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Sinister
Soul Cinema month shakes off the
cobwebs of a really rough start and
recovers, nicely, thanks to the wonderful
talents of William Marshall. Instead of
draining our blood out, Blacula
actually injects life into this bizarre
mix of genres. So leave the crucifixes and
wooden stakes at home, they won't be
needed here...
*
* * *
It
was a dark and stormy night...
The
year is 1780, and the ominous atmosphere
pales when we're told the castle we're
spying belongs to none other than the
Prince of Darkness himself, Count Dracula.
We cut inside and see the Count is
entertaining some guests; Prince
Mumawalde (William Marshall)
and his wife, Luffa (Vonetta McGee),
have been sent to Europe as emissaries to
try and convince those with influence to
stop the African slave trade. The Count (Charles
Macaulay) scoffs at the notion,
saying the slave trade has merit; then
offers to buy Luffa. Mumawalde, of course,
is insulted and incensed but Dracula
assures him it was just a warped
compliment on Luffa's beauty. But
Dracula's behavior continues to
degenerate, showing his true nature -- No.
Not his vampirism, but his bigotry.
Declaring this palaver is over, Mumawalde
announces they're leaving.
But
their host begs to differ and sics his
servants on Mumawalde, who puts up a good
fight but is overwhelmed by numbers and
knocked unconscious. Luffa, who was
watching the fight, turns and sees Dracula
has bared his fangs and called up some
undead reinforcements. As his
undead brides seize Luffa, he puts the
chomp on Mumawalde's neck. And we all know
what that means, right? Not satisfied with
just turning him into a blood-sucking
ghoul, Dracula has an even more sinister
fate for the black Prince and his wife.
Placing Mumawalde in a sturdy coffin,
Dracula curses him with his name -- so
Mumawalde will be forever more known as
Blacula. Infected with the vampire's bite,
he will be overcome with an insatiable
hunger for blood. But Dracula, being the
sadistic bastard that he is, locks the
coffin shut so Mumawalde will spend
eternity in agony, unable to feed his
hunger. As for Luffa? He leaves her alone
but seals them both up in a secret room
where she will spend the rest of her life
in the dark listening to Mumawalde trying
to get out.
As
the room plunges into darkness, that truly
inspired and nasty beginning dissolves
into some interesting animated credits: an
odd combination of James Bond and an
Edward Gorey cartoon, we watch a black bat
hunt down a red dot that magically
transforms into a naked woman before being
sucked off the screen.
We
come back in present day Transylvania
(1972), where a real estate agent is
having trouble convincing two gay antique
dealers that Dracula really existed (--
dispatched a hundred years ago by Van
Helsing and his crew.) The two
dealers, Bobby McCoy (Ted Harris)
and Billy Schafer (Rick Metzler),
are American and really run rampant with
their raging queen behavior just in case
we don't get it; alas the film isn't very
subtle with any of its stereotypes. They
don't believe that Dracula was an actual
vampire, except in the movies, but just
the notion that the furniture was owned by
the Count gives it a kitsch value that
will bring top dollar back in the Village
-- especially a large coffin found in a
secret room during the castle's
renovation. After the soundtrack wocka-cha-wockas
us back to the States, Bobby and Billy are
now in a warehouse uncrating the European
booty. Morbidly curious, and ignoring his
lovers protests to leave it alone, Bobby
goes to work on the coffin's padlock, and
just as he breaks the lock, Billy
accidentally cuts a gash into his arm.
Bobby tends to the wound, and while Billy
frets, in the background, we see the lid
to Mumawalde's coffin slowly open. Slower
still, his features turned more fearsome,
Blacula crawls out of the coffin. He bares
his fangs and attacks the two men. Casting
Bobby aside, he feasts upon Billy's wound
-- draining all the blood, then moves on
to Billy and sucks him dry, too.
His
hunger finally satiated after two-hundred
years, Blacula returns to his coffin, dons
his cape, and recalls Dracula's curse.
Knowing soon he'll have to feed again, he
still manages a smile despite his
misfortune and crawls back inside the
coffin.
Next
we move to a funeral home where Bobby's
body is laid out for visitation. We spy
Blacula behind some curtains, and he
starts to exerts his powers by putting the
hypno-whammy on his new convert.
