Blacula (1972)
Directed by: William Crain
Starring: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas and Gordon Pinsent

Synopsis: An 18th-century African prince is turned into a vampire while visiting Transylvania. Two centuries later, he rises from his coffin, attacking various residents of Los Angeles and meeting Tina, a woman whom he believes is the reincarnation of his deceased wife.

Rating: 7/10

I tend to do my movie watching over the weekend. The rest of the week tends to be dedicated to television series. Which means if I keep this up, you’re gonna get a lot of Now Watchings on Saturday and Sunday and basically none through the rest of the week. For now, I like doing these as it lets me give some basic thoughts on a film without having to put all the time and energy into a full review. I’ll still do full reviews, I’ve got a couple of war movies to talk about soon, but I like supplementing them with these snippets.

I can still remember browsing the aisles of my local video store (Mega Movies, the biggest and best rental place in town – it used to be a Burger King and they had a lot of floor space) and always smiling when I came across Blacula. I was aware of the existence of Blaxploitation films at this point, but had not seen any of them. But the idea of a black-centered Dracula movie was awesome to my young eyes.

I never did rent it, though. I couldn’t tell you why. But it always stayed in my mind, it remained on my list. Thirty years later, and I’m just now actually sitting down with it.

It is probably a better film than I imagined it to be, though not nearly as much fun. I hear the sequel leans into its inherent silliness.

The plot is pretty basic; it is pretty much explained in that synopsis. Mamuwalde (William Marshall) visits Dracula in 1790. In this film, Dracula is an old racist and states that he thinks the slave trade is good, actually. Mamuwade yells at him, and Dracula sucks his blood, sticks him in a coffin and our hero doesn’t wake up until 1972 when some gay interior decorators buy the coffin, ship it to Los Angeles and awaken our newly christened Blacula.

Mamuwalde/Blacula doesn’t even blink looking at how things have changed while he’s been away, gets him self spiffed up and hits the town. He sucks a little blood, learn to dance, and meets Tina (Vonetta McGee) who looks exactly like his wife from olden times. He becomes obsessed with wooing her.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala) begins to suspect a vampire may be the cause of the recent uptick in murders, and the chase is on.

I’m by no means an expert on Blaxploitation films, but the ones I’ve seen have a lot more style and are a lot more fun than this one. Blacula isn’t dull by any means, but it leans more into the drama/horror aspects than the exploitation ones. It takes a few digs at social commentary, and William Marshall looks terrific as a vampire with some major sideburns.

Worth watching if you are into this sort of thing, but I can’t say I’ll revisit it anytime soon. But I definitely want to watch the sequel.