Mountaintop Motel Massacre

Last updated
Mountaintop Motel Massacre
Mountaintop Motel Massacre original poster.png
Original poster
Directed by Jim McCullough Sr.
Written byJim McCullough Sr.
Produced byJim McCullough Sr.
Starring
CinematographyJoseph M. Wilcots
Edited byMindy Daucus
Music byRon Di Iulio
Distributed by New World Pictures
Release dates
Running time
95 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Mountaintop Motel Massacre [lower-roman 1] is a 1983 [1] American psychological slasher film written and directed by Jim McCullough Sr. and starring Anna Chappell, Bill Thurman, and Amy Hill. [4] The plot concerns a psychotic elderly woman who, after being freed from incarceration, returns to the motel she ran and begins murdering the guests.

Contents

Filmed in 1982 in Shreveport, Louisiana, the film was first independently released in the southern United States under the title Mountaintop Motel. In 1985, New World Pictures acquired theatrical distribution rights, and its ending was reshot to feature additional onscreen gore. New World Pictures released the film theatrically as Mountaintop Motel Massacre in March 1986. [5] Although the film received negative critical reception upon its theatrical release, it has, in later years, been noted for its offbeat atmosphere, and has been referred to as an "early 1980s drive-in gem." [6]

Plot

In rural Louisiana in 1981, Evelyn, who has recently been released from a psychiatric institution, finds her daughter Lorie practicing witchcraft in their basement. This causes her to have a mental breakdown, and she stabs Lorie to death. She convinces the authorities that she had nothing to do with her daughter's death, though suspicion looms over her. Adjacent to her home is the Mountaintop Motel, a group of outdoor cabins that Evelyn rented out as motel rooms prior to her institutionalization.

One morning, Reverend Bill McWiley arrives at the property and rents one of the rooms. Shortly after, a man named Robin Crewshaw arrives and also takes a room; the two men converse about the rundown state of the cabins and share a drink. Meanwhile, newlyweds Vernon and Mary pass through on a road trip and rent a cabin. At nightfall on the nearby highway, cousins Prissy and Tanya have their car breakdown en route to Nashville and are picked up by Al, a lascivious man who pretends to be a record producer in hopes of bedding both of the women. They also arrive at the motel, finding driving conditions unsafe due to a torrential rainstorm.

Mary is getting ready for bed in the bathroom when Vernon is bitten by a snake that Evelyn planted in the room. Mary attempts to use the phone, but it does not work. She rushes outside to the front office. Al, who is coming out of the front office, offers to use his car phone to call the police for the couple, hoping to get an ambulance. Meanwhile, the various guests have trouble sleeping in their rooms: Reverend McWiley, passed out from drinking, is awoken by rats crawling on his bed, and Crewshaw awakens to cockroaches crawling on his body. Back in her room, Mary nurses Vernon, who grows progressively ill.

Meanwhile, Al attempts to initiate sex with Tanya and Prissy, but the girls lock themselves in the bathroom and argue over his claims of being a record producer. Tanya tells Prissy she is willing to sleep with him if it will result in a record deal, and she begins to have sex with Al while Prissy remains in the bathroom. Evelyn enters the bathroom through a trapdoor in the floor connected to a network of tunnels and slashes Prissy's throat with a sickle. Startled by the noise, Tanya opens the bathroom door and finds the room covered in blood, but Prissy is gone. Al notifies Mary and Crewshaw of Prissy's disappearance. Crenshaw notifies the Reverend, who tells Crenshaw he is going to get ready and then come to Crenshaw's cabin. Before he can do that, Evelyn stabs the sickle through his chest. Crewshaw inadvertently uncovers the trapdoor in the bathroom; with Al, they attempt to locate Evelyn but find her absent from the main office. Meanwhile, Evelyn breaches Mary and Vernon's room; with the sickle, she impales Mary through the face and then slashes Vernon's throat as he lies helplessly in the bed. Al and Crewshaw hear the commotion outside and find the bodies in the room while Evelyn retreats into the tunnels via a trapdoor.

Al and Crewshaw descend into the tunnels below while Tanya locks herself inside the car. Crewshaw is attacked by Evelyn, who chops off his hand before slashing his throat. Meanwhile, a sheriff finally arrives at the motel from Al's earlier call, and Tanya informs him of the murders. The sheriff descends into the tunnels and discovers the Reverend's body. He is confronted by Evelyn, who attacks him in a manic state; she attempts to wrest the sickle from a wooden post where it is hanging but dislodges a beam holding the ceiling; it collapses, and the sickle hurls at Evelyn's throat, killing her.

