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Released by: Prime
Released in: 2002
Director: Paul Maslansky
Cast: Marki Bey, Don Pedro Colley, Robert Quarry, Richard Lawson
Year: 1974
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The Movie:
Sugar (Marki Bey) and Langston are a happy couple, running Langston's nightclub business and very much in love. That is, until a group of punks are hired by an evil businessman named Morgan (Robert Quarry of The Deathmaster) who wants to buy Langston's club. Langston won't sell, so they make short work of him and send him off to the big discothí¨que in the sky.
Rather than go to the police (like I would), or pull a gun out of her afro and fight the man (like Pam Grier would), she enlists the aid of Mama Maitresse (Zara Cully….. yes, that's right, Mrs. Jefferson herself), an old voodoo queen. Mama helps Sugar contact Baron Zamedi (played by Don Pedro Colley, who played Sheriff Ed on a few episodes of The Dukes of Hazard).
The Baron makes Sugar a deal - in exchange for her immortal soul, he'll raise an army of zombies with strange metallic paint jobs to do her evil bidding and exact her revenge on Langston's killers.
One by one, Sugar has her army of the undead take down the punks who killed her man, and even manages to make some time with a cop guy along the way. When all the punks are dead, she tracks Morgan down and the final face off ensues.
While this isn't the type of zombie film that Euro-cult fans or Romero buffs are going to expect, Sugar hill is still a lot of fun. There's very little gore in the film but that doesn't really take away from it. There is some nice atmosphere created and a lot of cool scenes that nicely mix the blaxploitation genre with the zombie film quite effectively.
The real star of the show though is Marki Bey. She's got a commanding screen presence and is well cast as the sympathetic but revenge driven lead.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Prime presents Sugar Hill in a fullframe transfer, and while I don't know what aspect ratio it played in theatrically, I'm going to wager that the film was shot open matte as there doesn't appear to be any information missing and there are a few scenes that look to have a bit too much room at the top and bottom. Overall, colors are a bit soft and there is some minor grain and print damage throughout, but the film remains quite watchable and it's never difficult to tell what's going on in the movie.
Sadly the disc's audio is a bit weak. There is some hiss throughout most of the movie and it's a bit distracting. The soundtrack (which is pretty cool) covers this in quite a few spots but there are more than enough places where you can notice it that it should be mentioned.
Extras? Nothin' but scene selection, kids.
The Final Word:
I love this movie, but Prime didn't really do much to impress on this release. Blaxploitation junkies will want to pick it up anyways, and zombie film completists will want to give it a look if they haven't already.