This is perhaps the most interesting & disturbing film I have seen in a couple years. Interesting because there is a fantastic idea here and a certain amount of novelty in it's look + mood. And disturbing because the film apparently shows a scene of such barbaric cruelty to some of the animals used in it's filming that it stopped the fun cold in it's tracks. The story managed to re-interest me in time for the conclusion but it is little wonder to me that Paramount "shelved" the project, or at least quietly distanced themselves from it. I am not sure if it's a a bad movie, a good movie or a stupid movie, but it is fascinating.
THE PLOT: Mutton-chopped Confederate captain Joe Don Baker and his faithful mystic half-breed Native American scout survive the Civil War to go in search of a hidden cache of diamonds secreted in a haunted cave on a "cursed" mountain that has a history of general weirdness about it. On the way they collect Jesus Christ: Superstar (who shaved in time to be in the movie) to act as their geology expert, and rescue cinema waif Sandra Locke from the same fate that Clint Eastwood saved her from a year earlier in "The Outlaw Josey Wales". She even reprises her role: potential gang rape victim/white slave prisoner (her name is "Drusilla", one usually associated with half naked Roman Slave Girls) stumbling around the west in search of willing anti-hero types to save her. She finds some.
The motley band of explorers make their way up the foreboding mountain -- meeting up with your requisite "Deliverance" type bushwacker cannibal hicks upon the way, one of whom is even a mute who plays a musical instrument rather than speaking -- while dodging attacks from unseen hostile Injun warriors who have declared the mountain sacred. You get the picture, and my hat's off to the fellow reviewer who stated that it's "Predator" without the slack-jawed comments. Like "Predator" the film twists and mixes motifs from different genres: War, High Adventure, Western, Romance, Drama, Social Satire, and eventually Horror. The ending is *very* effective & creepy, with Sandra Locke in her best screen moments ever ... Never seen "Ratboy" but she is better here than in "The Gauntlet", if that is any comparison.
So anyway they search for treasure, fight off mystical demon braves, everybody falls in love with Ms. Locke (except for Half Moon the half-breed, of course, which is odd since he is the one whom she instantly identifies with & is most suited for as a mate) but this movie was made during the paranoid 1970's and concludes with as creepy of an ending as you can ask for. In fact, if it wasn't for the presence of one single sequence from the movie -- which is sadly too vital to the plot to be removed without throwing the logic of the film into the gutter -- I would rate this as a near miss mini masterpiece of alternative cinema waiting to be re-discovered by people who enjoy daring, adventuresome low budget 1970's cinema. Here is what happens:
The film is of course set on a mountain. A character is done away with by having him tumble over the side of the mountain to crash lifelessly on the valley below, presumably in the form of a mannequin or dummy thrown over the side to be filmed as it lands below. All well and fine, except that the character was leading a team of horses, who also go over the edge to crash on the valley floor below along with the dummy. I certainly do not know exactly how the sequence was staged, but you do not have to be a rocket surgeon to conclude that those were actual horses (hopefully deceased before being pushed over) smashing onto the valley floor along with the dummy of the actor. Even if they were cadavers of horses that were used (how sick is that??) it is still extremely disturbing to see their twisting, contorting forms smash into the ground just to get a really cool looking effects shot.
The event is so disturbing that it overwhelms the equally absurd use of "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band, performed by The Band, during a battle scene montage depicting the South losing the war. One of the characters in the film is even named "Virgil Cane" right from the lyrics. I wonder how the deal to include the song in the film was struck, and if the producers promised Robbie Robertson personally that the song would be used in the most gratuitous manner possible within the first ten minutes. Fortunately it's a good enough song & well edited montage to allow a pass for bad taste. Or poor judgment.
But the horses thing ...I cannot get over it and would point to both potential soundtrack rights issues and use of animals without a "no-harm" disclaimer at the conclusion as the primary reasons no responsible media company is interested in reviving this movie. To make matters worse the "public domain" prints available on DVD in North America (look for it on Archive.Org) show an edited full-frame time compressed TV version which looks like it was transferred to home video by people who weren't actually watching the movie. A bargain price DVD from Britain did slightly better but quickly went out of print. VHS era pressings seem to have relied on the TV print ("Curse of Demon Mountain") with an extremely rare British tape alleged to show a more complete edit ("The Shadow of Chikara"). There was also a VHS release from Greece ("Shadow of Chikara") which had the adult language but damned if I know the runtime. Or where to find one.
