Customer Reviews

Blacula

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've always had a particular fondness for this film which I believe was a "first" in a lot of ways in 1972, but rather sadly it seems to now be regarded as a bit of a joke by alot of modern audiences more's the pity. Released in early 1972 just as the Vampire cycle of films in both America and England was coming to a close "Blacula", provided a unique twist on the Vampire legend and presented us with a very urbane black Vampire played by deep voiced William Marshall. His vampire is ultimately quite a tragic figure when you learn the facts of how he got to that state and Marshall in his performance is not only up to carrying on the vampire legend but also manages to depict his character for most part in a highly sympathetic light that breathed life into the old legend.

"Blacula", begins it's story in 1780 when the elders of an African race send one of their princes Manuwalde on a special mission to Transylvania to seek out Count Dracula's assistance in putting an end to the illegal slave trade which is being carried out by westerners in their country. Unfortunately Manuwalde and his beautiful wife Luva (Vonetta McGee)do not find a sympathetic audience in the Count who proceeds to attack Luva and when Manuwalde goes to her defense he finds himself knocked out by Dracula's followers and placed in a coffin with Dracula then placing the curse of the undead upon him and closing him up in a sealed chamber of his castle for all eternity. The story then shifts forward to 1972 when Dracula's Castle is being emptied of its contents and two antique dealers purchase not only some of the antiques but as a curio the coffin which holds the undead remains of Manuwalde. Shipped back to Los Angeles the coffin is opened and Manuwalde begins his reign of terror killing both of the young antique sellers. Stalking the streets for fresh victims for his blood lust Manuwalde comes across young Tina who is the absolute reincarnation of his long dead wife Luva and he begins a frantic courtship of her in the hope of getting his beloved wife back. The murders of Los Angeles residents however continue with the same suspicious bite marks appearing on the victims. These arouse the suspicions of Tina's brother in law Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), who begins to connect the strange Manuwalde with the murders. When night club photographer Nancy (Emily Yancy), is killed just as she is developing some photos of Tina with Manuwalde the finished film when discovered by Dr. Thomas reveals a blank space where Mamuwalde was standing which further implicates him. Now that Dr. Thomas knows Manuwalde's real identity, the chase is then on to track him down and keep him away from Tina. She however has fallen in love with the Prince and has completely fallen under his spell. After a scary encounter with Manuwalde and his disciples in a disused warehouse the doctor and police track down his resting place to an electric plant where in the ensuring fight Tina is mistakedly shot. Laying her to rest the broken hearted Manuwalde sees no purpose in continuing and in the ultimate sacrifice evades his pursuers and runs up onto the roof into the early morning light allowing himself to disintergrate into dust in time honoured Vampire tradition.

Passed off as trendy and dated hip action by today's audiences I find this story an original and interesting one. William Marshall as the cursed Blacula of the title does an outstanding job in the role of the tormented man with the curse of the undead on him who sees a chance at second happiness. His vampire while undoubtedly savage and blood thirsty is allowed to display his sadder side in particular in his scenes with Tina over the losses he has experienced in life. Vonetta McGee in the two roles of Tina / Luva also gives a great performance as the young girl drawn to the mysterious stranger who claims she is his wife brought back to life despite knowing what he actually is. Most of the black characters depicted in "Blacula", are surprisingly postive ones with Dr. Thomas played by Thalmus Rasulala being a medical investigator who is always two steps ahead of the police in their investigations. The only dated characters in the otherwise intelligent story are the two antique dealers that are unfortunately depicted as gay stereotypes but apart from that it is a pleasing film in the acting department. The 1970's feel to the story is well presented and the flashback beginning at Dracula's Castle is also top quality. One of great strong points of "Blacula", is the amazing and quite frightening vampire makeup applied to William Marshall which is highly effective and on a much more savage side than that used by Hammer studios for their vampire creations. The film abounds with many eerie and quite frigtening moments such as the female Cab driver (Ketty Lester), rising from the dead in the Morgue and attacking the night worker (Elisha Cook), Manuwalde's transformations into a Vampire Bat, his attack on the photographer in the dark room and the attack in the Warehouse are all standout scenes that earn "Blacula", its proper place in modern horror circles. Very seventies in its feel and choice of accompanying music that is part of "Blacula's", charm and are elements which we as an audience almost 30 years later should not be too judgemental about.

