Jim McCullough Sr. produced Where the Red Fern Grows and Creature from Black Lake before he started directing his own movies like Charge of the Model T's, The Aurora Encounter and Video Massacre. He also acted in The Love Bug and Teenage Monster years before all of that.

Initially, a regional movie that plated Louisiana and Mississippi under the titles Mountaintop Motel and Horrors at Mountaintop Motel, it was picked up by New World three years later and retitled before playing in New York City and coming out on home video.

Evelyn has been recently released from a psychiatric institution and loses her mind all over again when she catches her daughter Lorie doing a witchcraft ritual. So she does what any of us would do and kills her daughter. She gets away with it. And then she runs a motel called, you guessed it, the Mountaintop Motel.

That's when the victims show up, like wanna-be record producer Al, two girls he's trying to do the horizontal lambada with, some newlyweds and a preacher named Reverend Bill McWiley (Bill Thurman, 'Gator Bait). Much like Shakespeare, just about everyone dies.

The folks at Vinegar Syndrome have sought fit to rescue this movie from the moldy fate of hiding around on the shelves of the few remaining mom and pop video stores in the country by doing a 2K scan from the original 35mm film and putting this out on blu ray. They really are doing the Lord's work.

There must have been hundreds of these things made in the early '80s.If you are familiar with this type of film and New World Pictures you almost know what to expect.

Typical "B" drive-in slasher film shot in the woods of Louisiana for about $5.27.Falls a bit short on the sleaze and gore you might expect such a film to have,but is still interesting enough to keep your attention.Although I found it watchable,it's just not that interesting.As a "B" film it has a cast and crew are a little too good to make fun of in a "so bad it's good" way.To me this takes away from the fun that can be had looking out for the mistakes that make low budget films so enjoyable.I love bad movies,and this one wasn't bad enough.It falls flat right between too bad to be good and too good to be bad.Recommended for lovers of drive-in cheeze,New World Picture fans,and folks who just can't get enough of the early "80s slashers only.

5/10 on the Drive-in-Freak-O-Meter

After borrowing it off a friend and not expecting much, "Mountaintop Motel" aka "Mountaintop Motel Massacre" turned out to be a nice little surprise from the 80s (which was originally shelved for a couple years before its "86" release). While being on the cheap with limited resources, its low-key approach doesn't hamper the fun of this dark rural psycho shocker. Well it didn't for me. After getting off to a glum, slow start, it gradually grows suspenseful in its taut layout (secluded backwoods setting) where its creepy, twisted underlining breaks out (although that eerily offbeat music score provides an unnerving tone throughout). Leading to some savage attacks (despite some tacky gore) and a collected, spaced out performance by Anna Chappell as the motel owner who uses the tunnels beneath the motel rooms to terrorise her guests.

The solemn, paper-thin story probably could have made much more of the situation (ending on a lacklustre cat and mouse climax) and especially its supernatural angle/ or maybe it was the emotional breakdown into insanity, but its conventional structure conceals many strange surprises. Nothing is really brought up about the central character's unstable mind; especially why she was had spent time in a mental hospital. We just watch her slowly lose it, after accidentally killing her daughter she begins to hear her whispering voice in her head. The methodical direction grinds away, but there are some effectively lit set-pieces. There's okay bunch of performances by the cast; led by actor Bill Thurman as a boozy Reverend.