Fri 29 Sep 2017
A Horror Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE HOUSE ON SKULL MOUNTAIN (1974).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[5] Comments
THE HOUSE ON SKULL MOUNTAIN. 20th Century Fox, 1974. Victor French, Janee Michelle, Jean Durand, Mike Evans, Xernona Clayton, Lloyd Nelson, Ella Woods. Director: Ron Honthaner.
Let me speak true from the outset. In no manner can The House on Skull Mountain, a low budget production filmed in Georgia, be considered a “good movie.†In terms of acting, direction, and plot development, this 1970s B-film falls short. It wouldn’t be completely unfair to call it a clichéd mess of a horror movie. There’s voodoo, racial politics, snakes, a zombie, and a gathering of people to are forced to spend the night in seemingly haunted house. There’s even a dark and stormy night. You get the picture.
And yet I watched to the very end. Mainly because it’s not all that often that you find a horror movie with a nearly all African-American cast. But mostly because, despite everything I just told you, the movie is so clichéd and so over the top that it ends up being a delightfully guilty pleasure.
One even gets the sense that at least one actor, namely Mike Evans (Lionel on the 1970s sitcom The Jeffersons) was in on the joke. For the movie is indisputably silly. Example: no one in the movie seems to ever mention that the house is on a mountain with a giant skull carved into it. Granted, it’s just a cartoonist matte painting. But whatever. It’s Skull Mountain and it’s got a house built on the very top. And voodoo is all around. Because of course it is. Just listen for the bongo drums.
September 29th, 2017 at 10:59 pm
I never watch a film highlighting Victor French as the main star.
September 29th, 2017 at 11:26 pm
Were there any others?
September 30th, 2017 at 12:45 am
I had another photo from the movie with French in it ready to go, but Jon’s review was too short to fit another one in.
October 1st, 2017 at 6:07 pm
As it happens, I’ve got this one in my DVD Wall.
Through the backdoor – it’s doubled up with Mephisto Waltz, which is the one I was trying to get (but that’s another story …).
… Skull Mountain‘s director is Ron Honthaner, who spent most of the decade leading up to this picture as a production staff member on the Gunsmoke TV series, rising through the ranks to eventually become a full producer by the show’s finish.
People my age may remember that Victor French was a proud member of Gunsmoke‘s repertory company; he’d turn up at least twice a season as one backwoods character or another.
Gunsmoke is doubtless where Victor French and Ron Honthaner became friends. Thus, when Honthaner got a chance to direct a Feature Movie (cheapie though it might be), why not take the opporunity to give a star part to an old crony like Victor French?
Hey, it happens …
Maybe, just maybe, everybody was doing it for fun – you know, “Hey, we got got some down time here,and a stash of money – whaddaya say we make a monster movie and maybe clean up at the drive-ins? Huh? Why not?”
… coulda been – who knows …
October 1st, 2017 at 9:00 pm
I’m not going to say no, Mike, and in fact, if what you suggest didn’t happen, it should have!