Voodoo Skull

The House on Skull Mountain (1974) is pretty interesting, 70s horror movie with voodoo themes and a mostly black cast and almost no exploitation.

An old black woman is getting her last rites in her house (on Skull Mountain). She gives four letters to the priest and asks him to deliver them when she passes. She then dies holding a box of voodoo dolls.

The letters are invitations. The first two to arrive are shown driving up a mountain road. One is a sophisticated black woman (Janee Michelle), the other a rude young man (Mike Evans) who basically tries to run her off the road. When a flying skull appears before his windshields, the tables are turned. 

When they get to the house, they find the burial in process with only the priest, butler (Jean Durand) and maid (Ella Woods) in attendance. Almost nobody notices, but before the grave is filled, a raven drops a totem made of a bone, a feather and some beads on the coffin. It leaks blood and bursts into flames. 

A third guest is meek domestic Xemona Clayton (an associate of Martin Luther King!). After she arrives, the lawyer lets them know that they are all grandchildren of the deceased, and that the will would be read when the fourth guest arrives. So the lawyer will come back next week, while everyone has a nice vacation in this spooky voodoo mansion.

After the lawyer leaves, the last heir shows up - Victor French, a white man! (Evans makes a crass remark about a "honky in the woodpile".) He looks sort of like a retired hickey player with a walrus mustache, but he's actually a professor of anthropology in Maine. Actually, an expert on voodoo.

Now, I'm not an expert on voodoo, but I've read a little, and this movie presents at least a surface level of realism. The snake deity Damballah is the main troublemaker here, and Erzulie the Beautiful is our friends protector. I won't tell you who dies or when, but I will say you get a full on voodoo ceremony. Also, a little romance between Michelle and French, with a date in Atlanta, including a visit to Underground Atlanta. At least now we know that Skull Mountain is supposed to be in Georgia.

I might as well tell you whodunnit, because you'll probably guess anyway. Yes, the butler did it.