The Shadow of Chikara

• Also known as Demon Mountain, The Ballad of Virgil Cane, Thunder Mountain, Wishbone Cutter, and The Curse of Demon Mountain
• Written and Directed by Earl E. Smith
• June 10, 1977

Two former Confederate officers set out to recover some hidden diamonds but encounter a native spirit said to protect the mountains from intruders.

From the start of The Shadow of Chikara (or any of the 142 other names it is known by) you know you’re in for an extremely low budget and poorly made 70s film. Not because of the text crawl about diamonds in Arkansas. Not because of the use of stock footage for a Civil War battle. It’s because the camera shots are claustrophobically tight when the actors speak. It is like writer/director Earl E. Smith was afraid to show anything below the neck.

The story involves diamonds and the Civil War and the supernatural. Joe Don Baker, no matter what you say about him, could be a good actor. Wishbone Cutter (Joe Don Baker) was a surprisingly not racist Confederate, but he was rather angry and maybe a bit sexist. Not sure what I expected but not what I got. His character has no stake in the war and is looking to start anew with a fortune in diamonds whose location is imparted to him during a pointless cameo by Slim Pickens as the dying Virgil Cane.

Not sure if the bit involving the wife (Linda Dano) was meant to make Cutter a darker figure or give him motivation to treasure hunt. The latter went nowhere and the former was unnecessary since he and his pal Half Moon O’Brian (Joy N. Houck Jr.) were already game.

While Cutter is the grounded one, Half Moon O’Brian gives us the fear of the supernatural aspect that the story requires. Like every Native American in an older Western, he is a superhuman tracker with a near infinite knowledge of mythology.

Brought into their group is local geologist Amos Richmond (Ted ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Neeley) because Cane’s directions were not enough even though that is what guides them. His role is largely to protect the character of Drusilla Wilcox (Sondra Locke) whom they conveniently stumble across during their trip but whose surprise existence really raises no eyebrows in a movie like this even though we all know where this is going.

We get mysterious arrows being fired by untraceable archers and unusual scratch marks left on horses by what is assumed to be a very angry eagle. That gets stirred in with some hillbillies that feel a touch drawn from Deliverance with it all stretching out a story that if the fluff had been trimmed it would have fit as an episode of Night Gallery. None of this feeds the story too much. It just slows the characters’ trip down all the while filmed in the same small area as the parts in the beginning set during some Civil War battle.

There are the basics of a good story here. It has enough characters to tell the narrative it should be telling. The small cast benefits a story aiming to be more psychological than supernatural. Being set in the wilderness far from civilization lends an air of isolation as the characters’ minds start working overtime.

As a film this has almost no budget they never filmed too far from a particular location. During the few shots not taken up by the entirety of an actor’s face you can tell the area of the action never moved far from the first area picked near Buffalo National River or the same for Bull Shoals-White River State Park. It is something that breaks your suspension of disbelief because once you realize they are not moving everything else falls apart. Travel is the most important part of the story.

Maybe with a little more money or a different director this could’ve been something mildly ahead of its time. Writer/director Earl E. Smith fails to push the creepiness or elevate tension. You never get uncomfortable here. You get disappointed when you think things are going to start getting good and they just don’t. The talent present is not nearly enough to overcome the weaknesses.

The Shadow of Chikara (or any of the 978 other names it is known by) gets so very close to being a quality movie. This is a movie that should get a remake following the script that we have here. A tweak or two because this version is a missed opportunity.