Blacula (1972)

from the title and trailer, i was expecting comedy, and the film does start out fairly campy but quickly assumes a more serious tonedirector William Crain is, according to Wikipedia, 'one of the first black filmmakers from a major film school to achieve commercial success'. the screenplay by Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig, who evidently only ever wrote this film and its sequel, Scream Blacula Scream, is basically a retelling of Dracula set in Los Angeles in the early '70s. the film has the makings of a Gothic romance but with a funk soul atmosphere, driven by a lively rhythm and blues soundtrack composed by Gene Page the acting is hit-and-miss, with excellent performances from Thalmus Rasulala as Dr. Gordon Thomas, the film's version of Van Helsing, and William Marshall in the title role. the police brutality (i.e, the brutality with which Mamuwalde, a.k.a. Blacula, handles the police when they get in his way) is great fun, and i love the animation sequence during the opening credits if you haven't seen this, you should fix that. i'll definitely have to check out the sequel, which features Pam Grier in a leading role

1780: African prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall) and his wife Luva (Vonetta McGee) visit Count Dracula to enlist his help in the fight against slavery. When Dracula reveals that he is not only in favour of slavery, but wants to buy lovely Luva for himself, Mamuwalde and his wife try to leave but are restrained by the Count's men. Enraged, the vampire bites Mamuwalde, and locks him in a coffin, entombing Blacula (as Dracula names him) and Luva in a crypt.Present day: two hilariously camp antiques dealers buy the contents of Dracula's castle, including the coffin containing Blacula, and ship it to Los Angeles, where they break off the padlock securing the casket. Released from his prison, Blacula sates his thirst with the two antiques dealers, before heading for the streets of L.A. where he encounters Tina, the reincarnation of his beloved wife, who he proceeds to woo whenever he's not biting necks. Meanwhile, scientific investigator Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) comes to believe that the spate of recent deaths are the work of a vampire and tries to convince the police of what is happening.The first example of Blaxploitation horror, Blacula succeeds in being both scary and silly, with a side order of camp. Marshall plays his role surprisingly straight, but the general atmosphere is one of lightheartedness, the film even taking time out for a couple of funky musical interludes courtesy of The Hues Corporation (who would later top the charts with their disco hit 'Rock The Boat'). Notable fun frights include the exhumation of a victim who leaps from his grave to attack Gordon, and the creepy return from the dead of a female vampire taxi driver. Also adding to the enjoyment are the stylish opening credits, some cool animated transitions to bat form, the sight of Blacula's hairy face in full on vamp mode, and a touching ending as Blacula ends his own life after losing his love once again.

A movie with a funny racist name that does not really treat the character differently from any other colored character. The movie starts with a cliché thunderclap and castle, where we are introduced to the infamous count Dracula himself and the soon to be blacula. The opening quickly establishes an initial set up and a good first impression of our main character. While the count provides us with the racism expected from the title. The fight scenes – if one can call them that – have poor choreography and are an embarrassment but taking the release date of this film in account (1972) could be considered nostalgic. Almost all the supporting vampires have zero to none acting ability or are overacting on purpose. The music is horrible in creating any kind of suspense but succeeds in other scene's when cutting to African groovy street music. Not 5 min in the movie, we have our first title drop after the count dooms Mamuwalde (Blacula) to his fate. The movie then cuts to what I personally found the most awkward opening ever. After which a flash forward to 150 years later follows. The first scene goes 180° in regards to the opening, where we see a mixed gay couple making the unfortunate purchase of blacula in his coffin and shipping said coffin to Los Angeles where the entire movie takes place. While at first thinking that the title might have been misleading and the movie would be about progress: being open to people of color and partner choices. This presumption is however quickly stomped back in the ground when the above mentioned couple is later multiple times referred to as the 'faggots'. Throughout the movie we have a black main cast with a supportive white cast including generic stormtrooper like cops. The only 2 fleshed out characters are blacula and his nemesis the doctor. Blacula is a funny poetic bitch slapping vampire and the doctor is a smart badass. The movie does a good job keeping the vampire mythos classic with the only missing element being garlic but this would have solved the vampire problem too easy. What was supposed to be a monster movie turns out to be a love tragedy about our beloved blacula missing his deceased wife but having no problems choosing the first black woman he sees as a substitute. The substitute in question is Tina, a character who is very fast love struck by the smooth count to a point of going against her friends. Another remark is that blacula is very OK with being in the future and adapts really well. Without any spoilers the movie is a better love story than twilight but the ending could have been handled much better. Overall the movie isn't bad, passing is good even though it feels like it's missing something. The current rating of 5.6/10 at IMDb fits this movie well. Recommend watching this with friends and/or alcohol.

William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Thalmus Rasulala, Denise Nicholas and Charles Macaulay star in this 1972 horror film based on Bram Stoker's character, "Dracula." This begins in 1780 where we meet Count Dracula (Macaulay) who has dinner with African Prince, Mamuwalde and his wife, Luva (McGee). After a disagreement, Dracula decides to turn Mamuwalde into a vampire like him calling him, Blacula. We move to present day L.A. where Blacula awakes and starts feeding on victims. He also meets a young woman, Tina (Also played by McGee) who resembles his late wife and tries to make her his bride. The late, Rasulala (Mom and Dad Save the World) plays Tina's brother-in-law, Gordon Thomas, a doctor who investigates the mysterious killings that eventually lead him to Blacula and Nicholas plays Tina's sister, Michelle. This is a good 70's vampire flick with a bit of humor, The late, Marshall was great in it and he & McGee had good chemistry. I recommend this.