Blacula

''Blacula'' is a 1972 American blaxploitation horror film directed by William Crain. It stars William Marshall in the title role about an 18th-century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is turned into a vampire (and later locked in a coffin) by Count Dracula in the Count's castle in Transylvania in the year 1780 after Dracula refuses to help Mamuwalde suppress the slave trade. The film co-stars Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala.

The film was released by American International Pictures on August 25, 1972. ''Blacula'' was released to mixed reviews in the United States, but was one of the top-grossing films of the year. It was the first film to receive an award for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards. It was followed by the sequel '' Scream Blacula Scream'' in 1973 and inspired a wave of blaxploitation-themed horror films.

Plot

In 1780, African prince Mamuwalde goes to Transylvania to seek the help of Count Dracula in suppressing the slave trade. Dracula refuses, however, and insults Mamuwalde by making a pass at his wife, Luva. After a scuffle with Dracula's minions, Mamuwalde is bitten by Dracula and transformed into a vampire. Dracula then curses him with the name "Blacula" and imprisons him in a sealed coffin in a crypt hidden beneath his castle while leaving Luva to die in the chamber (from either suffocation or starvation) with Blacula.

In 1972, two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy and Billy Schaffer, purchase the coffin and ship it to Los Angeles. Bobby and Billy open the coffin, only to become Blacula's first victims. At the funeral home where McCoy's body is laid, Blacula spies on mourning friends Tina Williams, her sister Michelle, and Michelle's boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas, a pathologist for the Los Angeles Police Department. Blacula becomes infatuated with Tina, believing her to be the reincarnation of Luva due to her identically resembling the latter. Thomas notices oddities with McCoy's death that he later concludes to be consistent with vampire folklore. Blacula follows Tina after leaving the funeral home but unintentionally frightens her. Tina runs away from him, and Blacula loses her when he is hit by a cab. He then kills the cabbie, Juanita Jones, turning her into a vampire.

Thomas, Michelle, and Tina celebrate Michelle's birthday at a nightclub, and Blacula shows up to return Tina's purse, which she'd dropped the night before. Thomas answers a phone call from the funeral director, who informs him that McCoy's body has gone missing. Blacula asks Tina to see him again the following evening, but they are interrupted by Nancy, a photographer who takes a photograph of them together. Soon after, Blacula kills Nancy and destroys the photo she just developed, which shows Blacula conspicuously absent. The next evening, Blacula visits Tina at her apartment and shares how Dracula enslaved him and Luva and how he was cursed with vampirism. He and Tina then spend the night together.

Thomas, Lt. Jack Peters, and Michelle are meanwhile following the trail of murder victims, as Thomas begins to suspect a vampire of being the perpetrator. After Thomas and Michelle dig up Schaffer's coffin, the corpse rises as a vampire and attacks Thomas, who fends him off and drives a stake through his heart. Michelle now realizes the truth and that McCoy could still be out there. Telling Peters won't work, because they need to show him what's going on, and to do this, they'd need to thaw out the corpse of Juanita Jones. Thomas calls the morgue and instructs Sam, the attendant, to take Jones' body out of deep freeze and leave the room and lock the door. Sam rolls her body out, but neglects to lock the door due to a distracting phone call. Suddenly the door opens, and an undead Jones rises and immediately attacks and kills him. Moments later Thomas and Peters arrive at the morgue to find blood smeared on the corridor wall near the payphone where Sam answered the call, but no sign of Sam himself. They walk into the exam room by the freezer, where Peters sees a sheet-covered body lying on a gurney and pulls the sheet back to reveal Jones rising to attack him. Thomas keeps her at bay with a Christian cross long enough to open the window blinds and expose her to sunlight, destroying her.

That evening, Thomas, Michelle, and Tina are enjoying drinks at the club when Blacula arrives to pick Tina up. Thomas questions Blacula about vampires and makes it known that the police are planning a search for the vampire's coffin, provoking an uncomfortable Blacula and Tina to leave. Soon after, remembering that Nancy never gave Michelle her birthday photos, Thomas searches Nancy's house and finds a photo of Tina standing in front of an invisible Blacula. He correctly deduces that Blacula is the vampire they seek, and that Blacula and Tina are together. Thomas rushes to Tina's apartment, finding them embracing. Thomas and Blacula briefly struggle, but Blacula knocks Thomas unconscious and flees, killing a police officer in a nearby alley as he escapes. After McCoy is seen walking the streets of Los Angeles, Thomas, Peters, and several police officers track Blacula to his warehouse hideout. They locate a nest of several vampires there, including McCoy, and destroy them, but Blacula escapes.