Enthralled by his master, Bobby starts to
move but they're interrupted when others
enter the room -- namely Bobby's sisters:
Tina (McGee again) and
Michelle (Denise Nicholas),
who've come for the family viewing. (I'm
assuming Bobby's their brother, although
his relationship to the women is never
made quite clear.) Michelle's
boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus
Rasulala), is part of the
"scientific investigation"
branch of the police force. Blacula, as he
watches the SID-agent promise to try to
find out who killed Bobby, is stunned by
Tina -- the spitting image of his late
wife, Luffa. When the women leave, Blacula
sneaks out the back to follow them. Thomas
stays, wanting one more look at the body.
Confused as to why all of the victim's
veins had collapsed, and the corpses pale
color due to the total lack of blood, the
mortician interrupts and apologizes for
not getting around to embalming him yet.
As Thomas examines the two puncture wounds
on Bobby's neck, the mortician, taking
into account where the body was found,
assumed it was just a rat bite.
Later,
Tina walks home alone but senses someone
is following her. She picks up her pace,
that quickly accelerates into a full out
sprint, but runs right smack into Blacula.
Calling her Luffa, he's confused and
irritated that she doesn't recognize him.
Assuming he's some nut, Tina manages to
get away but drops her purse. Blacula
picks it up and continues pursuit. This
chase goes on until he runs across a
street and gets blindsided by a cab. And
when Juanita Jones (Ketty Lester),
the sassy, motor-mouthed jive-talking
driver, gets out and gives Blacula the
business about running out in front of
her, Blacula, outraged because he's lost
sight of Tina, takes it out on the cabbie
who sasses her last sass while he chomps
on her neck. Meanwhile, Tina makes it back
to her apartment, locks the door, but
before she can calm down, someone (or
something!) comes a-knocking.
Luckily, it's only Michelle, to whom Tina
confesses what happened. Sure that her
attacker has her purse, ID, and keys,
Michelle does her best to calm Tina down.
The
next morning, Thomas is called to the
police morgue to examine another body. Sam
(Elisha Cook Jr.), the
morgue attendant, rolls the body out of
the freezer, and it's Juanita Jones.
Examining the body, Thomas only finds some
similar puncture wounds on her neck --
just like Bobby's. (Man, that rat
really gets around.) Thomas laughs
at his own thoughts as to what might be
responsible for the bite marks, then
checks
with Lt. Peters (Gordon Pinsent),
the lead investigator in this rash of
mysterious homicides. Peters thinks it
might be gang related, but Thomas sees no
connection between the cab driver and two
gay antique dealers -- except in the way
they died. Thinking they need another
crack at the
bodies on the autopsy table, after Peters
agrees, Thomas calls the mortuary and
makes arrangements to collect the body.
But that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Tonight, he'll be at The Club, celebrating
Michelle's birthday.
As
the Hues Corporation musical trio gets The
Club a-movin' and groovin' (and a
welcome relief from the comedic stylings
of Andy C, the clown who was playing there
last
week), Tina, Michelle
and Thomas take a table and enjoy the
music. Next, Blacula arrives and produces
Tina's purse from his cape, and asks a
waitress to deliver a message to her. When
they meet, he returns her purse and
apologizes for frightening her, saying he
mistook her for someone else. Introducing
himself as Mumawalde, his charm quickly
wins her over and Tina invites him to join
their party. He agrees, and while he's
introduced to the others, he concocts a
story that he recently lost his spouse and
spied them all at the funeral home, and
since Tina uncannily reminded him of his
late wife, in his charged emotional state,
he went after her. Apologizing again, he
buys a bottle of champagne to toast
Michelle's birthday properly. The Club's
owner, Skillet (Jitu Cumbaka),
brings the champagne and a birthday cake,
and when his girlfriend, Nancy (Emily
Yancy), starts taking pictures of
the party, Mumawalde cringes with each
camera flash. Skillet tells Thomas he has
a phone call, and it's bad news: Bobby's
body has disappeared from the morgue. He
says not to touch anything and he'll be
there as soon as possible.
Back
at the table, Nancy's constant photo
taking has driven Mumawalde off. Tina
follows and catches him before he leaves.
