It stars William Marshall in the title role about an 18th-century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is turned into a vampire (and later locked in a coffin) b ...

'' (1972) and its sequel ''

Scream Blacula Scream ''Scream Blacula Scream'' is a 1973 American blaxploitation vampire horror film. It is a sequel to the 1972 film ''Blacula''. The film was produced by American International Pictures (AIP) and Power Productions. This was the acting debut of Ri ...

'' (1973).

Plot

The story centers on Diana "Sugar" Hill (Bey), a photographer in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

whose boyfriend, nightclub owner Langston (Larry D. Johnson), has been killed by mob boss Morgan (

Robert Quarry Robert Walter Quarry (November 3, 1925 – February 20, 2009) was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles. Life and career Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable (née Shoemaker) and Paul 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 Zara Frances Cully (January 26, 1892 – February 28, 1978) was an American actress. Cully was best known for her role as Olivia 'Mother Jefferson' Jefferson on the CBS sitcom ''The Jeffersons'', which she portrayed from the series beginning in ...

) to take revenge on Morgan and his thugs. Mama summons the voodoo lord of the dead,

Baron Samedi Baron Samedi ( en, Baron Saturday), also written Baron Samdi, Bawon Samedi or Bawon Sanmdi, is one of the lwa of Haitian Vodou. He is a lwa of the dead, along with Baron's numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix and ...

(

Don Pedro Colley Don Pedro Colley (August 30, 1938 – October 11, 2017) was an American actor. Some of his better known roles include Gideon on ''Daniel Boone'', Ongaro in ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes'', SRT in George Lucas' ''THX 1138'', Joshua in ''T ...

), 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

as Diana "Sugar" Hill *

as Morgan *

* Betty Anne Rees as Celeste * Richard Lawson as Valentine *

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 Big Walter Price (August 2, 1917 − March 7, 2012) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist. Born near Gonzales, Texas, he moved to San Antonio, where he released his first song called "Calling Margie" in 1955. In 1955 he moved to ...

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,Samuel Z Arkoff & Richard Turbo, ''Flying Through Hollywood By the Seat of My Pants'', Birch Lane Press, 1992 p 202 was shot on location in

at such locations as the Heights branch of the

Houston Public Library Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States. History Houston Lyceum and the Carnegie Library The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the second Houston Lyceum in 18 ...

(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 ''The Jeffersons'' is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of List of The Jeffersons episodes, 253 episodes. ''The Jeffersons'' is one of the longe ...

''. Charles P. Robinson, known for his role as Mac Robinson on NBC's ''

Night Court ''Night Court'' is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984 to May 31, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan municipal court presided over by a young, unorthodox judge, Harold "Harry" T. Stone (portray ...

'', 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''. The film was released on VHS by Orion Home Video in 1996., and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in October 2011 as part of MGM's Limited Edition series.

Reception

Writing in ''The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia'', academic

Peter Dendle Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and s ...

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 DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

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".

In popular culture

Rapper

MF Doom Daniel Dumile ( ; July 13, 1971October 31, 2020), best known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom (both stylized in all caps), was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and ...

sampled several audio clips from the film under his alias

King Geedorah Daniel Dumile ( ; July 13, 1971October 31, 2020), best known by his stage name MF Doom or simply Doom (both stylized in all caps), was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and ...

on the album '' Take Me to Your Leader'' (2003).

Trivia

The film was broadcast on

Tele 5 Tele 5 is a German free-to-air television channel that broadcasts classic American films, series, cartoons and Japanese anime. On 3 July 2020, Discovery, Inc. agreed to acquire the channel from Leonine Holding, completing the purchase on 1 Se ...

as part of the programme format

SchleFaZ ''SchleFaZ'' [] () ("The worst movies ever/of all times") is a satirical film series of the German private broadcaster Tele 5. In this series, mainly B-movies, which are characterized by particularly bad workmanship or unintentionally funny idea ...

in season 2.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sugar Hill 1974 films 1974 horror films American zombie films African-American films Blaxploitation films Films shot in Houston Films set in Houston American International Pictures films Films about Voodoo African-American horror films Films directed by Paul Maslansky 1970s English-language films 1970s American films