GL84 Called away to a remote house, a woman and her ancestors gathered together for a will reading find that a powerful voodoo spell has been enacted which begins to kill them off and forces the remaining family members to put a stop to its ancestor's plans.This here was quite the enjoyable Blaxploitation offering. One of the more enjoyable elements featured here is the fact that the Blaxploitation angle makes for an incredibly fun and enjoyable introduction to the voodoo at play. That's a big part of this one, coming off almost immediately with the opening shots of the tribal ceremony featuring all the dancers in the middle of their ritual while they prepare all the different trinkets and artifacts that start this one off on a great note. The later scenes throughout the house where we get the flashes of the ghostly ancestor raised and warding off the remaining parts of the family offer up some really thrilling moments here as the frequency and unexpectedness of them work and given the inserts showing the the practitioner engaging the ceremonial practices in his room where he has the paraphernalia laid out as he sets about his rituals which offer some fun, cheesy thrills here. It manages to really explore the idea of voodooism quite nicely in really letting the supernatural take-over here, from the need for keeping the objects of power and control around to the matter of the controlled bodies engaging in dangerous activities through the voodoo spell and it really gives this one the kind of building blocks to get a lot of great atmosphere during here which carries over nicely into the finale which features some fantastic voodoo-based action here. Going from the discovery of the ceremonial chamber beneath the house where the dancers are in the middle of their rituals with the entire room lit up using black candles before the fine brawl and leading up into the atmospheric confrontation in the finale, it's got so much to like here. There wasn't much of anything wrong with this one. The main issue here is the fact that the main backstory is given a really large portion of the film which is a little weird to have. The fact that it consists of a long portion of the film is what really hurts it, since it would've been far easier had this done the simple thing and just clumped them all together in one segment without having to jump around with having so many parts in different places as it wasn't that hard to figure out anyway and didn't need the trickery into thinking it was harder to figure out than it really was. The last part here is the scene near the end where they go out on the town. Since it's so close to the end, everything has been figured out and the horror should begin to grow in intensity, as it's after the voodoo ceremony scene, yet this one doesn't do that and it's really hard to understand why it's even there in the first place, serving no purpose for the story and coming across as filler. Beyond these two problems, it's not that bad.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence and Language.

Scott LeBrun The title of this minor horror-blaxploitation item seems to indicate you're in for something resembling a Scooby-Doo mystery. Still, director Ron Honthaner, working from a script by Mildred Pares, is able to generate sufficient atmosphere and overall strangeness. Even at 86 minutes, though, you can feel the padding on this thing. The final third contains way too much dancing and drumming. The cast does alright; part of the mixture of ingredients here is the potential for an interracial romance and the presence of a white face in a prominent black family, offering some sort of outsiders' perspective.That outsider is anthropology professor Andrew Cunningham (Victor French of 'Little House on the Prairie' and 'Highway to Heaven'), a member of the Christophe clan who arrive at the title location after the death of the family matriarch (Mary J. Todd McKenzie) for the reading of the will and other such matters. However, they will soon start to fall victim to so-called "accidents" engineered by an enigmatic individual on the premises.Mike Evans of 'Good Times' and 'The Jeffersons' supplies the obnoxious comedy relief as a character whom we presume that we won't miss all that much. Xernona Clayton is endearing as Harriet, who has visions of death plaguing her, the stunning Janee Michelle ("Scream Blacula Scream", "The Mephisto Waltz") adds a lot of sex appeal as our leading lady Lorena, Ella Woods (who also sings one tune) is good as house staff member Louette, and Jean Durand is amusing if never that intimidating as the mysterious butler Thomas. The special effects aren't too special, the music by Jerrold Immel is adequate, the basic set-up does hearken back to horror films of the 30s, and the finale does involve the appearance of a zombie.This one might be worth a passing glance if one is flipping channels late at night, but it's nothing that people should go out of their way to see.Five out of 10.

Coventry Perhaps the only, at least to my knowledge, haunted-house movie that also qualifies as a pure-blooded Blaxploitation effort, "The House on Skull Mountain" is an overall worthwhile film but unfortunately not the undiscovered gem I hoped it would be. I was mainly attracted by the luscious title and the accompanied DVD-cover illustration; but luckily enough the film is also reasonably well-scripted – albeit derivative of "The House on Haunted Hill" obviously - and entertaining. It's a tale of voodoo, greed and things that go bump in the night. On her deathbed at the house on Skull Mountain (there actually is a skull-shaped rock in the mountain, which is totally awesome!) an elderly black lady, who looks like a guy and talks like a child, orders to send out four letters to four distant relatives. They all travel up to the house, expecting to inherit a fortune, but in fact get a whole lot more than they bargained for. They each become subjected to eerie voodoo rites and spells inflicted by the bald servant of the dead lady. "The House on Skull Mountain" is stylish and professionally made. It's slow-paced and the low number of death sequences are not very bloody or spectacular, but director Ron Honthaner provides a fair share of frissons and unsettling atmosphere. The filming locations are sublime and the titular house is fantastic. The house and the astonishing lead actress Janee Michelle are definitely the main trumps of the film. The climax sequences are rather dull and clichéd, with a voodoo ceremony that seems to go on forever. Youthful gorehounds beware, but fans of 70's horror and peculiar Blaxploitation will definitely enjoy "The House on Skull Mountain"

ridley_64 The House on Skull Mountain? Sounds like some 60's Hardy-Boy adventure to me. I have to say I caught glimpses of this film a couple weeks ago and it was very strange. Your typical 70's horror flick. I mean it wasn't that bad and Victor French does a good job, but it seemed like it was lacking a few things. Maybe I will have to watch it again some time. All I know is films like the infamous "ALIEN" ('79) changed the view of horror movies for ever and that may or may not be a good thing. Too many imitations these days. Take a look at this movie some time.