Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Birth Year (1975)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Jenny (Marlene Clark from Ganja and Hess) wants to have a baby with boyfriend Memphis (Wally Taylor), so she does what any reasonable woman does when she has reached a point of desperation—she goes to get baptized, turning to God to hopefully fulfill her wish. And just to be extra sure, she takes her grown daughter Billie (Avis McCarther) down to the river to get dunked as well. But Billie’s boyfriend Femi (Bill Overton) follows a different deity, Shango. When Femi prevents Billie’s baptism, the deacons take matters into their own hands, drowning Femi while the congregation watches in horror.

From here, things get even stranger as Billie mourns Femi so hard that she thinks Memphis is Femi back from the dead, and getting pregnant by Memphis, which of course infuriates Jenny (this melodramatic soap opera histrionics is what I love to see in my horror movie). Billie runs away and Jenny turns to the cult of Shango for assistance (you know, since the Christianity experiment did not turn out so well). The battle for Billie’s soul becomes a spiritual conflict that would rival any wizard battle found in a Shaw Brothers film.

Lord Shango might be lacking in traditional horror elements, but supernatural forces are definitely at play here. And there is an interesting look into religion. It might be easy to believe that Jenny turns her back on God after the incident at the baptism, but the truth is Jenny had never actually accepted Christ into her heart. It was all a show in an attempt to manipulate God into giving her what she wanted. It did not work, because Christianity does not work that way. It is not a genie in a bottle. But by embracing a Yoruba, perhaps even a voodoo, religion, you might see some quicker results, albeit not necessarily the results you hoped for or expected. Jenny might get more than she bargained for, but she does not seem to mind.

I’ve seen Lord Shango described as Blaxsploitation. Here is yet another example of a film with an all black cast categorized as such. I love Blaxsploitation films, but Lord Shango does not belong next to Truck Turner. There are really no exploitation themes found here. Just simply a supernatural horror/drama that deserves to be seen by more people. I just would not want viewers to be disappointed if they were expecting something else. It really is closer to Ganja and Hess. A great, if not emotionally draining, potential double feature.