Basically everything you would want in a Blaxploitation Dracula movie. The suave and charismatic William Marshall carries the the title role. Some people may see the title and think this is a parody. In fact it is the exact opposite. This film is serious, scary, and at times tragic. This movie does a great job, like CANDYMAN in making the story of the monster tragic. Also like CANDYMAN after it, the monster is made monstrous at the hands of racism. While the movie does not have much socio political commentary, compared to other Blaxploitation films, there are subtle moments of it within. There are some script issues, like Blacula never thinking about the different times between when he was living 200 years ago and present day. That would also require a much longer, and slower paced film. The main plot is written well. The movie is paced well. Thalmus Rasulala is a great Van Helsing cipher. There are also tenacious scenes of suspense, excellent and scary makeup effects, and fun action sequences. Blacula is actually one of the better Dracula spin-off films.
After the opening where we see Dracula (Charles Macauley) curse Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall) as a vampire, the film wastes no time getting going. Two stereotypically gay interior designers go to Transylvania looking to buy items for their house. They buy Mamuwalde's coffin. What I like is seeing how scary the Blacula character is. William has these long eyebrows and interesting hair patterns on his cheek whenever he goes into full vampire mode. One of the men is so terrorized when they see him rise from his grave that they cannot speak. The teeth they give the vampires in this also look awesome. After Blacula bites the two men we are introduced to the other human characters. The film centers around Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), a pathologist of the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as Tina Williams (Vonetta McGee). Luva was also played by Vonetta McGee. What happens with that is what you would expect. Similar to the plot of THE MUMMY, Blacula seeks out Tina as she is the reincarnation of Luva.
A look at William Marshall, all vamped out as Blacula
Vonetta McGee as Luva
After spying on Gordon, Tina, and her sister Michelle (Denise Nicholas) at Bobby's funeral, Blacula follows Tina around. He startles her and she runs, leaving her purse. Blacula is hit by a cab. When the cabbie, Juanita Jones (Ketty Lester), calls him "boy," he makes her his next victim. Meanwhile, Blacula goes to a club and meets Tina and her friends. One of their friends, Nancy (Emily Yancy) takes pictures of Blacula at the club. I like how the move incorporated the non-reflection of vampires into the lure. Blacula follows Nancy home and kills her right after she sees a photo she took with Blacula and Tina where he is now invisible. That is a scary and suspenseful scene as you see a point of view shot of Blacula coming into her house and seeing his shadow on the wall. Just as Nancy yanks open the curtains to her darkroom he is standing there. Marshall's towering figure also makes him even more scary in these sequences.
Vonetta McGee as Tina, looking different from Luva
Gordon begins to catch onto some things. Bodies keep disappearing from the morgue. Dr. Thomas notices that with each body the bites are too big to be rat bites and the blood veins are drained. Eventually he starts reading books about the occult and vampires. He later asks to do an exhumation and autopsy on Billy's body, one of the interior designers. His cop friend, Peters (Gordon Pinsent), turns him down. So, Thomas decides to dig up the body with Michelle. Billy comes alive and Thomas kills him with a shovel. There is an interesting moment where Michelle freaks out because she believes Billy is still alive but Thomas tells her he was all ready dead. Character moments like that made the drama in this movie better.
Thalmus Rasulala as Dr. Gordon Thomas
Blacula begins to see Tina more, and she feels a supernatural kind of attraction to him. He eventually tells her his real identity and who she really was. What is interesting is that he talks about wanting her to give herself up to him, never wanting to take her by force or force her to become a vampire. That was an interesting aspect and it made me sympathize more with Blacula. He is looking for love, but does have to satisfy his appetite. His monstrosity the result of Dracula's racism, he is more of a tragic figure than monster. BLACULA shares many things in common with CANDYMAN. Both feature an imposing actor in the lead role. Both characters were made monsters because of racism. Both characters seek out the reincarnation of the woman they loved.
There is another great scary scene when Thomas asks morgue attendant Sam (great character actor, Elisha Cook Jr.) to take Juanita's body out of the ice. Unfortunately for Sam he didn't listen to Thomas' instructions and left the door unlocked. While he is on the phone, Juanita runs at him in slow motion and kills him. Thomas was going to use Juanita to prove to Peters that the vampires were real. He later goes to Nancy's house and sees the picture of the invisible Blacula with Tina. Realizing she is in danger he goes to her house and fights Blacula before he escapes. The cops then track Blacula to a warehouse and kill the other vampires by throwing fire bombs at them. Blacula tells the cops he moved his coffin a long time ago and turns into a bat and escapes.
A great still of Elisha Cook Jr. as Sam and Ketty Lester as Juanita
Spoiler Section
Blacula takes Tina to a chemical warehouse where she is eventually shot by the police. Blacula then proclaims he will have his revenge and kills any of the cops who come near him. Their gunshots can do nothing and Blacula uses his superhuman strength to overpower them. Thomas eventually finds his coffin and puts a stake in the person who is in there. It turns out to be Tina. With nothing left to live for Blacula walks up to the roof and into the sun and is disintegrated.
There are many things I enjoyed about this movie. The tragic monster element as I have all ready stated. The scary looking monsters due to makeup, filmmaking and the characters being scared of them. The other vampires also had a cool look to them. A different skin hue to go with the teeth. The other vampires actually look quite a bit like the zombies Tom Savini designed in DAWN OF THE DEAD. The action scenes like the raid on the vampires with the fire bombs, and later Blacula taking out many cops were really satisfying as well. Thalmus Rasulala is a great Van Helsing cipher. He figures everything out with his ability as a pathologist. Once he finds out that the vampires are real he has no hesitation in killing them. There is also a great soul sounding score by Gene Page. I could have used more blood, but I think they wanted this to pass with a PG rating so what are you gonna do? Also the second film addresses this more but I would have liked to see a little more of Blacula adjusting to the present day. The film is ultimately about his quest for love so it was okay to eschew developing him in the world more. The movie would have had to have been longer and the pacing is great here. Vonetta McGee is beautiful and I like her in anything I see her in.
Rating: 8/10
Trivia: According to the American Film Institute William Marshall's Mamuwalde was the first black vampire in film.
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