She appears to be smitten with him (or
under Blacula's spell.) He promises
to meet her again at The Club, tomorrow
night, and their eyes lock as Mumawalde
brings her deeper under his spell -- until
another bright flash from Nancy's camera,
who was sneaking a candid shot of them,
saves Tina...for now. After Mumawalde
leaves, Skillet says "that's one
weird dude" but wants to know who his
tailor is so he can get one of those
stylish capes. Nancy excuses herself and
heads home to develop the pictures for
Michelle's birthday present. Turns out her
house is right behind the club. Heading
inside, she puts on some music and enters
her dark room. After the film is processed
and she drops the exposed sheet into the
chemical soup until the picture develops,
an image slowly appears. Then, Nancy hears
something outside. Thinking it's Skillet
trying to scare her, a quick tour finds no
one there. Back in the dark room, the
picture she took of Tina and Mumawalde is
done -- but something's wrong; Tina is
there, but Mumawalde is nowhere to be
seen. Befuddled, she collects the photo to
show the others, but when she pulls the
curtain back, Blacula is there, waiting
for her, and he crushes the evidence as he
chomps on her neck.
Outside,
a patrol car pulls up and a Sgt. Barnes (Logan
Field)
gets
out with some found missing files for Dr.
Thomas. When Nancy stumbles out onto her
front porch, crying for help, Barnes drops
the files, rushes to help her, and when
the officer picks her up, she quickly
bares her new fangs and bites him.
The
next morning, Thomas checks in with Peters
to see if those missing files ever showed
up. When Peters says he sent Barnes to The
Club to deliver them, they realize Barnes
is now missing, too. Since Bobby's body
has disappeared, Thomas asks for
permission to exhume Billy Schafer's body
for an autopsy. Peters says he'll try and
wonders if Thomas has found some
connection yet. Saying he has a theory,
Thomas begs for a little more time to be
sure. Returning to his lab, Thomas finds
Michelle with a stack of books from the
library, moaning that the librarian
thought she was crazy asking for all these
books on ghouls and vampires. After Peters
calls and says the Schafer family refused
the exhumation request, Thomas hangs up
and tells Michelle that they'll have to
take some drastic action and dig up
Schafer's body themselves. Convinced now
that Thomas really is crazy, Michelle
still leaves to change clothes to help
while he starts tearing through the books.
That
night, Mumawalde shows up at Tina's
apartment. Letting him in, the girl admits
to being oddly attracted to him -- yet
frightened at the same time, and hopes
that he can explain why. Mumawalde tries,
confessing his true origin, saying he is
two-hundred years old, cursed by Dracula,
and how he lost his wife, but now, he has
found her again in Tina. She counters that
Dracula and vampires are just myths, but
Mumawalde assures her that they are as
real as he is. And he needs Tina, but she
must come freely -- assuring her he won't
take her by force. Still not sure,
Mumawalde then uses some reverse-reverse
psychology on the girl, bemoaning that
even though he lives again, he lost his
true love, twice, and will spend eternity
alone.
And,
frankly, I don't see how any woman could
resist the dulcet, seductive tones of
William Marshall.
That
does the trick; Tina tells him to stay,
and as they embrace, Mumawalde surprises
us all by kissing her instead of clamping
onto her neck.
Meanwhile,
at the graveyard, Thomas digs up Schafer's
grave. Michelle holds the light and asks
What does he expect to find? He answers
that, hopefully, all they'll find is a
dead body. Almost on cue, Billy springs
from the unearthed coffin and attacks.
Michelle screams as Thomas beats him with
the shovel, breaks it off, and then
impales the wooden handle into Billy's
heart. Thinking
Thomas just killed someone, Michelle is
beyond hysterics until he convinces her
that Billy was a vampire; he didn't kill
him, but put the pour soul out of his
misery. When she asks if Bobby is the same
way, he solemnly nods affirmative. Needing
to convince Peters, who'll never believe
it without proof,
Thomas remembers Juanita Jones still on
ice back at the morgue. Thomas calls Sam
and tells him to pull Jones' body out of
the cooler, but to leave it alone and lock
the door behind him; no arguments.
Peculiar request aside, Sam follows the
orders to the letter. Leaving the body to
thaw out, he fumbles with the keys to lock
up when the phone starts ringing. Leaving
the door unlocked, he takes the
call.