Consider it another one of those mysterious cinema oddities that you sort of have to see for yourself to believe it was actually made at all.
6/10
THE PLOT: Mutton-chopped Confederate captain Joe Don Baker and his faithful mystic half-breed Native American scout survive the Civil War to go in search of a hidden cache of diamonds secreted in a haunted cave on a "cursed" mountain that has a history of general weirdness about it. On the way they collect Jesus Christ: Superstar (who shaved in time to be in the movie) to act as their geology expert, and rescue cinema waif Sandra Locke from the same fate that Clint Eastwood saved her from a year earlier in "The Outlaw Josey Wales". She even reprises her role: potential gang rape victim/white slave prisoner (her name is "Drusilla", one usually associated with half naked Roman Slave Girls) stumbling around the west in search of willing anti-hero types to save her. She finds some.
The motley band of explorers make their way up the foreboding mountain -- meeting up with your requisite "Deliverance" type bushwacker cannibal hicks upon the way, one of whom is even a mute who plays a musical instrument rather than speaking -- while dodging attacks from unseen hostile Injun warriors who have declared the mountain sacred. You get the picture, and my hat's off to the fellow reviewer who stated that it's "Predator" without the slack-jawed comments. Like "Predator" the film twists and mixes motifs from different genres: War, High Adventure, Western, Romance, Drama, Social Satire, and eventually Horror. The ending is *very* effective & creepy, with Sandra Locke in her best screen moments ever ... Never seen "Ratboy" but she is better here than in "The Gauntlet", if that is any comparison.
So anyway they search for treasure, fight off mystical demon braves, everybody falls in love with Ms. Locke (except for Half Moon the half-breed, of course, which is odd since he is the one whom she instantly identifies with & is most suited for as a mate) but this movie was made during the paranoid 1970's and concludes with as creepy of an ending as you can ask for. In fact, if it wasn't for the presence of one single sequence from the movie -- which is sadly too vital to the plot to be removed without throwing the logic of the film into the gutter -- I would rate this as a near miss mini masterpiece of alternative cinema waiting to be re-discovered by people who enjoy daring, adventuresome low budget 1970's cinema. Here is what happens:
The film is of course set on a mountain. A character is done away with by having him tumble over the side of the mountain to crash lifelessly on the valley below, presumably in the form of a mannequin or dummy thrown over the side to be filmed as it lands below. All well and fine, except that the character was leading a team of horses, who also go over the edge to crash on the valley floor below along with the dummy. I certainly do not know exactly how the sequence was staged, but you do not have to be a rocket surgeon to conclude that those were actual horses (hopefully deceased before being pushed over) smashing onto the valley floor along with the dummy of the actor. Even if they were cadavers of horses that were used (how sick is that??) it is still extremely disturbing to see their twisting, contorting forms smash into the ground just to get a really cool looking effects shot.
The event is so disturbing that it overwhelms the equally absurd use of "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down" by The Band, performed by The Band, during a battle scene montage depicting the South losing the war. One of the characters in the film is even named "Virgil Cane" right from the lyrics. I wonder how the deal to include the song in the film was struck, and if the producers promised Robbie Robertson personally that the song would be used in the most gratuitous manner possible within the first ten minutes. Fortunately it's a good enough song & well edited montage to allow a pass for bad taste. Or poor judgment.
But the horses thing ...I cannot get over it and would point to both potential soundtrack rights issues and use of animals without a "no-harm" disclaimer at the conclusion as the primary reasons no responsible media company is interested in reviving this movie. To make matters worse the "public domain" prints available on DVD in North America (look for it on Archive.Org) show an edited full-frame time compressed TV version which looks like it was transferred to home video by people who weren't actually watching the movie. A bargain price DVD from Britain did slightly better but quickly went out of print. VHS era pressings seem to have relied on the TV print ("Curse of Demon Mountain") with an extremely rare British tape alleged to show a more complete edit ("The Shadow of Chikara"). There was also a VHS release from Greece ("Shadow of Chikara") which had the adult language but damned if I know the runtime. Or where to find one.
Consider it another one of those mysterious cinema oddities that you sort of have to see for yourself to believe it was actually made at all.
6/10