{"id":5723,"date":"2024-10-12T05:57:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T05:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=5723"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:50:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:50:37","slug":"mountaintop-motel-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/12\/mountaintop-motel-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountaintop Motel Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mountaintop Motel Massacre <\/strong>(1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, brief nudity, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim McCullough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jim McCullough Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ron Di Iulio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joseph M. Wilcots\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 14, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bill Thurman, Anna Chappell, Will Mitchell, Virginia Loridans, Major Brock, James Bradford, Amy Hill, Marian Jones, Greg Brazzel, Jill King, Rhonda Atwood.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: * \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0With a title like Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong>, it has to be great, right? WRONG! DEAD WRONG! For one thing, it\u2019s not much of a massacre. For another, it\u2019s almost an hour until the first body drops. For most gorehounds, that\u2019s a deal breaker right there. Me, I\u2019m stubborn. I\u2019ll stick around until the last end credit rolls no matter how lame the movie is. In the case of Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong>, let me put it this way. The flashing neon VACANCY sign outside the motel could just as easily refer to the empty space between the ears of the makers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I wasn\u2019t aware that Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong> had a history until I looked it up on Wikipedia. It was filmed in \u201983 and given regional releases in Opelousas, LA and Jackson, MS under alternate titles, Mountaintop Motel and Horrors at Mountaintop Motel respectively. It didn\u2019t receive a significant release until New World acquired and retitled it in\u201986. It never came to Philadelphia even though the cool-looking poster hung in the vestibule of the City Line Theater for a few months. When I asked my buddy JW about it, he just chuckled and said, \u201cOnly you, George. Only you.\u201d I took it as a compliment and still do. I finally saw it when it premiered on cable the following year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Basically, Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong> is a backwoods take on Psycho II with its story of a rundown rural motel where guests check in, but never check out. Meet Evelyn (Chappell), the owner and proprietor of the Mountaintop Motel. She is definitely coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs, this one. She just spent three years in the state mental hospital and apparently, it didn\u2019t do her any good. She kills her mentally challenged daughter (King) in a fit of psychotic rage after catching her communicating with her dead father. Then she tells the dull-witted local sheriff (Bradford) it was a gardening accident. At this point, a filmmaker with a sense of humor would have somebody exclaim, \u201cThis was no gardening accident!\u201d Alas, it doesn\u2019t get said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Evelyn suffers a complete psychotic break after her daughter\u2019s untimely demise and takes it out on her guests. They are an alcoholic preacher (Thurman), an old black handyman (Brock), a honeymooning couple (Brazzel and Jones), two female hitchhikers\/aspiring singers (Loridans and Hill) and the guy that picks them up (Mitchell). They think he\u2019s a record company executive interested in signing them. He\u2019s really just trying to get them in the sack. ANYWAY, it\u2019s too bad for them that Evelyn has access to their rooms through a series of secret underground tunnels leading to hidden trapdoors in the bathrooms. She starts off by releasing rats, roaches and poisonous snakes into their rooms and eventually graduates to murder.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like I said it takes Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong> almost an hour to get to the good stuff, i.e. the so-called massacre. When it finally comes, it\u2019s less than impressive. Evelyn\u2019s weapon of choice is a sickle. With it, she slits throats, cuts off extremities and impales torsos and faces. There\u2019s not as much bloodshed as one would hope for. However, I\u2019ll give director Jim McCullough (Aurora Encounter) for creating a creepy backwoods atmosphere before enveloping the action in darkness and rain. I\u2019ll also say I liked the final shot of the movie. It adds a supernatural element to the otherwise unremarkable proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Is it even worth it to comment on the bad acting in Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong>? It features a bunch of actors I\u2019ve not seen before and since. They play characters with IQs that don\u2019t exceed the mid-double digits. It\u2019s fine, movies like this thrive on characters who behave like idiots at all times. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for the hitchhikers to believe the guy who picks them up is who he says he is. If they had any sense at all, they\u2019d ask why he didn\u2019t take a plane to his destination. After all, isn\u2019t that the preferred mode of transportation for rich, powerful record execs? It also makes sense for the wife to NOT be more freaked out by her hubby being bitten by a poisonous snake. What, does she think the swelling will just go down by itself? Hey toots, it\u2019s not a mosquito bite!<\/p>\n

\u00a0As bad as Mountaintop Motel Massacre <\/strong>is, I have to admire the moxie of the people who made it. They knew what they were going for and largely succeed. There\u2019s no question about it being a bad movie. It most certainly is. It\u2019s predictable, unimaginative, derivative and cheap-looking. It\u2019s more silly than scary. In fact, it\u2019s not scary at all. The makeup effects are shoddy at best. It\u2019s one of those movies that will have you asking \u201cwhy am I still watching this?\u201d the whole time. That\u2019s the fun of it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You see, I don\u2019t hate Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong>. It\u2019s one of those \u201cso bad, it\u2019s good\u201d deals like Graduation Day and Final Exam. Besides, it carries the New World seal of approval. How can I possibly dismiss it? The worst New World movies are more entertaining than half (maybe more) of the titles released by major studios these days. It\u2019s the purity of form I admire. I\u2019m giving Mountaintop Motel Massacre<\/strong> a low rating based on quality, but it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not enjoyable. If, like me, you\u2019re into 80s slasher flicks, you won\u2019t want to pass it up. It\u2019s worth at least one viewing.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, brief nudity, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim McCullough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jim McCullough Jr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ron Di Iulio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joseph M. Wilcots\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 14, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Bill Thurman, Anna Chappell, Will Mitchell, Virginia Loridans, Major Brock, James Bradford, Amy Hill, Marian Jones, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Mountaintop-Motel-Massacre-.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5791,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5723\/revisions\/5791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}