Blacula 1972

 

An African Prince (William Marshall) has a run in with Dracula in the 1700's and is turned into a blood thirsty vampire.  After being locked in a coffin for 200 years and given the name Blacula, he awakens with a thirst for human blood.  In the realm of blaxploitation films, Blacula is the first to set foot into the horror genre and while this may have been frightening back in 1972 today I feel it's more of a horror comedy than just straight horror.  The sad part is it wasn't trying to be but it's loaded with lots of different stereotypes, and while they might have been accurate then they feel comical now. 

 

When you think about the fact that the writers originally created Blacula to be a jive talking vampire and was only changed, thankfully, by William Marshall himself, the film could have been much worse and perhaps insulting.  Vonetta McGee plays Blacula's wife/love interest Tina.  Thalmus Rasulala plays Dr. Gordon Thomas; Blacula's own version of Van Helsing.  Denise Nicholas plays Dr. Gordon's girlfriend and Tina's sister.  These four main characters are all impressive and play their roles straight forward.  It's most of the peripheral characters that usher in the negative stereotypes.   

 

  

Blacula did very well at the box office and it quickly led to a sequel Scream Blacula Scream.  The sequel did not fare as well as the original and Blackenstein did even worse and is often called the worst blaxploitation film ever made.  While not the best idea ever made by American International Pictures it did open the horror genre to blaxploitation and if it had any influence on today's films I have to give it it's due.  It's difficult to watch these and not think of black film makers today.  If we have just a small credit to give to these for us having Get Out and Us by Jordan Peele then they are worthwhile and deserve their place in history.  Sorry, didn't mean to get that deep.  I give this three metal hooks for a hand out of five.