As I said way back in the Beyond Re-Animator entry, there comes a point in every horror franchise’s life (most pop culture franchises in general really) where the regular old formula just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore, and so the people in charge decide to try out something new. Occasionally it devolves into self-parody, as was the case for Beyond, but sometimes it’s just a matter of tweaking the settings and characters a bit to produce new & interesting content. Take for example the Hammer Horror classic Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde, where the titular doctor’s experiments transform him from a decent law-abiding man into a sinister seductress. Or the Universal (not quite) classic The Invisible Woman, which aims for a light-hearted comedic tone rather than the chilling, but also slightly goofy horror of The Invisible Man. Or the multiple Sherlock Holmes series where it’s set in the modern day and Watson wants to have sex with Holmes for whatever reason. They’re not all as entertaining or as ‘good’ as the original product, but it is interesting to deconstruct an I.P. every once in awhile, approach it from a new angle, try to view things from a new perspective. Hell, Alan Moore has based his career on it.
Blacula is also a variation on a familiar theme as you might have guessed, in this case Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Specifically, it is what is known as a blaxploitation film, a short lived genre in the 1970s characterized by its focus on the African-American community, not only in casting but in the topics and social issues that were relevant at the time. Although these films typically weren’t of the highest budget, more than a few of these blaxploitation films have managed to transcend into the collective unconscious of pop culture. Shaft, Superfly, The Mack, Foxy Brown (starring Pam Grier, who would later be nominated for Best Actress in the blaxploitation homage Jackie Brown), Dolomite, and of course the aforementioned Blacula. Yeah, referring to it as exploitation sounds a bit iffy, but in some ways I see the entire genre as a testament to the changes that were taking place in the U.S. at the time, the same with kung-fu movies. I mean, I highly doubt that films predominantly featuring African-Americans or Asians would have gotten much play in American theaters 10 years prior, maybe even 5 years prior, and then suddenly there’s a thriving scene around it; directors, actors, what have you. Suddenly there are a multitude of possibilities where there used to be few, both for the filmmakers and audience, and both finally have the means to explore it. Tales to explore, horizons to broaden, that sort of thing.
The story of Blacula, in the vein of the horror stories of old, is a very simple one. Way back in the year 1780, in Dracula’s Transylvanian castle, the African prince Mamuwalde (played William Marshall) and his wife is visiting the Count to ask for his support in abolishing the slave trade. Dracula is an avowed asshole however, and his intentions are far less than noble than his guests would have believed. The Princess is entombed alive, where the only future for her is death, whether by starvation or otherwise. The Prince is beaten half to death and then bitten the rest of the way there, cursed by the Count to live an eternal life dedicated to satiating his unholy bloodlust. No longer Prince Mamuwalde, he is now Blacula (not just a name, Dracula’s racist ass self literally renames him Blacula for some dumbass reason), demon of the night.
Years upon years later, long after the the terror of the Count had been ended by Doctor van Helsing, the coffin containing the dormant prince is discovered in Dracula’s castle by a couple of effeminate interior decorators (not the last swipe at gay people you’ll see in this movie) and is transported to America. It is there that Blacula is finally revived from his slumber and begins the reign of terror he was cursed to do. You know, biting people, consuming their life-blood, transforming them into soulless demons of the night, that sort of thing. A rather humdrum sort of existence, until he happens to spy a lovely young woman named Tina, who just so happens to share a startling resemblance to his long dead wife…
Murder. Seduction. At least one transforming into a bat scene. Blacula is exactly what you would expect out of a vampire story, with a dash of The Mummy for that reincarnated lovers angle and a copious amount of r&b. Although I don’t know if he really gets many chances to show it, at his best William Marshall is every bit the charismatic monster that Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee was in their films, even managing to come off as a relatively noble and tragic figure if you ignore the dozen or people he helped to murder. Tina doesn’t really stand out to me, she doesn’t really have a personality beyond ‘wants to bang Blacula’, but I guess you need an attractive woman for the movie to center around, and she certainly manages to do that. The rest of the cast doesn’t really stand out as anything noteworthy to me, aside from the way they can drop epithets towards gay people at the drop of a hat.
If I were a bigger fan of the old style of horror movies, where’s not a lot of onscreen violence and you’re kind of waiting around for something to happen, then I’d probably would more easily enjoyed this movie. I certainly wouldn’t have been as distracted. However, there’s also not really anything wrong with this movie either. It does exactly what it needs to do to tell a story and manages to carve out its own identity while doing it, and that’s about all I can think to say about it. For those interested in the old-school but in need of a twist, or those looking for something a bit campy and offbeat that’s a step or two above the typical Mystery Science Theater fare, Blacula gets a recommendation from me. For those who aren’t interested in African-Americans, I recommend the Republican Party.
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