Skip to main content

Blacula


Blacula is better than any movie with a name that dumb has a right to be. The name is sort of a blessing and a curse. I think a lot of people watch the movie because of the dumb name. I think maybe there are some who refuse to watch it because of the dumb name. It was obviously made with the intention of being a blaxploitation Dracula, but it is better than that idea would make you think it is. It has a story that is interesting, good actors, and special effects that are charming in their cheesiness. The look of the movie seems to owe a lot to the Hammer films that were popular at the time. There is one sort of surprising element that may have actually led to the movie's popularity with general (read white) audiences.

Blacula begins in the late 1700's with a meeting between an African prince and the infamous Count Dracula. The prince wants help to stop the slave trade, but Dracula digs the idea of people as property. He is, after all, a monster. In fact he decides he'd like to own the prince's wife. The prince fights back, so Dracula turns him into a vampire, locks him in a coffin, and leaves his wife to slowly starve to death while she listens to him struggling to escape. Now the obvious setup from this is Blacula taking vengeance on white people, with an ultimate showdown with the Count himself. But that's not the direction the movie takes.


When Blacula gets out of his coffin, his first victims are a mixed race openly gay couple. He kills a black cab driver and a black photographer. He also kills several white cops, but those are mostly because they are chasing him. He doesn't seem intent on any kind of vengeance, but seems more focused on winning the reincarnation of his dead wife. (Speaking of whom, when the gay couple are at the castle her bones are not in the room where she was locked away to die. Did someone come in and clean up in the interim?) The story is more focused on this and on the doctor (who is also a policeman?) who is trying to stop the epidemic of vampires that Blacula leaves in his wake. Incidentally this vampire horde is where the cheesiness comes into play for the movie, with less time and money being spent on fangs and make-up for them than for Blacula himself.


The ending could have used a little editing to tighten up, as it seems to drag just a tad. And there is not much of a climactic showdown, opting instead for a big dramatic moment that actually plays really well. I was struck by just how good a movie this is. Even my 13 year old who mostly wants to watch gore fests like Terrifier enjoyed it. I will say, it is a movie of its' time and has several racist and homophobic slurs throughout. But it also treats it's black and gay characters with a lot of respect. The gay couple is a little bit stereotypical, but not ridiculously so. There are a couple of mentions of racial issues but they do not dominate the narrative or the dialogue. In fact, I felt like if anything they could have been played up more without danger of getting "too preachy". It's not exactly action packed or a scare fest, but it's a solid movie with mostly good acting that keeps your attention throughout. All in all I'd say it's a good addition to any vampire movie marathon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Movies That Really Changed My Life

I have talked about a couple of early movies that changed my life, like  Star Wars  and  The Rocky Horror Picture Show , but I didn't go into detail about how they did so. Star Wars, of course, changed everyone's lives. It was one of those things that made us rethink how we could tell stories and how movies could be made. It nerdified an entire generation and can be said to have led to the culture we have now, dominated by comic book movies and video games. The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened my mind up to different ways of life and expressing sexuality while also promoting messages of positivity and courage in life. (This may not be what people think of when they see that movie, but it's in there. Don't dream it, be it.)  Another movie that really hit me was Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's not-quite-biographical movie about a kid working as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 70's. The Tiny Dancer scene made me think of times when music had helpe...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Fun Pop Culture Facts Strike Back

  Miami Vice's Fancy Duds Miami Vice was a new benchmark for style over substance in television drama. Not saying it wasn't fun to watch, but that had more to do with the soundtrack and the way the show looked than the writing. The show runners knew this too. That's why the wardrobe budget for the pilot alone was $70,000.00. That's in 1984 money too. Zeppelin's Fourth Led Zeppelin's fourth album technically doesn't have a title, the band wanted the music to stand on it's own. It has been referred to as IV (due to it's being the 4th album obviously) and Zoso (due to the rune Jimmy Page chose to represent him which looks like those letters). The most whimsical title I've seen for it was in the book Rock Revolution published by Creem magazine, who called it @#%&. Paid Laughter If you are smart enough, you can turn any skill into a career, no matter how silly it may seem. Take Ann Shalla, who would laugh at almost anything, and had a v...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Lair Of The White Worm

  While Dracula might be his best known work, it is not the only thing Bram Stoker wrote. And it's not even the only thing to get a movie adaptation. Ken Russell is known for making horny,deviant movies, so of course his 1988 loose adaptation of The Lair of the White Worm is both. Featuring a rape scene of a convent full of nuns against a psychedelic backdrop, a snake woman who dresses in vinyl dominatrix boots and slinky lingerie, a human sacrifice where the ritual involves a giant strap on dildo (even Russell apparently got cold feet occasionally, as no attempt was made to employ said dildo), and a weird throwaway pedophilia joke. A couple of future stars are in there (both Peter Capaldi and Hugh Grant have ties to Dr. Who, as well as having worked together again in Paddington 2). And there are some on the cheap 80's special effects that look pretty good all things considered. The movie begins with archeology student Angus doing an impromptu dig at a bed and breakfast run by ...
Post a Comment
Read more