Being a great fan of vampire films I believe that "Blacula", is a worthy late edition to the Vampire horror movie group along with the also interesting "Count Yorga, Vampire" of the same period. Today it is certainly viewed as one of the best of the blaxploitation cycle of films so popular in the early 1970's, and it was succesful enough to have its own sequel the following year with William Marshall resurrected in his famous role as Mamuwalde in "Scream Blacula Scream". "Blacula", contains some humour and is well balanced in its storytelling and in its horror elements making for very entertaining viewing if you are a fan of this genre. Sit back and enjoy possibly the first black vampire to grace horror movies in William Marshall who with his regal bearing and deep sensual voice creates a most interesting vampire character that is really this stories chief asset. Enjoy!

The 1972 film "Blacula" is a much better example of the Blaxploitation period, which began with the success of "Shaft" the previous year, than it is as a vampire movie. William Marshall, with his booming voice, plays the title character and gives the film a sense of credibility that probably only James Earl Jones could have matched. Without Marshall's sense of dignity, "Blacula" would have been reduced to slapstick. The story is that interior decorates buy the coffin of Prince Manuwalde andbring it back to Los Angeles, unaware that the African prince had been bitten by Dracula (Charles Macaulay) centuries before and locked inside. While wandering the nights in his eternal search for human blood, the prince sees Tina (Vonetta McGee), a woman who looks like his dear departed wife, Luva, and he is convinced she is his beloved reincarnated. While Blacula woos Tina, her friend Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) figures out that this guy is a blood-sucking fiend and tries to hunt the vampire down.

Today the racial humor of this film seems dated, but in 1972 this movie was hip in being self-conscious about its blackness, which was the whole point of the Blaxploitation movement: to black movies made by black casts and crews for black audiences, instead of leaving it to Hollywood to ignore and denigrate blacks in the films that had been produced up to that point. The horror scenes are hokey in the extreme, but since they are basically being done for fun by director William Crain, it is hard to complain. Some critics have bemoaned the miss opportunity to make a telling critique of sexual hypocrisy in society, the way Bram Stoker's original novel did for the Victorian era (if you are inclined to read it that way), but the social agenda here is clearly race and not sex, which is totally appropriate as far as I am concerned. In addition to the 1973 sequel, "Scream, Blacula, Scream," other Blaxploitation horror films that followed this one included "Blackenstein," "Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde," and "The House on Skull Mountain." However, none of them would enjoy the reputation of "Blacula," which remains the defining film of this particular genre.

Nothing like being prone to nostalgia!

This fun campy piece came right between Kent State and Nixon's re-election, and remains one of the most amusing entries in exploitation cinema.

The whole affair would be wasted but for the splendid performance of Shakespearean trained actor William Marshall, who brought a dignity to a film that would have been otherwise doomed to pure silliness. Through his efforts, "Blacula," which, under the perennial reign of Samuel Z. Arkoff, was lifted to a quality purely based on the strengths of one individual.

It must be remembered that "black rights" were not exactly warmly received back then. We as a nation were hot off the heels of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and some other general socio/political/economic upheavals that were very unwelcome by the powers that be.

This film was daring not only in the "blaxploitation" sense, but also in its depiction of homosexuality, still then a very much "taboo" subject...

Horror films have always been fertile ground for the "taboo," and this little film is no exception. It has it's flaws, to be sure, but, for a low budget production, it holds its own.

And, on 1970's television, it was a bit creepy!

Great fun throughout.

this blaxplotion horror movie gets it's power and charm from william marshall's forceful job as an african prince bitten by dracula and later brought back to life in 1970's watts. the story gets silly in spots but just as it is about to fold under it's own weight,marshall pulls it back and makes a 2 star movie into a 4 star tour de force. the fact that hollywood never really gave this great actor better roles is the shame of the movie world.

Blacula (William Crain, 1972)

How many wonderfully bad films did Sam Arkoff give the public? (According to IMDB, a hundred thirty-nine.) This one was right smack dab in the middle, the first big-screen feature for a rising star named William Crain, who went on to be a big name in TV episode directing (The Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky and Hutch, et al.). How wrong can you go with a film whose trailer excalimed "he's Dracula's soul brother!"?

Not too far, as it turns out. This is a wild and wonderful piece of pure camp. An African prince, Mawatunde (William Marshall) and his wife Luva (Vonetta McGee) are sent to Europe in 1780 to protest the slave trade, and they appeal to a certain count in transylvania. Mawatunde gets offended when Dracula lusts after his wife publicly and... well, you can guess the rest of that part. Mawatunde is awakened almost two hundred years later after he's been transported to LA by a couple of ultra-hep antiques dealers, where-- surprise of surprises-- he comes across the reincarnation of his wife!