Rounding
up Peters at his home, Thomas leaves
Michelle there with his wife while the men
head to the morgue. Before they can get
there, Jones, thoroughly thawed out, is up
and on the prowl. As Sam goes over some
paperwork, the door to the morgue flies
open and Jones -- fangs bared, and
screaming her head off -- charges down the
hall toward her prey. When Thomas and
Peters arrive, they find Sam's desk
covered in blood. Cautiously entering the
morgue, they spy a body on the gurney,
covered with a sheet, and when Peters
pulls the sheet back, Jones springs to
life and attacks him. But Thomas fights
her off with a crucifix, chasing her into
a corner, and opens the blinds. Sunlight
floods the room, quickly killing the
vampire.
Back
at Tina's apartment, Mumawalde and Tina
appear to have completed the *ahem*
dirty deed. He gets out of bed and starts
dressing, saying he has to go, for to stay
is to die, because the sun is coming up.
Tina, despite Mumawalde's promises that it
won't hurt, still isn't sure if she's
ready for an eternity of sucking blood. He
will allow her all the time she needs to
decide, and as he leaves, she professes
"I love you."
Confronted
with the overwhelming evidence, Peters has
no choice but to believe in Thomas's
vampire theory. But who'll believe them?
Regardless of the brass, Thomas says they
have to do something, immediately, because
the vampire plague spreads exponentially
and will soon be out of control. Peters
offers to double the night patrols and to
watch for "suspicious"
activities. Thomas also says to put out an
APB for Bobby, though Peters thinks it's
risky to call for the search of someone
whose already dead.
[Adam
12/] "Attention all units.
Attention all units. Be on the lookout
for an effeminate black male, 5'8",
@ 20 years of age, sporting a huge pair
of fangs. Approach with caution and
crucifixes. Over." [/Adam 12]
Since
they won't find any more vampires until
the sun goes down, Peters orders Thomas to
go home and get some rest. Thomas says he
can't; he's got a hunch and has to check
up on something first.
Night
falls, and Thomas and Michelle meet Tina
and Mumawalde at The Club. After they all
order drinks -- Mumawalde orders, of
course, a Bloody Mary (no, I'm not
making this up) -- Thomas starts
asking Mumawalde all sorts of bizarre
questions about vampires and the occult.
Even though he believes there is some
truth to be found in all myths and
legends, Mumawalde
scoffs at Thomas, asking if he believes
that vampires are behind the recent
killings. Thomas says it makes sense; the
vampire does his thing by night and hides
in his coffin by day, where the police
can't find him; but they're organizing a
search of the area to find it. Before the
two can argue further, Skillet arrives and
asks if anyone's seen Nancy lately; no
one's seen her since the party. Turning
his attention to Mumawalde, Skillet offers
to buy his cape. Offended by the constant
harassment, Mumawalde and Tina leave (and
I caught myself trying to leave as well.) Thomas
leaves, too, and heads over to Nancy's
place. She's not home, but there's signs
of foul play: her dark room has been torn
apart and all the pictures are gone. He
sets the imager back up on it's stand;
it's still on, and projecting an image on
the table. When Thomas focuses it, he sees
the picture of Tina talking to a blank
space -- right where Mumawalde should be!
That clinches it: Mumawalde is the head
vampire -- and he's with Tina!
At
Tina's apartment, Mumawalde is begging her
to come with him. And she seems ready to
cave in when they both hear police sirens
approaching. Mumawalde rushes off to
escape just as a police cruiser roars up
and Thomas and two patrolmen get out. They
spy Blacula running away and give chase,
split up, and one of the unlucky patrolmen
catches up and gets his neck broke before
Blacula disappears into the night.