Blacula hypnotizes Tina into going to his new hideout at a nearby underground chemical plant while Thomas and the police pursue him. Blacula dispatches several of the officers, but one of them accidentally shoots and mortally wounds Tina. To save her life, Blacula transforms her into a vampire. Blacula fights the police, one of whom locates the coffin and alerts Thomas and Peters. However, Peters kills a newly turned vampiric Tina with a stake, having believed Blacula would be in the coffin instead. Devastated and feeling he has no purpose to live after losing Luva again, Blacula commits suicide by climbing the stairs to the roof where the morning sun destroys him. Thomas and Peters witness Blacula's flesh melting away with maggots coming out of his face until only his skeleton remains.

Cast

Production

According to director William Crain, ''Blacula'' was born by American International Pictures' financial troubles in the early '70s. "The rumor was that they were in the red, and so they were going to do a Black vampire," he said. The original script was called ''Count Brown's in Town'', and was "full of 'shuckin' and jivin.'"

Horror scholar Dani Bethea noted the film's similarities with the 1819 short story ''The Black Vampyre: A Legend of St. Domingo''.

After William Marshall was cast to play the lead, he worked with Crain and the producers to heavily retool the main character of Blacula, who was initially more of a straightforward villain. His character name was changed from Andrew Brown to Mamuwalde, and his character received a background story about being an African prince who had succumbed to vampirism from the original Dracula.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 50

Many members of the cast and crew of ''Blacula'' had worked in television. William Crain had directed episodes of ''The Mod Squad''.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 49 William Marshall had previously worked in stage productions and in episodes of '' The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', '' The Nurses'', ''Bonanza'', ''Star Trek'' and ''Mannix''. Thalmus Rasulala, who plays Dr. Gordon Thomas, is best known for roles in episodes of ''The Twilight Zone'', ''Perry Mason'' and ''Rawhide''.

''Blacula'' was in production between late January and late March 1972. It was shot on location in Los Angeles, with some scenes shot in Watts and the final scenes taken at the Hyperion Outfall Treatment Plant in Playa del Rey.

Music

The music for ''Blacula'' is unlike that of most horror films as it features a funk soundtrack, as opposed to classical music.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 55 The film's soundtrack features a score by Gene Page and contributions by the Hues Corporation.

Release

''Blacula'' opened in Washington, Dallas, Seattle and Oklahoma City on August 25, 1972, and in Chicago two days later. Prior to its release, American International Pictures' marketing department wanted to ensure that black audiences would be interested in ''Blacula''; some posters for the film included references to slavery.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 56 American International Pictures also held special promotional showings at two New York theaters; anyone wearing a flowing cape would receive free admission. ''Blacula'' was popular in America, debuting at #24 on ''Variety''s list of top films. It eventually grossed over 1 million dollars, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1972.

Home media

Scream Factory released the film on Blu-ray as a double feature with '' Scream Blacula Scream'' on March 2, 2015.

Reception

Critical reception

''Blacula'' received mixed reviews on its initial release.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 57 ''Variety'' gave the film a positive review praising the screenplay, music and acting by William Marshall. The ''Chicago Reader'' praised the film, writing that it would leave its audience more satisfied than many other "post- Lugosi efforts". Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' awarded three stars out of four, calling it "well-made and quite frightening." A review from Roger Greenspun in ''The New York Times'' was negative, stating that anyone who "goes to a vampire movie expecting sense is in serious trouble, and ''Blacula'' offers less sense than most." In ''Films & Filming'', a reviewer referred to the film as "totally unconvincing on every level". The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' described the film as "a disappointing model for what promised to be an exciting new genre, the black horror film." and that apart from the introductory scene, "the film conspicuously fails to pick up on any of its theme's more interesting possibilities–cinematic or philosophical." The film was awarded the Best Horror Film title at the 1st Saturn Awards.

Among more recent reviews, Kim Newman of ''Empire'' gave the film two stars out of five, finding the film to be "formulaic and full of holes". '' Time Out'' gave the film a negative review, stating that it "remains a lifeless reworking of heroes versus vampires with soul music and a couple of good gags." Film4 awarded the film three and a half stars out of five, calling it "essential blaxploitation viewing." AllMovie gave the film two and a half stars out of five, noting that ''Blacula'' is "better than its campy title might lead one to believe...the film suffers from the occasional bit of awkward humor (the bits with the two homosexual interior decorators are the most squirm-inducing), but Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig's script keeps things moving at a fast clip and generates some genuine chills." ''The Dissolve'' gave the film two and a half stars, stating that "The placement of an old-fashioned, Bela Lugosi-type Dracula—albeit much, much sweatier—in a modern black neighborhood is a great idea, but the amateurish production leaves Marshall as stranded in the film as his Mamuwalde is stranded in the times."

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on , with a weighted average rating of 5.3/10.

