You get all of that? By this trailer, it looks like a rather spooky movie:
It is slightly scary but it's more campy than scary. Being a blaxploitation movie, Sugar Hill shared the same tropes as others in that genre (ie. Coffy, Cleopatra Jones, Shaft, Superfly, Blacula) - a weak storyline carried by charismatic actors, strong and heroic black characters, evil white characters, sell-out evil black characters, racial components, outrageous hairstyles and fashions.
Unfortunately, what makes Sugar Hill different is it's a rarely seen movie. It failed to generate interest like the other noted blaxploitation movies I mentioned. And this is a real shame because of scenes like this showing Sugar's first victim. I personally think he was killed more for that awful tie and shirt combination more than the fact that he helped to kill her boyfriend. And notice Sugar's "I'm gonna kill these bastards for killing my man" hairstyle and outfit, which she wears during every scene of taking on a member of the mob.
And then there is THIS scene in which Sugar gets into a chick fight with Celeste (Betty Anne Rees), the racist girlfriend of the mob leader.
Oh Celeste, Celeste, Celeste. She serves so many purposes in this movie. When her boyfriend isn't insulting her (and he does it a lot), she's getting beat up by Sugar. Her main purpose is seen at the end when Baron Samedi demands payment for his "work." Sugar hands Celeste to him to be his newest bride. She goes kicking and screaming, but I don't think the point was to make light of any possible sexual assault. Instead, I think it was to imply that after being married to Samedi for a while, Celeste would end up not only being less of racist, but probably singing that tune from Young Frankenstein, i.e "Sweet Mystery of Life." After all, as the voodoo priestess said earlier in the movie, Samedi was reputed to be a "great lover."
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