While
Michelle consoles Tina, Thomas breaks the
news that her new lover is a mass
murderer. When they receive a report that
a patrol car spotted Bobby with a new
boyfriend, Thomas says to follow them --
but not to close, in hopes they'll lead
them to Mumawalde's lair. Leaving the
girls at the apartment with a handy
crucifix, Thomas tells Michelle to lock
the door and let no one in. The patrolmen
lost Bobby but they're near the warehouse
where he and Billy were killed, so Peters
figures that must be the place. Surprised
to find Sgt. Barnes already there,
together, they enter the darkened
warehouse. The first sign they're in
trouble is the door mysteriously shuts
behind them by itself, sealing them
inside. Thomas produces another crucifix
and the search presses on until they find
the body of the man Bobby was with. Then
Bobby attacks, and as Thomas wards him off
with the crucifix, more ghouls pop up and
attack. Seems Mumawalde and his brood have
been busy as there are over a dozen
vampires loose in the warehouse. When
Barnes shows his fangs and joins the
attack, the other patrolmen are overrun by
ghouls. Finding a crate of volatile oil
lamps, Thomas and Peters start chucking
them at the vampires. And when these lamps
mysteriously ignite on impact, they
firebomb the vampires -- who are consumed
by the flames. Those they don't burn, they
stake with wood from the busted crates.
Fighting their way towards the door, they
almost make it out when Mumawalde presents
himself. Thanks to Thomas's inadvertent
warning earlier at The Club, he moved his
coffin to a different and safer locale.
He'd also love to stay and chat, but he
has an urgent appointment elsewhere.
Turning into a bat, he flies away.
Knowing
full well he's headed back to Tina, they
hightail it to her apartment, where Tina
is confessing to Michelle that even though
Mumawalde killed innocent people, she
still loves him. (What is it with
women always falling for the bad seeds?) Beating
the vampire there, they decide to set a
trap for him, using Tina as bait. But what
they don't realize is that Mumawalde's
already there, on the roof, watching the
police cordon off the area. Realizing
what's up, he uses his psychic-hypno-whammy
to summon Tina from her bedroom. Message delivered,
he transforms back into a bat and flaps
away. But someone spots him and raises the
alarm. Inside, Thomas checks on Tina but
she's long gone, having snuck out the
bedroom window.
Peters
puts out an A.P.B. on the girl, and a
patrol car spots her, manages not to lose
her, and tails her to some kind of
chemical plant. Tina enters and rendezvous
with her undead lover. They kiss, but soon
hear sirens approaching again and retreat
further into the twisting and turning
metal structure. Outside, several patrol
cars roar up. Thomas, with his crucifix at
the ready, cautiously leads Michelle,
Peters, and about a dozen officers into
the plant. Once inside, they split up and
continue the search. One officer spots
them, and orders them to freeze. They
don't, so he opens fire. (Yep, this
is definitely L.A.) The bullets
don't hurt the vampire at all, but Tina
gets hit, too. This really pisses Blacula
off and he quickly dispatches the officer.
But Tina's wounds appear to be fatal, and
when she begs him to help, Mumawalde asks
her forgiveness for what he's about to do.
Slowly, he moves toward her, and as he
bites down on her neck, Tina rolls her
eyes in orgasmic ecstasy.
As
the others search, Blacula's booming voice
suddenly echoes throughout the building,
promising that no one, especially Thomas,
will get out alive and this building will
now be their tomb. After the announcement,
he starts buzz-sawing through the cops.
But as they meet their gruesome fate, this
gives Thomas and Peters time to find
Blacula's coffin. Peters takes up a stake,
ready to strike, as Thomas hands the
crucifix over to Michelle and prepares to
open the lid. Yanking it open, Thomas sees
Tina is inside but Peters strikes without
looking, plunging the stake into her
heart. Tina jumps up and screams out of
her fanged mouth, and Michelle joins in on
the screaming while her sister writhes in
pain. Tina
finally falls silent, back into the
coffin, but Blacula heard the screams,
too. Ordering them to move away from her,
they slowly move back as he approaches the
coffin. It was a bluff; Thomas and Peters
move to intercept, but Mumawalde stops,
saying there is no reason to attack; he
laments that with Tina gone, he has
nothing left to live for. He spies a
staircase leading up to the light and
changes course.
Peters starts to pursue, but Thomas stops
him.
Blacula
makes it outside and writhes in pain as
the sunlight slowly destroys him; he
collapses, and pulls his cape over the top
of himself. Thomas and Peters catch the
end of this, and when they pull the cape
back, they see (a
not very convincing replica of)
Blacula's head, slowly disintegrating with
maggots crawling in the eye sockets. The
head slowly smolders on until all that's
left is the skeleton.
