Whiskey Mountain

Yi-haaaa, now where did I put my banjo? It has been ages since I watched a good old-fashioned 70's hillbilly-hicks exploitation thriller that shamelessly imitates the plot & success aspects of "Deliverance"! Sadly, however, the obscure "Whiskey Mountain" nearly didn't meet my – admittedly too high – expectations. I don't understand what went wrong, because all the omens indicated that this movie would be right up my alley. I love cheap and trashy drive-in cinema from the seventies, I absolutely love the cool horror protagonist Christopher George ("Pieces", "City of the Living Dead", "Grizzly"…) and I even have a fond but inexplicable weakness for the previous work of the reputedly incompetent director William Grefé. Yes, I confess… I'm a really big fan of "Stanley" and "Impulse" and I also tremendously enjoyed notorious stinkers such as "Mako: the Jaws of Death" and "Sting of Death". Then what exactly is the problem with "Whiskey Mountain"? Well, quite frankly, this film is incredibly boring and approximately half of the running time consists of pointless footage of the four lead characters driving through remote backwoods areas on their motorcycles with guiding evergreen music playing in the background. The foursome, two couples, is heading towards Whiskey Mountain in search of family treasures, but they encounter a bunch of unfriendly and marijuana- addicted rednecks on their paths. Nothing of interest happens during the first full hour of the film and I really had to fight sleep several times (sleep often won) in order to reach the climax. The tone and ambiance of the film aren't nearly as gritty and unsettling as they should be and even the excessive use of banjo music gets pretty dire after a while. Christopher George, cult wench Roberta Collins ("Death Race 2000", "Eaten Alive") and the rest of the cast deliver decent enough performances, but the script simply is too weak. But the main shortcoming definitely was that I was watching a crummy old VHS tape with terrible picture quality and nearly inaudible sound. Perhaps if "Whiskey Mountain" ever finds its way to DVD, complete with restored picture quality and remastered soundtrack, I'll give it another chance.

Like "Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace". No, I'm not kidding. I mean, at least this film has people in it that sort of act like recognizable human beings. And any film with WIP-pic stalwart Roberta Collins in it can't be all bad. Maybe mostly, but not all. This is just your sort of run-of-the-mill "Deliverance" rip-off, '70s drive-in fodder from the interesting if not especially talented William Grefe. The fact that it was clearly shot in 'scope and that it was a budget video label (Best Film & Video) that put it out goes a long way toward explaining why it looks so cruddy. So give it a break!

Two dirt bike enthusiasts and their wives go on a vacation in the wilds of North Carolina. Part of their purpose is to search out a cache of antique guns once stored by a great-grandfather in the title location (which some locals say doesn't exist). Wouldn't you know it: the foursome anger some local criminals with their mere presence, and the bad guys do everything possible to scare them off. Things come to a head for a reasonably exciting, reasonably violent conclusion.

With the ever-engaging Christopher George ("Grizzly") on hand as the lead, this promises to deliver some fun, and it does. The brainchild of Florida-based drive-in legend William Grefe, its plot elements (dirt biking, the Civil War) were some of the filmmakers' real-life personal interests. He perfectly captures the beauty of the settings, even filming in Panavision in order to get that extra wide screen. With echoes of "Deliverance", "Whiskey Mountain" is entertaining, although some viewers may feel that it simply isn't exploitative enough. As it is, there is precious little skin shown, and the violence is never very gory.

Led by the always reliable character actor John Davis Chandler (a Grefe regular), the bad guys are a sometimes comical and frequently stereotypical bunch of backwoods boors who are at least slimy enough to have the viewer enjoying their demises. That's exploitation legend William Kerwin, recognizable for his appearances in films by both Grefe and Herschell Gordon Lewis, as the character Homer. Preston Pierce ("Girls for Rent") is the amiable Dan, 70s cult movie starlet Roberta Collins ("Death Race 2000") is the sullen Diana, and Linda Borgeson (in her only feature film appearance) is the comely Jamie. Incidentally, it's interesting to note that Borgeson somewhat resembles Georges' real-life wife Lynda Day George. Robert Leslie ("The Intruder") is a hoot as a senile old man.

Overall, "Whiskey Mountain" is rather mild as far as this kind of entertainment goes, but it's impossible to dislike; as crude as it can be, it *does* show its audience a fairly good time, with a flavourful score by The Charlie Daniels Band serving as appropriate accompaniment.

Seven out of 10.

Being a person who is drawn to films, simply because of how obscure it is, can, from time to time, lead to some interesting discoveries within the world of B-entertainment. Other times, not so much. Enter Whiskey Mountain. Of course it has nothing to do with Moonshine Mountain. Why would it? Whiskey Mountain is more like a semi-ripoff of Deliverance, (allegedly) for the Drive-In crowd, with a positively uncalled for PG rating. A quality which doesn't really hold back this Hixploitation epic as much as one would assume. I guess you could call it a hard PG. However, I must say I expected a tad more from something that came from William Grefe, as I found this obscurity to be slightly underwhelming. Whiskey Mountain is about 2 Bikers, I mean 2 motorcyclists (along with the wives), who end up making some local pot farmers nervous, after they head out to said mountain, lookin' for gold. So, they ain't lookin' for weed, but the farmers don't know that. A very, very long weekend is what follows. The vicious hicks, by no means, intend on letting these people go. Besides an entertaining performance from the legendary William Kerwin, and some quaint scenery, here and there, there ain't a whole lot for Whiskey Mountain to brag about. Perhaps if good ol' Jeffery Allen had been present, there would have been a little more life in this shin-dig. It's just too normal and serious for it's own good. Not Grefe's best, by any means. You may just want to check out Electric Shades Of Grey, and call it a day. Or, if you must discover some 70's Hixploitation that no one cares about, you might be better off with something more like God's Bloody Acre. However, for you vintage/obscure/exploitation completists out there, you could go whole a lot worse than Whiskey Mountain. I say give it a chance. Just be sure to keep your expectations in check. 6/10

This movie was not released.... it ESCAPED!!!!!! I actually got brain damage watching this. It is hard to believe people got paid for acting (oops, too strong a word)"being" in this! At least I presume they got paid. How could it have made any money???