Themes

''Blacula'' is notable for featuring the first Black vampire in film history. Robin R. Means Coleman, in her book ''Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present'', writes that the film reimagines classic horror archetypes to a contemporary Black experience Lea Anderson, in ''Fangoria,'' described it as "anti-adaptation,"

''Blacula'' not only does the work of, as Dr. Robin Means-Coleman describes, “reimagining the classics” to “ einventthe orrorgenre from the vantage point of Blackness,” but accomplishes this so effectively as to transform the narrative into a wholly original piece of Black art, tricky as that may be to articulate. The brilliance of Crain's adaptation is that it's actually an anti-adaptation. It doesn't seek out narrative minstrelsy (when Blackness is casually splashed on a white story as the film's title suggests) but rather uses that familiarity as a red herring to tell a different story altogether.

Means-Coleman states the film allegorizes the Atlantic slave trade.

In the film, the name “Blacula” is a curse bestowed upon Prince Mamuwalde by the Count (Charles Macaulay); “a slave name,” as Coleman notes. Dracula transforms him into a monster in the same gesture as this attempt to “ ob himof his (African) identity”—and make no mistake, Mamuwalde does become a monster, sympathetic as he may be. After centuries incarcerated in a coffin, he “makes a much-belated trip through the Middle Passage” and “finally makes his appearance in the new world—enslaved by vampirism and auctioned off” as part of an estate sale to the interracial queer couple who become his first victims.... As a byproduct of centering Black perspective, Crain actually deepens Stoker's characterization of Dracula by placing him in an eighteenth-century context that characterizes the slave trade and chattel slavery as parasitic institutions. The Count of ramStoker's imagination would be a slaveowner (complicated as that legacy is for its xenophobic, antisemitic coding). As such, Mamuwalde's disgust for both him and the slave trade offers a counternarrative to common misconceptions about pre-colonial African culture, demonstrates Black resistance to enslavement without completely revising that history, and complicates the binary of hero/monster that is so often taken for granted.

Horror scholar Dani Bethea said in a ''Fangoria'' interview:

The story of Mamuwalde is such a poignant and heartbreaking one that truly has an incontestable tether to the Candyman mythos—Black men in the prime of their lives, caught betwixt and between insidious white supremacist structures that wield some sort of damnation (vampirism in this case) as an everlasting punishment. It's chilling and brings to mind the zonbi narratives and folklore I learned about as a child that spoke of' the walking dead', its connection to slavery (which the film delved into that Mamuwalde was trying to stop), and the horror of a non-afterlife where one is cursed to walk the earth forever.

Aftermath and influence

The box office success of ''Blacula'' sparked a wave of other Black-themed horror films.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 58 American International was planning a follow-up film titled ''Blackenstein'', but chose to focus on a direct sequel to ''Blacula'' instead. ''Blackenstein'' was eventually produced by Exclusive International Pictures.Lawrence, 2008. pg. 59

Other, similarly themed films produced in the wake of ''Blacula'' included ''Ganja & Hess'' (also featuring Black vampires), ''Abby'' (also starring William Marshall), and ''Sugar Hill''.

The film's portrayal of a Black vampire influenced the creation of the Marvel Comic ''The Tomb of Dracula'' and its breakout character, Blade. Troy Brownfield noted Marshall's portrayal of the title character influenced later Black horror antagonists in films like ''Candyman'' (1992), ''Tales from the Hood'' (1995), and ''Bones'' (2001).

In the animated television series ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'', the depiction of Dracula (voiced by Phil LaMarr) is inspired by Blacula.

Blacula appears briefly in ''The Simpsons'' episode " All's Fair in Oven War" (season 16, episode 2), voiced by Karl Wiedergott.

Comics writer John Jennings said " 'Blacula'''s influence isimmeasurable. Because it was one of the first really serious, very slick, very nicely done lack horror films"

Related media

Sequel

A sequel to the film titled ''Scream Blacula Scream'' was released in 1973 by American International. The film again stars William Marshall in the title role, along with actress Pam Grier. It failed to recapture the financial success of its predecessor.

Graphic novel

A graphic novel adaptation, ''Blacula: Return of the King'', was published in 2023 by Zombie Love Studios. It was written by Rodney Barnes and drawn by Marshall Dillon.

Reboot film

On June 17, 2021, it was announced that a reboot was in development. The film will be a co-production between MGM, Bron Studios and Hidden Empire Film Group with Roxanne Avent producing and Deon Taylor and Micah Ranum co-writing. Taylor will also direct the film.

See also

* List of American films of 1972
* Vampire film
* '' Dracula A.D. 1972''

Notes

References

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External links

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Official Trailer #1
on YouTube

{{Authority control

1972 films
1972 horror films
1972 LGBTQ-related films
1970s supernatural horror films
African-American horror films
American gothic horror films
American supernatural horror films
American International Pictures films
American vampire films
Blaxploitation films
Dracula films
1970s English-language films
Films about reincarnation
Films set in 1780
Films set in 1972
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
1970s American films
Films set in Transylvania
Films about princes
Films about birthdays
Gay-related films
Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department
Films about hypnosis
Films about sisters
American LGBTQ-related films
Film characters introduced in 1972
Fictional African people
Black characters in films
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional vampires
Male horror film villains
English-language horror films
Saturn Award–winning films