The
end
Blacula
is another one of those movies that is
cursed by it's own title. (See
also I
Married a Monster from Outer Space.)
Serious horror fans shy away from it;
Blaxploitation fans are disappointed
because there are no foxy mommas, pimps,
or pushers getting their heads busted by a
vengeful soul brother; Camp fans are
disappointed because the film takes it's
subject matter pretty seriously -- sure
there are some inadvertent laughs to be
had, but the badness induced yuks are
pretty scarce; so they all say the film is
dull and boring. But I hink the film is
pretty darn good in spite of it's dubious
title. After that spectacular and ghoulish
opening sequence, you'd think the movie
couldn't keep it up but it's amazingly up
to the task. Usually a film like this --
based on a novel idea, or bizarre gimmick
-- fizzles out by the second reel. Here,
it not only succeeds but flourishes
because it doesn't rely on the gimmick of
"Dracula's soul brother" but
more on the tragic and doomed romance
between Mumawalde and Tina.
A
lot of the credit must be given to
Marshall; the Shakespearean trained actor
with the booming baritone voice brings a
quiet dignity, yet ominous presence to
Mumawalde. The character is pretty
one-dimensional, but Marshall is
incredible; smooth with the ladies, yet
absolutely terrifying when he's got his
dander up.
There
a plenty of things to laugh at, but most
of them have to do with the fashions and
the lingo (and those highly
combustible Atomic Oil Lamps.) Sure
the film has plot-holes and is littered
with anachronisms: Why do all the
patrolmen where those crash helmets? Did
anyone else notice all the patrolmen are
white? How come Mumawalde knows English?
Or suffer from a bad case of jet-lag or
culture shock? Or what a Bloody Mary is
for that matter? Pfeegh.
Minor details. Okay,
there aren't as many actual scares in the
film when compared to, or stacked up
against, the gaffes, but it's the scary
moments that'll stick with you: the
vampire attack in the warehouse is really
effective, as more and more vampires crawl
out of the woodwork, but the most
effective scene is Juanita Jones'
slow-motion attack down the hall at the
morgue; teeth bared, her hair whacked out,
and screaming like a rabid banshee, she
thunders down the hall making it pretty
danged creepy.
Blacula
was a unique film for American
International Pictures. Normally, the fly
by the seat of their pants production
company would come up with an idea,
promotion, or just a title and poster for
a film, and then hammer out a script for
it. The
whole process was kind of ass-backward,
but the formula had worked since the
company began. Here, screenwriters Joan
Torres and Raymond Koenig wrote the
script, adding a supernatural twist on the
burgeoning blaxploitation genre, and when
it wound up on Sam Arkoff's desk, after
reading it in one sitting, the producer
gave it a quick green light and the rest
is history.
And
since Blacula
did so well at the box office, AIP did
what it always did and cashed in by making
more of the same pictures. So, a sequel
was in order, and Scream,
Blacula Scream,
I think, is actually better than the
original. Teaming Marshall with Pam Grier (who
had replaced Vincent Price as AIP's crown
jewel -- not bad considering she started
at the company working as a switchboard
operator), Grier plays a voodoo
priestess who tries to use her juju to
help Mumawalde free himself from Dracula's
curse. (I'll probably review it if
I can track down a copy.) In the
same vein, AIP went on to make a funkified
zombie movie called Sugar
Hill,
based on a script called Mama Voodoo.
They were also involved with the birthing
process of Blackenstein,
but the film quickly lost favor and they
cut it loose. And
that really tells you something if AIP
takes it's name off of it; but believe me,
it is that bad. The
last all black horror movie that AIP did
was funding William Girdler's Abby.
After it was released, the company was
sued by Warner Brother's because it was
basically a (forgive
me for this one) carbon-copy of The
Exorcist.
Since the movie had already made back it's
production cost, and then some, it was
yanked from circulation. And that
was about it for the blaxploitation
monster cycle as the company concentrated,
instead, on actioneers like Coffy,
Truck
Turner
and Black
Caesar.
Blacula
was ground zero and started the whole
blaxploitation monster mix, and along with
it's sequel, is the cream of the
admittedly small crop. So my advice, if
you want to explore it, start here first.
Can you dig it? Solid.
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