Priceless stuff. You can't make comedy this funny. *** 1/2

1972's Blacula gave birth to the horror subgenre of the blaxploitation genre. Its title probably turns more people away than draws them in, as it's hard to believe a film with such a campy, race-infused title could be any good (and might well be offensive). Blacula, however, is not only a surprisingly good, somewhat serious film - it also works quite well as a horror movie. It essentially follows the traditional mode of the Dracula story, and William Marshall succeeds in evoking the dual persona of the vampire as a creature to be both pitied and feared. Blacula features some wonderful lines of dialogue that we will never hear again in the politically correct modern world, but for all its focus on African-American players in the drama, the racial element of the film is unimportant to the story itself - which, I suppose, was the whole point of the blaxploitation movement.

I have no idea why Prince Mumawalde thought Count Dracula an important diplomat who could use his influence to stop the slave trade, but he did - and he was quite wrong. Dracula got so riled up that he cursed the African prince with both his name and affliction, dubbing him Blacula and locking him away inside a coffin so that he would endlessly hunger for the human blood he could never possibly attain. There he lay for two centuries until a pair of exceedingly gay antique dealers bought Dracula's castle and threw a veritable hissy fit over the wonderfully ornate coffin they found in a secret room. It's not hard to guess what happens when they return to America with their newly-acquired antique wares - there are soon two less outrageously gay men in the world. Blacula then gets his first look at the new world around him - and almost immediately encounters a woman who is the spitting image of his beloved bride. With Tina (Vonetta McGee) as our Mina, all we need is a Van Helsing character, and he soon emerges in the form of Tina's sister's main squeeze Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala, who is perhaps most familiar as Raj's father on What's Happening!!!). With a number of corpses turning up with holes in their necks and then disappearing altogether, Gordon comes to believe that a vampire is on the loose. These characters aren't too hard to convince; when Mumawalde tells Tina his true story, she reacts to the words slave trade but doesn't bat an eyelash over Mumawalde's claim that he was turned into a vampire by Dracula two hundreds year earlier. The final confrontation, which you know is coming, plays out rather well, with Marshall bringing his Shakespearean training to bear in order to give the scene a serious quality that it would probably have lacked otherwise.

Blacula is far from perfect in conception and execution, providing a number of really funny scenes and lines of dialogue. My favorite moment comes early on, when one of Dracula's henchmen conks Mumawalde over the head with a pot or something - he obviously throws it across the room, coming closer to hitting a member of the production crew than Mumawalde himself. Then there are the oil lamps that spontaneously combust, of course. The whole film is just a little too outrageous to take completely seriously, but the depth and probity of Marshall's performance maintains an aura of respectability, some of the vampire scenes are somewhat eerie (although there's a woeful lack of blood each time some vampire puts the bite on another victim), and the ending achieves a poignancy that rises far above the blaxploitation origins of the film. As a pretty decent horror movie as well as a blaxploitation classic, Blacula really is a must-see.

I first saw "Blacula" when I was about 9 years old at the drive-in. Being a horror movie fan, I really didn't care much about the story as long as I got to see William Marshall change into Blacula! Watching it again 37 years later brings back great memories. I also find that the story line is actually a pretty ingenious one. "Blacula" was originally an African prince (and a really good man) who went to Transylvania to meet with Dracula, seeking his help to stop the slave trade in the late 1700's. What a big mistake! I wonder how he came up with that great idea ("Hey honey...I hear this Dracula cat is pretty cool with some clout - maybe HE can help...let's go visit him - it'll be a nice getaway!")! When the prince thought Drac was trying to put moves on his wife, the good prince tried to fight back to defend her honor and to escape the castle. That's when the evil Dracula decided to turn the African prince into a vampire. The corniest part of the movie (to me) was how he actually got the name "Blacula". 200 years later, the vampire prince makes his way to America to start his reign of terror! The story is a good mixture of camp and classic horror. It also has campy, comic-book like African American characters inspired from prototypes seen in previous Dracula movies, including Blacula himself sporting the traditional formalwear and an African American version of Van Helsing. The nightclub scene was pretty funny - with the old school Soul Train look and dancing! There was no nudity or extreme usage of any profanity in the movie, so other than a little blood here and there, it's safe for kids over 10 to watch (it is a PG movie). I enjoyed the movie, expecting some degree of corn along with it. If you go into this movie expecting nothing but good clean cheese and a little corn, you'll enjoy it too!

