Day 22

Sugar Hill (1974)

Directed by Paul Maslansky

When Diana “Sugar” Hill’s fiancee, Langston, is murdered by a group of mafia thugs after refusing to sell his nightclub to them, she is desperate for revenge. In her grief, she calls on voodoo, and unleashes the fearsome power of Baron Semedi to get even. Admittedly more horror-adjacent than true horror, Sugar Hill is great fun with a ton of cool visuals and neat zombie effects. It’s an interesting twist having the zombie controller as the hero, and Sugar Hillis a cool, badass lead, played well by Marki Bey. Don Pedro Colley, as Baron Semedi, steals a lot of the scenes he’s in because he is clearly having a great time hamming it up.

There are some problems here but they mostly stem from the movie being a product of its time, we’d say. Because this is a ’70s Blaxploitation film the N-word is said. A lot. However much this bothers people does vary person to person, but just keep that in mind, should you want to watch this movie. Also if I could cut out the last minute of this film I definitely would, as it plays into a lot of unfortunate stereotypes about black men. Overall though, this is a fun atmospheric horror-flavored revenge tale with a lot of N’awlins charm. Recommended.