Movie Reviews: Scream Blacula Scream

Scream Blacula Scream

directed by Bob Kelljan

Hollywood occasionally notices that Black audiences exist and would like to watch films in which Black actors/actresses are not always the chaste best friend, comic relief, incompetent bad guy, or useless "red shirts" who die to demonstrate the danger for the (usually white) hero/heroine. 

The late sixties and early seventies were one of those times. Scream Blacula Scream was created during that period. Scream Blacula Scream was a sequel to the original, equally unimaginatively titled Blacula. Despite the name, however, neither the original nor the sequel were bland mishmashes of Stoker's Dracula. In the original film--although the time period is off by about three hundred years--- Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall), leader of the African Abani people is traveling Europe to seek support for ending the African slave trade. 

Mamuwalde asks the help of Count Dracula. Unfortunately Dracula is apparently a racist who supports the slave trade. Dracula finds it ludicrous and offensive that any African could call himself a prince. 

Dracula turns Mamuwalde into a vampire and imprisons him, telling him his new name is Blacula. In the seventies, Blacula's sealed coffin was transferred to Los Angeles where the revived Blacula starts turning people into vampires while searching for the reincarnation of his long lost love. He fails at that second task and willingly immolates himself by walking into sunlight. 

This film starts shortly after the first film's events. A religious leader/voodoo Queen is near death. She decides to pass on leadership to her adopted daughter Lisa (Pam Grier) instead of her biological son Willis (Richard Lawson).

Willis is a nitwit with impulse control issues. Rather than take the opportunity for some self-reflection, Willis decides to revenge himself upon his sister by using voodoo. Willis buys Blacula's bones and resurrects the vampire, intending to use him as an undead hitman to eliminate Lisa and any other opposition.

Unfortunately for Willis, his kung-fu is weak. Or rather his voodoo is weak, just as his mother suspected. The revived Blacula bats aside Willis' feeble attempts to control him and instead turns both Willis and his girlfriend into vampires under his control. Curious about Lisa, Blacula seeks her out. Blacula finds that the intelligent Lisa knows a lot about voodoo. Blacula also learns that Lisa has a boyfriend, Justin (Don Mitchell), who is an ex-cop and budding African art expert and archaeologist. 

Blacula hates what he is; he tries to limit his violence and bloodlust to those who deserve it. However the bloodlust always seems to win out. Blacula thinks that Lisa might be key to a solution. Justin is intrigued by Blacula's expert knowledge of African artwork and artifacts and a little worried about this tall stranger making goo-goo eyes at his woman. 

Justin has also noticed the uptick in people found drained of blood. Justin has some ideas about that which he has shared with his genially bigoted former police supervisor, Lieutenant Dunlop (Michael Conrad--later to find fame in Hill Street Blues as Sgt. Esterhaus "Let's be careful out there".)

Despite the looser conventions of the early seventies, Scream Blacula Scream was rather unusual for not playing up the most noticeable attributes of its actresses. I mean when you have Pam Grier and Barbara Rhoades in a low budget film, one might expect some typically revealing costumes. It's what both [not work safe] Grier and Rhoades were known for at the time. But here, whether from contract restrictions, actress decisions, or directorial choice, both actresses are covered up, relatively speaking. This movie could have been made in the fifties as far as that aspect goes. 

William Marshall was a classically trained stage actor who stood an imposing 6'5" and spoke in a rumbling bass voice. Everything about him said MAN. He was a bad fit for the submissive or cartoonish roles available for most Black male actors during most of his career. Here, Marshall dominates the screen and the story. Nobody else can really hang with him which is a pity because when he's offscreen, the movie stalls. 

Kelljan also directed Count Yorga, Vampire. In Scream Blacula Scream Kelljan reuses that film's scenario of a skeptic deliberately trying to delay a vampire from leaving before daylight. It's surprisingly effective. Unfortunately the special effects are not effective at all. They're actually pretty bad. This film does successfully build impending sense of doom through potent use of darkness and silence. There is a vampiric revival which is a creepy as anything in other horror movies. All in all, this movie is saved from being bad by Marshall's presence. Just barely. By a sideburn hair...

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