In "Blacula" the great William Marshall plays Mamuwalde, a debonair African prince, who visits Dracula for help in ending the slave trade. Unfortunately for Mamuwalde, Dracula does not see eye to eye with him, bites his neck and curses him to thirst eternally for blood in a coffin as Blacula. The coffin is unearthed several centuries later and taken to Los Angeles, where Blacula is finally freed and the carnage ensues. The remainder of the plot is an odd gothic romance with unique cultural elements. The film is an excellent example of early 1970's blaxploitation films, featuring prototypical clothes and hairstyles, language, and even a cameo by The Hues Corporation singing songs by Waldo Holmes who wrote their signature smash "Rock The Boat."

The film itself obviously owes much of its substance to the traditions of Dracula films, but Marshall is an excellent actor, and far from being merely a stereotype, provides an excellent performance. Unfortunately, the other actors are not in his league, and some of the supporting performances leave a bit to be desired. Marshall has an amazing emotional range, and the genuine sense of sadness over the loss of his wife is far above the standards of the genre.

The DVD has a trailer and multilingual subtitles, otherwise there are no extras. I would have loved a commentary track (although sadly Marshall passed away in 2003) or a historical documentary putting "Blacula" into cultural focus. While the film is good humored, it has a captivating mixture of genuine horror and camp value that I enjoyed. "Blacula" can be enjoyed on several different levels, and I recommend it.

It was only a matter of time, wasn't it? There were many Blaxploitation flicks being made at this time, most of them by AIP, and it was inevitable that the genre would cross paths with the horror genre. After all, AIP had most of it's success in the B horror films it produced.
I'm not sure there's a single human being that can utter the title of this movie and not chuckle. It's almost genius in it's childishness. Oddly enough, the film isn't camp nor is it at all played for laughs. This was definitely an attempt to make a true horror film. Granted it's looked at by today's audiences as unintentionally funny, but that's only really due to the fashions, music and lingo of the time period.
In the film, African Prince Manuwalde is bitten by Count Dracula in the late 1700s and put under the vampire curse because Manuwalde wasn't gonna put up with Dracula's racist crap(Dracula was a strong supporter of slavery and even had the hots for Manuwalde's wife. Learn something new every day, huh?). So, Blacula is finally set free in the 70s and wastes no time in grabbing a bite to eat-in this case it's two gay antique dealers, one black, one white. This film certainly has equal opportunity exploitation. Soon he crosses paths with Vonetta McGee, who is the spittin' image of his late wife(McGee played his wife in the prologue). The rest of the film is his pursuit to woo and reunite with her while keeping his identity a secret...and feeding of course. Yes, yes, this a very cliched plot device and we've seen it in countless other vampire movies-the ol' My Wife From Hundreds Of Years Ago Has Been Reincarnated And I Must Win Her Back Again plot. Meanwhile a doctor played by Blaxploitation regular Thalmus Rasulala is investigating the strange deaths and finally stumbles upon the truth. He becomes a kind of modern(modern being the 1970s), black Dr. Van Helsing.
Yes, there's nothing terribly original about the film's plot. The originality is all in the way the plot is presented. Though I really liked how the film ended. As a horror film it's solid enough, but not very scary or suspenseful. Some might even think of it as boring, but I wasn't bored. What really kept me interested and in my opinion made the movie was the performance of William Marshall. He never made it very big after this role, though he was the King of Cartoons on Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Too bad coz he's quite a good actor. With his handsome yet sinister looks, deep voice and sophisticated demeanor, he was a fantastic choice. I'd have to say he reminds me of a black Christopher Lee.
So, while it may not be the gigglefest you hoped it would be, or very effective as an outright horror film, the movie is much better than it probably should have been with a title like Blacula. I think we can blame this fact on Marshall's performance, which definitely makes the movie.

Blacula has some very low budget special effects and a few somewhat scary scenes. It also has some hysterical dialogue, funky costumes, groovy funkadelic 70's background music and a disco club scene that could pass itself off as a Soul Train episode. Those into campy, "B" horror movies, should check this flick out.

Blacula is a retro classic that makes a few "offcolor" sociocultural comments and is sure to give you a few good laughs.