Sugar Hill

Marki Bey stars as a foxy lady, named Diana "Sugar" Hill. Her handsome prince fiancé, Langston, owns a Voodoo-themed night club in the deep south. The club is so successful, that the local mobster, Mr. Morgan, wants to pressure Langston into selling the club to him. When Langston refuses, Morgan's thugs beat Langston to death, in the parking lot of the club.

Consumed with anguish and thoughts of vengeance, Sugar decides to take matters into her own hands. She seeks out an elderly Voodoo priestess, named Mama Maitresse. Sugar explains to her, that she needs Mama's help, via her Voodoo powers. Mama Maitresse conjures up the ruler of the dead, Baron Zamedi. He then summons an army of Zombies, who were all former slaves, to help Sugar dispatch Langston's killers, one-by-one.

Marki Bey can certainly compete in the looks department, with that other 70s Blaxploitation goddess, Pam Grier. Ms. Bey is completely convincing as the grief-stricken Sugar, who is determined to settle the score with Morgan and his henchmen.

Robert Quarry's performance as the suave yet vicious Morgan, is pulled-off well. But it's not Quarry's most compelling role. He was much more charismatic, in his past performances in his Vampire films. So if you're a Robert Quarry fan, be forewarned that he doesn't shine that brightly, in this film.

Betty Anne Rees plays Morgan's racist, sex-starved girlfriend, Celeste. Betty Anne has a natural talent for portraying licentious, dangerous characters, with malicious intent. Her wicked-looking, gleaming gray eyes, make your blood run cold. Celeste is a particularly vile character, and Sugar exacts exquisitely appropriate revenge on her, in this film. Viewers will be cheering at Celeste's utter comeuppance, orchestrated by Sugar and the zombies.

Don Pedro Colley as Baron Samedi, gives an over-the-top performance. Don really chews-up the scenery, emoting like mad. You can tell that he really enjoys his role, as Baron Samedi. The other actors give mostly wooden performances. Especially Richard Lawson's portrayal of Valentine, the cop who was also Sugar's former love interest.

Like virtually all the films of the Blaxploitation genre, Sugar Hill's main thrust is revenge. Only a tiny handful of 70s Blaxploitation films, worked horror into their plot-lines. Of those, Sugar Hill stands out from the rest of the bunch. For fans of 70s Blaxploitation films, Sugar Hill delivers the goods.

I wish I'd get a nickel for every horror movie I watch starting with an occult voodoo ritual during the opening credits! If that were the case, I'd be rich myself instead of spending all that precious money on purchasing obscure movies! Although, in all honesty, I have to admit that the voodoo mumbo-jumbo at the start of "Sugar Hill" is merely just a staged act, set up in a groovy establishment called Club Haiti owned by a black businessman and located in the middle of a mafia-infested city with a white guy at the top of the crime ladder. As you can derive already from this two-line synopsis intro, "Sugar Hill" is a Blaxsploitation horror effort, like the contemporary blockbusters "Blackenstein" and "Blacula", only with voodoo spells and zombies this time. The owner of Club Haiti gets killed for not giving in to the mafia's blackmail, but his left behind wife Sugar, nicknamed like this because she is – and I quote – looks as sweet as sugar tastes, plots a virulent revenge. She seeks help with a voodoo priestess and together they head out to a swamp to resurrect an army of black zombies to fight the mafia.

The summoning of Voodoo God Baron Samedi is quite a preposterous but hysterically entertaining sequence as the guy (Don Pedro Colley) turns out to be a prototypic pimp from the hood who literally screams out to all his dead servants to awake and emerge from their burial grounds. Awesome! This scene alone was enough reason to make "Sugar Hill" my brand new favorite Blaxsploitation movie of all time! Subsequently all the obnoxious white villains get what they deserved: imaginative and violent deaths inflicted by black zombies – illegally buried victims of slavery – with swollen eyeballs and covered in dirt and cobwebs. Like Baron Samedi marvelously states, they should be put to evil use because it's all they ever knew. "Sugar Hill" is a fast-paced and ultimately swinging 70's flick; guaranteed entertainment for all experienced freaks of obscure cult horror. Lead actress Marki Bey doesn't play in the same league as her fellow exploitation heroines Pam Grier or Tamara Dobson, but she's certainly a genuine foxy lady with sexual charisma to boot and far above average acting capacities. She also has a couple of cool witty one-liners to make when she gets rid of yet another opponent, like when she feeds one of the mobsters to a bunch of filthy pigs and murmurs the phrase "Talk about white trash…". The Caucasian baddies are pretty terrific too – especially Robert Quarry – and it's a joy to listen to their chauvinistic and misogynist dialogs. The make-up effects on the zombies are deliciously outrageous and the coolness-factor of the actors is simply immeasurable. The aforementioned Don Pedro Colley depicts a voodoo guru, but he plays pool like a real badass MF. The only things missing in order to make "Sugar Hill" a true masterpiece are a groovier soundtrack (the music is a bit of a letdown) and a bit of sleaze. Otherwise, the coolest Blaxploitation flick out there to discover!

A good exploitation film that mixes the usual elements with voodoo and zombies. It was actually surprisingly light on the gore and violence and had zero nudity, but the story and the characters were interesting enough. The "eye" effects for the zombies made them stand out from other movies.

Baron Samedi almost stole the show from the beautiful Marki Bey . . . almost.

The grandmother from the Jeffersons, Charles Robinson from Night Court, Robert Quarry from Count Yorga and Richard Lawson (father of Bianca Lawson from Buffy-TVS) all star.

"Diana 'Sugar' Hill" (Marki Bey) is in love with a man named "Langston" (Larry Don Johnson) who happens to own a nightclub in Louisiana called "Club Haiti" which the local mob boss "Morgan" (Robert Quarry) wants to buy. But Langston doesn't want to sell. So Morgan has Langston beaten to death. Seeking revenge Sugar Hill goes to the local voodoo priestess,"Mama Maitresse" (Zara Cully) who summons the evil "Lord of the Dead" named "Baron Samedi" (Don Pedro Colley). Sugar Hill offers Baron Samedi her soul if he will help her kill those responsible for the death of her boyfriend. He agrees and summons an army of zombies to do her bidding. At any rate, rather than spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, I will stop right here and go no further on the plot. I will say, however, that Marki Bey was pretty and performed quite well. Additionally, while I didn't care for the way Baron Samedi was initially presented, I began to enjoy the performance of Don Pedro Colley more as the film went on. All things considered, I thought that this was a pretty good zombie film.

Langston (Larry D. Johnson) is the owner of a successful nightclub and he proposes his girlfriend, the photographer Diana "Sugar" Hill (Marki Bey), to get married with him. However the kingpin Morgan (Robert Quarry) and his henchmen kill Morgan when he does not accept his offer to sell the nightclub. Sugar Hill seeks out the voodoo priestess Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully) to revenge the death of her beloved Langston. Mama summons the Lord of the Dead, Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley), who offers a horde of zombies to Sugar Hill take revenge. In return, she offers her soul to him. She lures Morgan while his gangsters are murdered one by one by the zombies. Meanwhile his former boyfriend, Detective Valentine (Richard Lawson), investigates the gruesome deaths of Morgan´s mobsters and suspects that the killer is using voodoo to kill them.

"Sugar Hill" is a funny and cult low-budget zombie film with Blaxploitation to the best. The plot is highly entertaining and the make-up is great, with creepy zombies with half- Ping-Pong ball on each eye. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Zumbis de Sugar Hill" ("Sugar Hill´s Zombies")