Starring - Christopher George (Grizzly, Day of the Animals), Preston Pierce (Doomsday Voyage, Girls for Rent), and Roberta Collins (Saturday the 14th, Death Wish II)
Release Date - 1977
Genre - Crime/Horror
Tagline - "Beyond the song and the legend... a search for treasure turn to terror"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
I'm almost at the end of my journey as I work my way through the He Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefe with just two films standing in my way. One of those films is one that I was extremely looking forward to. That film is the 1977 hixploitation horror flick Whiskey Mountain which features a theme song from Charlie Daniels. The moment I finished Mako: The Jaws of Death I immediately tossed in the final disc from the set and hit play.
The film follows two married couples who venture into the mountains looking for a cave that is supposedly the location of buried muskets from the civil war. On their trip they find themselves surrounded by strange occurrences like random fires and so on. They chalk it up to bad luck but when they finally reach the cave they discover that a group of hillbillies who use the mountain to grow pot. They abduct the two couples and plan on murdering them to hide their secret stash. However, the two men are able to escape and go into town to seek help from the local sheriff. The local police are obviously in on it and refuse to help them. They visit the local gun store and once they stock up on arms and ammunition they return to the mountain expecting war.
Whiskey Mountain is a movie that I've wanted to see for several years now. I discovered it when I was writing my review for the Incest Death Squad trilogy when I came across a list of hixploitation horror films. It really caught my attention when I saw that it featured a theme song from Charlie Daniels and starred Christopher George. There was several occasions where I had tried to buy the DVD through Amazon and other online retailers but the releases were not the best quality so I backed out. When I saw that it was included in this set it made it even more intriguing and was the big push to review this one. The film did not let me down and it's a damn shame this one doesn't get more love from other genre fans. The acting in this one is probably the best of the Grefe directed films. At least the ones I've seen and reviewed. Christopher George never disappoints and his character here is a little more likable when you compare it to his other films like Grizzly and Day of the Animals. His character is well grounded and down to Earth allowing George to show more of an emotional range than other films allow him to. The supporting cast is just as great with a lot of the characters having a lot more personality for the viewers to enjoy than most Grefe films. I especially enjoyed Robert Leslie's performance as the crazy old hermit. He brought in some much needed humor and his character is the unofficial face of the film. The story for this one works great as a hixploitation thriller that some will compare to Deliverance, which is understandable, but it still delivers on the entertainment. Grefe has borrowed ideas from other films in the passed and this one was no exception. The southern fed story mixed elements of his drug heavy films with that of the hillbilly thrillers of the late 70s that was becoming famous thanks to films like Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit. It's not the most original film but it still works especially if you are looking for something with horror aspects. Finally, the film has a few death scenes but the kills are quick with little to no blood. The deaths are not the focus of these scenes. Instead, the deaths are meant to show the end of a character without the entertainment value of blood and gore. Overall, Whiskey Mountain did not disappoint. It's a bit of an odd ball film in the set but an enjoyable one nonetheless. I highly recommend it.
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