Review of Blacula (1972) by Bryan G — 16 Oct 2009

William Crain's Blacula easily could have been a terrible film. It could have taken the legendary story of Dracula, and simply replaced the characters with an all black cast and offered nothing new to the story. But Blacula is more than just a black version of Dracula. Mixing both traditional vampire-lore with the various traits of blaxploitation films, Blacula becomes more than just a catchy title. It's actually a pretty entertaining flick, and one of the better vampire films I've had the pleasure of viewing.

At its core, what makes Blacula work so well is its main star William Marshall. The classically trained actor takes the role of Prince Mamuwalde and gives the character the sort of life that Bela Lugosi gave Dracula back in 1931. Mamuwalde, or Blacula, is a powerful presence in the film and Marshall carries the character in a way that prevents him from becoming a caricature or a joke. Blacula ended up being one of my personal favorite characters of the blaxploitation period of the 1970's.

I liked that Blacula treated the legend of vampires with respect, and tried to stay as close to tradition as possible. But the film also knows to have a little fun with its vampire character and find some creative new ways of making vampires effective again. I liked the film's twist on the "casting no reflection" rule with Mamuwalde having his picture being taken, but not appearing in the picture when it is developed. It was also nice to see the film make Mamuwalde look as close to the Lugosi-style vampire as possible.

The movie also features a decent amount of thrills to it. As Mamuwalde feeds, his army of the undead grows larger. The more vampires there are, the more mayhem starts to plague the streets of Los Angeles. The film ends with a nice showdown with the police trying to kill all of Mamuwalde's servants, and then trying to track him down and finish the job. It is essentially the ending to Dracula, but in a 1970's setting. But trust me, it works.

I expected Blacula to be a silly film, so I was amazed to find that I really enjoyed this flick. Both the film and its title character would rank among my favorite movie vampires of all time. Blacula unfortunately influenced a lot of terrible "cash-in" films, like Blackenstein (which I reviewed yesterday). But none of them compare to what this surprisingly good horror film has to offer.