Streaming Availability: Rental at most places
With a title like "Blacula", you're probably expecting the most ridiculous camp for ninety minutes. This should be Rudy Ray Moore-levels of nonsense. The title is a joke. The idea is even something of a joke: a black Dracula hunting pre-disco clubs in Seventies LA?
Sure, that sounds amazing, but it could also come from the same kind of strain of campy ironic horror like Sharknado or the lost Filipino classic, Batman Fights Dracula. (Which definitely would have been featured in this month if a living copy still existed.) Something as outrageous as Blacula cannot possibly be a legitimate horror movie that the filmmakers took seriously, right?
For the first ten minutes, Blacula is everything you'd expect. We open on 1700s Castle Dracula where an African Prince, Mamuwalde (William Marshall) and his wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee) are hoping to win over the Count's help. Somehow the landlocked dark lord can help them destroy the Atlantic slave trade. However, Dracula (Charles Macaulay) is actually a racist dick, and he's a huge fan of slavery, so betrays his guests. A bevy of cheesy ghoulish vampires hobbles into the hall, starting up a brief action sequence, before they bite Mamuwalde and curse him to become, in Dracula's own words "BLACULA!"
Anyway, this could not be a more exciting opening, imagine Wakandans fighting the undead in Transylvania. MCU, get on this.
Nearly 200 years later, two gay men purchase Castle Dracula to sell the interior back home in LA as kitschy products. They are huge fans of Dracula movies, which are, in their words, "the absolute creme de la creme of camp!". (Not a good sign for the lasting legacy of the Count as a true horror threat.) They also purchase a coffin, which happens to hold Prince Mamuwalde, now degenerated into a creature of nightmares.
And this is suddenly where the movie turns away from big gags and deeply unfortunate gay stereotypes. (Warning: the script casually uses the slur F-word, a lot.) Most of Blacula to come is going to be a surprisingly dignified and often scary attempt at the concept. A lot of what sells it is William Marshall as Blacula. He's as strong and charismatic a presence as any white version of the character. A true gentleman, anachronistic in this era, but also swag as fuck. He orders a Bloody Mary from the waitress, what a scamp. The various sleezy dudes at the clubs think he's weird, but later ask where Blacula bought that cape. When in a full monster mode, Marshall achieves a monstrous transformation, screaming a chilling animal howl. I love how his face goes from clean-shaven to grotesquely hairy when he turns on the spooky.
More importantly, this is the most human vampire we've seen so far. Every other appearance in society we've seen from our villains is purely an act, just a strategic necessity towards bloodsucker. Mamuwalde, however, is a tragic figure trying to recapture his lost love. He desires connection with people beyond that which his fans make into their neck. We've shifted from gothic horror to gothic romance here. Mamuwalde meets a young woman, Tina who appears to be a reincarnation of his wife, Luva (also played by Vonetta McGee). Mamuwalde wins Tina over with true love, not mind control or lies. Tina has mixed feelings about her new boyfriend unleashing a plague of the undead upon LA and eating some of her friends, but she ultimately stands by him.
More impressively, Mamuwalde goes out by his own terms. The LAPD does not defeat the darkness, Mamuwalde's internal humanity defeats evil. If he actually wanted to unleashed death upon the world, Blacula would be a prequel to The Last Man on Earth.
The lucky Van Helsing of Hollywood is Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), a respected police pathologist, who is also Tina's brother-in-law. Dr. Thomas is a part of the Blaxploitation fantasy, which is not limited to merely "can Dracula be black?". With Thomas we have an African American man, who is a true authority in a white space, while not in any way compromising himself, his values, or his culture. Gordon does not need to Code Switch to talk his bosses, and he easily swats away nonsense suspicions of Black Panther activity. He inhabits both white and black worlds freely as himself. In the 21st century, the LAPD sweeping Watts looking for vampires sure seems like a recipe for a much worse disaster than some ghouls. However, with Gordon, it ends mostly okay. It is a kind of optimism for policing working with black communities that was possible in the Seventies - or well, possible in the movies.
I say "ends mostly okay" because a trigger happy officer does shoot Tina while trying to get Blacula in the climax. Mamuwalde turns her into a vampire to save her (he wanted to keep her human before), and sadly Tina gets staked by the heroes. Mamuwalde then walks into the sunrise, choosing death over more centuries of horror.
Speaking of horror Blacula nails it at multiple times. There's a great scare where a vampired body in the morgue comes to life and she rushes at the camera, fangs bared. Blacula eats a lot more people than Whitula has in most of our movies. He has a whole army of the dead to ambush at the cops. Sure, the effects are quite cheesy, mostly relying on pancake make-up, but that's how Dawn of the Dead filmed their hordes too. I think it looks great.
Blacula is a good horror movie. William Marshall is killing it here, and killing people. Sure, it isn't the most serious vampire movie. It's fun though, a lot of fun.
Next Time: I want more Blacula! Mamuwalde returns from the dead in Scream Blacula Scream.
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