At dawn, Al and Tanya leave with the sheriff in his car. As they drive out of the property, an apparition of Evelyn's daughter Lorie observes them from the woods. As they pull onto the main road, the vacancy sign lights up.

Cast

Production

Filming

The film was originally titled Mountaintop Motel, and was shot in the fall of 1982 [2] in Caddo Parish and Shreveport, Louisiana. [7] [lower-roman 2] The location used for the motel was in fact a dilapidated and abandoned fishing camp near Cross Lake in Shreveport. [2] The interiors of the cabins had to be repainted and redressed prior to shooting, while the underground tunnel sequences were filmed above-ground in makeshift sets that were built and covered by visqueen in order to keep light out. [2]

Post-production

After the film was acquired by New World Pictures in 1985, reshoots were undertaken by the studio's executive Roger Corman, who felt the final sequence in which Evelyn is killed was not violent enough to appease audiences. [9] The production design was forced to rebuild a section of the underground tunnel set, and retool the sequence, which has Evelyn die from a near decapitation when a support beam collapses on her. [9]

Release

Distribution

The film was independently released by director Jim McCullough Sr., opening in Opelousas, Louisiana on July 15, 1983 under its original title Mountaintop Motel. [9] [3] It was released again in Jackson, Mississippi under the title Horrors at Mountaintop Motel on December 14, 1984. [3]

In 1985, the film was acquired for distribution by New World Pictures, who retitled it Mountaintop Motel Massacre [10] and recut the film with a newly-shot ending. [9] This version of the film premiered on March 14, 1986 [11] Under New World's distribution, it would later show at theaters in New York City in May and June 1986. [12]

Critical response

Nina Darnton of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, calling it a "slice-and-dice film for people who like to see movies where actors pretend to carve up, mutilate, disfigure, terrify and kill one another, but it will even disappoint them. The story is too silly, the murders too predictable and unimaginative, the blood too phony and the acting too much on the level of a bad high school play to send so much as a shiver down anyone's spine." [4] TV Guide 's review of the film was largely negative, comparing the gore effects to those of Herschell Gordon Lewis, and writing: "The filmmakers do have some sense of visual style, but a slasher film is a slasher film no matter how good it looks." [13]

The New York Daily News wrote of the film: "Evelyn and the title site's assortment of snakes, rats and roaches keep the doomed cast of mostly amateur thesps awake, but this [is a] soporific one-set wonder ... The chief "vacancy" here, we're afraid, resides between the McCulloughs' ears." [14] Terry Lawson of the Dayton Daily News referred to it as a "by-the-numbers slasher film ... that borders on parody." [15]

In his book Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide, film critic John Stanley awarded the film one out of four stars, suggesting the film is derivative of Psycho . [16] Film scholar Brian Albright referred to the film as a "surprisingly fun and creepy backwoods flick," adding: "While it was marketed as a slasher film, Mountaintop Motel Massacre is actually a pseudo-supernatural thriller with some good scares and gore effects." [17]

Home media

The film was released on VHS in August 1986. [18] Anchor Bay Entertainment released it on DVD in May 2001. [19] The DVD eventually went out of print, and the film was largely unavailable until being re-issued by Image Entertainment's "Midnight Madness" series in September 2011. [20] The film was released on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom by 88 Films on February 1, 2017. [21] On May 24, 2019, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America by Vinegar Syndrome, featuring a new 2K scan of the original vault materials. [22]

See also

Notes

  1. The film's original title was Mountaintop Motel, [2] and it screened under this name as well as Horrors at Mountaintop Motel when it was shown in Opelousas, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, in 1983 and 1984, respectively. [3] It was eventually retitled Mountaintop Motel Massacre after New World Pictures acquired it and gave it a wide theatrical release in 1986.
  2. The film's credits thank the Shreveport, Louisiana fire department as well as Caddo Parish. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana</span> Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in central Louisiana in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of New Orleans.

