MOVIE: Sugar Hill (1974)

"She's sweet as sugar... with a voodoo army of the undead!"

This is likely to be the best zombie blaxploitation flick you ever see. Admittedly, it's not a field with a vast array of competition, but nonetheless it's an absolute hoot.

We start off with what appears to be a full-on voodoo ritual, accompanied by a funky number called "Supernatural Voodoo Woman". However, it turns out to be just a put-on for the tourists, at an establishment called Club Haiti. The black owner of the club has raised a few hackles with the local white Mafia, headed up by Morgan (Robert Quarry) who decides to have him picked off. So far, so usual. However, Morgan didn't reckon on widow Sugar (Marki Bey) taking over the club. Rather than take her revenge in the usual Coffy/Foxy Brown manner, Sugar instead seeks help from a voodoo priestess to summon Voodoo dude Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley).

Thus summoned, Samedi calls on his dead servants to wake up from their slumber in the swamps, and what follows is one of the most bizarre revenge movies committed to celluloid as these zombie henchmen proceed to assist Sugar in some novel methods of dispatching with the guys who did her man wrong.

Wow, I can just imagine them pitching this to Sam Arkoff at AIP...

"So, you say it's like Foxy Brown meets Night Of The Living Dead? How cheaply and quickly can you make it?"

The zombies themselves have a truly original look, covered in dirt and cobwebs and with eyes like silver ping-pong balls (hang on, I think they are ping-pong balls... and sprayed with silver paint...) Marki Bey, meanwhile is sassy and kicks ass in the coolest way possible, whilst Don Pedro Colley knows exactly what sort of crap he's making, and overeggs his performance accordingly. Robert Quarry chews some scenery, whilst being a chauvinistic pig to his superbitch lady Celeste (Betty Ann Rees), who gets some entertaining comeuppance herself. Nobody involved seems to be taking this thing too seriously, but somehow all manage to keep a straight face. Just.

Paul Maslansky (a prolific producer, taking a rare place in the director's seat) seems to be enjoying himself too, and somehow manages to keep this potential mess rolling along nicely to its conclusion - it's a shame he didn't direct more, if you ask me.

So; Mafia hoods, zombies, blaxploitation, a funky theme song, some great one liners, dodgy '70's fashions, a cat fight between Sugar and Celeste, several entertaining deaths and a great "spooky" climax in a swamp - What's not to like? 

Did I mention that I love this movie? You will never see another quite like it.



US 1974 - American International Pictures (who else but AIP would have made this flick?)

Certificate X (UK, original release)

91 minutes

DVD Releases:
ILC (UK - out of print at the time of writing)
MGM (US)

Original theatrical trailer:

MOVIE: Warm Bodies (2013)

I was rather fearing Twilight with zombies when I first heard about this movie. Fortunately, that's not the case. Sure, it's a love story of sorts but with a decidedly black comic touch as well.

We join the action after the zombie apocalypse has wiped out a big proportion of the population (so far, so-so). "R" (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie with a difference - strangely introspective, with a conscience about his brain-eating proclivities and a penchant for collecting vinyl (look out for a subtle visual gag involving a Doors LP). He is also unable to remember his name, and can only remember it started with an "R", hence his shortened moniker.. In voiceover he tries to make some kind of sense of his new existence, and after a day's shuffling around an abandoned airport he heads back to his makeshift home on a disused passenger jet.

Things take an interesting turn when a party of humans on a scavenger raid for medicines find themselves under attack from the zombie hordes. It is during the ensuing melee that R finds himself wanting not to eat the brains of Julie (Teresa Palmer) but to rescue her instead. This sparks off a change in R, as he seems to start regaining his humanity. Slowly it has a knock on effect on his fellow Zombies, but not on the more decayed "Boneys", who have devolved past all help.

The unlikely love story that develops has obvious parallels with Romeo & Juliet (Julie's father, played by John Malkovich, is the leader of the human encampment and a sworn zombie destroyer), but director Jonathan Levine doesn't overdo the references.

In an age when everybody and their auntie seems to be knocking out a zombie flick, Warm Bodies does bring something genuinely original to the table. It's not perfect - perhaps a little overlong, and perhaps too nice in places for those who like more cynicism in their zombie apocalypses, but then arguably that's also what helps to make it different from the pack. Well worth a look for horror fans, and the ideal choice if your other half insists on a rom-com - it just about qualifies in that department too.

Special mention for Rob Corddry, who provides excellent support as R's zombie friend M.



US 2013 - Summit Entertainment
Certificate 15 (UK)
90 mins
DVD/BluRay from Entertainment One (UK)