BLACULA! I am finally getting around to writing a review on what is genuinely one of my all-time favorite vampire movies. Blacula is the story of Prince Mamuwalde, an 18th century west African prince (portrayed by the incomparable Shakespearean actor William Marshall) who, along with his wife Luva (played by Vonetta McGee, star in several Westerns and Blaxploitation movies), travels to Transylvania to parlay with Count Dracula in order to convince him to put a stop to the slave trade. Instead, the arch-racist Dracula (building on themes of parasitism and exploitation present in the Dracula story going all the way back to Bram Stoker) refuses to end the trade in enslaved Africans and, on top of it all, curses Mamuwalde to forever be a hungry vampire, leaving his wife Luva to starve, trapped in the same chamber as her now-vampiric husband's coffin. It is here where Dracula says the infamous line, "I curse you with my name... You will be BLACULA, a vampire, like myself." It's kind of comical with the name being what it is, but also it's an overt example of a (aristocratic, vampiric) white man controlling a Black protagonist! Blaxploitation movies (like this one, or Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song, or more overtly exploitative genre fare like Dolemite) tackle such topics all the time, and it is handled in an interesting, gothic sort of way here. After living an undead existence trapped in his coffin for almost 200 years, Mamuwalde (see, he's a vampire now, so his name gets written in red too) is bought by a pair of gay interior designers/antiques dealers and carted off to the United States, setting the remainder of the film's plot into motion.
(It should be noted, as an aside, that after Count Dracula christens (is that the right word for vampires?) him "Blacula", he is never once called that again for the rest of the movie. It's just the title and that opening scene.)
Once in Los Angeles, Mamuwalde sets about biting necks and taking names as a more bestial sort of vampire, complete with ravenous fangs, blood dripping from his mouth, crazed eyes, and shaggy hair on his cheeks. His first victims are the aforementioned gay interior designers, who are little more than a homophobic stereotype, but honestly as a queer person I love them (just bears mentioning that, although its not central to the plot, this movie is definitely casually homophobic). The plot really gets set into motion once he escapes the warehouse in which he first awakes after two centuries of slumber, and comes face to face with Tina, a woman who mysteriously looks exactly like his long dead wife Luva. Mamuwalde proceeds to develop an obsession with Tina, which develops into stealing her purse, stalking her, introducing herself in his more dapper and formal mode (where William Marshall really shines, his performance drawing out how distinguished and polite Mamuwalde is when not in his slavering-blood-beast form), and, of course, killing a few of her friends to bring them under his thrall. Tina's best friend is the girlfriend of Dr. Gordon Thomas (played by Thalmus Rasulala), a police forensic investigator who is essentially this narrative's Van Helsing equivalent, and when strange things start to happen around them, it is Dr. Thomas who does his best to get to the bottom of it. Over the course of several confrontations with Mamuwalde's vampiric thralls, incidents where Mamuwalde's identity as a vampire is almost revealed (there's photos of him and Tina taken by a waitress at a club and when developed he doesn't show up in them!), and a final shootout where Mamuwalde tries to kidnap Tina, is thwarted by police, and ends up taking his own life by marching out into the sunlight, Dr. Thomas et al ultimately win out. It's a police procedural crossed with a supernatural... romance of sorts? Tina does start to develop an interest or attraction in Mamuwalde, but ultimately its the vampire who is taking the lead by being basically Tina's stalker.
I just love Blacula! It's rough around the edges and definitely not the highest quality in terms of visuals (although every so often it wows you with a shot or two; I love the slowmo shot of one vampire woman running down the hallway at the camera), but its just got so much energy about it, it's a creative and overtly anti-racist take on a classic gothic narrative. TBH I don't know where the idea of Dracula (or a vampire analogue to him) lusting after a woman who looks like his long lost love comes from, since its present here and in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. Is this the earliest instance of that plot element in a filmic vampire narrative? Surely not, but I'm not aware of any examples. Would be very happy to have one pointed out to me. Mamuwalde is such a well-realized character, portrayed by an actor who is clearly better trained for movies and roles better than this. From what I understand, the character of Mamuwalde is just as much a creation of William Marshall as it is of the director and screenwriter. Marshall brings so much to this performance and character. It is a crying shame just how underutilized William Marshall is in movies in general. Overall, although this isn't a masterpiece, I just can't stop loving Blacula. It's a fantastic Blaxploitation picture helmed by one of the best actors ever, hitting on genre beats and gothic moments left and right, AND it has a surprisingly good musical number in the middle (TBH I usually don't like it when movies take a break for a musical number, but here it works for me). The score below is moreso a reflection of my personal enjoyment of the movie than of its literal quality, but I do think that Blacula is well worth watching!
Click the image above to watch William Marshall in a TV play production of the Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, written by William Shakespeare!
I give William Crain's (and William Marshall's!) Blacula...
4.5 Bats out of 5!
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