<i>Psycho III</i> 1986 film by Anthony Perkins

Psycho III is a 1986 American slasher film, and the third film in the Psycho franchise. It stars Anthony Perkins, who also directs the film, reprising the role of Norman Bates. It co-stars Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey, and Roberta Maxwell. The screenplay is written by Charles Edward Pogue. The original electronic music score is composed and performed by Carter Burwell in one of his earliest projects. Psycho III is unrelated to Robert Bloch's third Psycho novel, Psycho House, which was released in 1990.

<i>Dont Go in the Woods</i> (1981 film) 1981 American slasher film directed by James Bryan

Don't Go in the Woods is a 1981 American slasher film directed by James Bryan and written by Garth Eliassen. The film follows four campers confronted by a murderous woodsman slaying hikers on a wooded mountainside. It is one of the infamous "video nasties" banned in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

<i>The Slumber Party Massacre</i> 1982 film by Amy Jones

The Slumber Party Massacre is a 1982 American slasher film produced and directed by Amy Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown. It is the first installment in the Slumber Party Massacre series, and stars Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, and Michael Villella. The film follows a high school senior who gathers her friends for a slumber party, unaware that an escaped power drill-wielding killer is loose in the neighborhood.

<i>Vacancy</i> (film) 2007 American horror film by Nimród Antal

Vacancy is a 2007 American slasher film directed by Nimród Antal and written by Mark L. Smith. It stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a married couple who book at the motel after their car breaks down and are soon stalked by masked killers for their snuff films. It was released April 20, 2007, by the distributor Screen Gems.

<i>Hospital Massacre</i> 1982 film by Boaz Davidson

Hospital Massacre is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Boaz Davidson and starring Barbi Benton. Its plot follows a woman who becomes trapped on an empty floor of a hospital, where a murderer posing as a surgeon attempts to kill her.

<i>Madman</i> (film) 1982 film

Madman is a 1981 American slasher film written and directed by Joe Giannone and starring Gaylen Ross and Paul Ehlers. The plot focuses on an axe-wielding murderer named Madman Marz who, after accidentally being summoned by a group of campers during a campfire tale, begins to stalk and murder the young adults.

<i>Blood Hook</i> 1987 film by Jim Mallon

Blood Hook is a 1986 American slasher film directed by Jim Mallon and starring Mark Jacobs, Lisa Todd, Patrick Danz, Sara Hauser, and Christopher Whiting. It follows a group of young people who arrive in a small northern Wisconsin town during a fishing festival, where a series of bizarre disappearances and murders are occurring. It was distributed by Troma Entertainment. The film was premiered at the MIFED Film Market in October 1986. The film was truncated for its 1987 release after the Motion Picture Association of America threatened to grant the film an X rating due to its violent content.

<i>The Hearse</i> 1980 American film

The Hearse is a 1980 American supernatural horror film directed by George Bowers and starring Trish Van Devere and Joseph Cotten. It follows a schoolteacher from San Francisco who relocates to a small town in northern California to spend the summer in a house she inherited from her deceased aunt, only to uncover her aunt's past as a devil worshipper, which seems to trigger a series of supernatural occurrences.

<i>Hatchet II</i> 2010 American film

Hatchet II is a 2010 American slasher film written and directed by Adam Green. It is the sequel to Hatchet and the second installment in the titular film series. Picking up right where the first film ended, Hatchet II follows Marybeth as she escapes the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about her family's connection to the hatchet-wielding madman, Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher.

<i>Mardi Gras Massacre</i> 1978 American horror film directed by Jack Weis

Mardi Gras Massacre is a 1978 American slasher film written and directed by Jack Weis. The film's plot follows a serial killer roaming the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, sacrificing women to an Aztec goddess. It has been noted for its plot similarities to the 1963 film Blood Feast.

<i>Terror at Tenkiller</i> 1986 American slasher film

Terror at Tenkiller is a 1986 American slasher film directed and produced by Ken Meyer, and starring Stacey Logan, Michelle Merchant, Michael Shamus Wiles, and Kevin Meyer. Its plot follows two female college students spending their summer vacation at Lake Tenkiller in rural Oklahoma where a rash of grisly murders are occurring.

<i>Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines</i> 2012 film by Declan OBrien

Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines is a 2012 American slasher film written and directed by Declan O'Brien. The film stars Doug Bradley, Camilla Arfwedson, Simon Ginty, Roxanne McKee, Paul Luebke, Oliver Hoare, and Kyle Redmond Jones. It is the fifth installment in the Wrong Turn film series, and is both a sequel to Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011), and a prequel to Wrong Turn (2003).

<i>The Undertaker</i> (1988 film) 2010 American film

The Undertaker is a 1988 American slasher film directed by Franco Steffanino and starring Joe Spinell. The film was completed in November 1988, but was never released for the public and existed only in an incomplete form. The Undertaker was later reedited for a DVD release by Code Red in 2010 and a Blu-ray release by Vinegar Syndrome in 2016. The film is considered a cult classic, due in part to both Joe Spinell's involvement and its troubled production. This was Joe Spinell's last film before his premature death in 1989.

<i>Screams of a Winter Night</i> 1979 American film

Screams of a Winter Night is a 1979 American anthology horror film directed by James L. Wilson and starring Matt Borel, Gil Glasgow, and Mary Agen Cox. Its plot focuses on a group of college students staying in a cabin who tell various scary stories to one another.

<i>Satans Blade</i> 1984 American slasher film directed by L. Scott Castillo Junior

Satan's Blade is a 1984 American slasher film directed by L. Scott Castillo Jr., and starring Tom Bongiorno, Stephanie Leigh Steel, and Thomas Cue. It follows two groups of people lodging at a mountain resort who are stalked by a mysterious killer potentially linked to a supernatural entity in the mountains.

James McCullough Sr. was an American film director and producer who wrote and directed several horror films in the 1980s.

Anna Chappell was a Canadian-American actress. She appeared in two feature films: Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983) and The Man in the Moon (1991), and was a longtime resident of Shreveport, Louisiana, where she was a prolific theater actress.

<i>The Fear</i> (1995 film) American horror film in the year 1995

The Fear is a 1995 American psychological horror film directed by Vincent Robert and starring Vince Edwards in his final film role, along with Eddie Bowz, Darin Heames, Leland Hayward, and Ann Turkel. Its plot follows a group of dysfunctional young adults who take a weekend retreat to a remote cabin, where they become threatened by a living wooden mannequin.

<i>The Last Slumber Party</i> American film

The Last Slumber Party is a 1988 American slasher film directed by Stephen Tyler and starring Jan Jensen, Nancy Meyer, and Joann Whitley.

References

  1. 1 2 Stine 2003, p. 193.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mountaintop Motel Memories: An Interview with Production Designer Drew Edward Hunter. Mountaintop Motel Massacre (Blu-ray documentary short). Vinegar Syndrome. 2019. OCLC   1120775007.
  3. 1 2 3 "Movie Ads of the Week: MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL (1983) a.k.a. HORRORS AT MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL (1984) and MOUNTAINTOP MOTEL MASSACRE (1986)". Temple of Schlock. December 11, 2016. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  4. 1 2 Darnton, Nina (May 17, 1986). "SCREEN: 'MOTEL MASSACRE'". The New York Times . Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  5. Westfahl, Gary. "Roger Corman (1926-) American director and producer". Gary Westfahl's Bio-Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  6. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  7. "Local woman cast in movie". The Victoria Advocate . October 17, 1984 via Newspapers.com.
  8. Mountaintop Motel Massacre [DVD]. Anchor Bay Entertainment. 2001.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Under the Influence: An Interview with Assistant Cameraman David Akin. Mountaintop Motel Massacre (Blu-ray documentary short). Vinegar Syndrome. 2019. OCLC   1120775007.
  10. Stine 2003, pp. 193–94.
  11. Mannikka, Eleanor. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre". AllMovie . Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  12. "Movies". New York Magazine . June 2, 1986. p. 80.
  13. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre". TV Guide . Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  14. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre". New York Daily News . May 28, 1986. p. 41 via Newspapers.com.
  15. Lawson, Terry. "In 'Mountaintop Motel Massacre,' it's all downhill after the title". Dayton Daily News . Dayton, Ohio via Newspapers.com.
  16. Stanley 2000, p. 350.
  17. Albright 2012, pp. 215–16.
  18. "Bed'n Breakfast and Burial". Billboard. August 16, 1986. p. N-19 via Google Books.
  19. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre DVD". Amazon. 15 May 2001. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  20. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre: Midnight Madness DVD". Amazon. 20 September 2011. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  21. "Mountaintop Motel Massacre Blu-ray (United Kingdom)". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  22. Squires, Jon (May 24, 2019). "Vinegar Syndrome's Memorial Day Sale Includes Surprise Release 'Nightbeast' and More". Bloody Disgusting . Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2019.

Sources