BLACULA

US, 1972, 93 minutes, Colour.
William Marshall, Vonetta Mc Gee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala, Gordon Pinsent, Elisha Cook Jr.
Directed by William Crain.

Blacula comes from the early 1970s when black actors and directors were beginning to make their mark and make popular films like Shaft. William Marshall was one of the stars of the period.

The film is a variation on the Dracula story – adapted for the black audience. William Marshall portrays an African prince who visited Dracula and was bitten by him centuries before. When he is brought to the United States, he goes on a rampage, especially following a woman who reminds him of his wife. The variations on the story from Bram Stoker are wrought in a contemporary situation with a doctor finally tracking Blacula down with the help of the police.

Director William Crain’s career was mainly in writing and television directing – though he made another film in this vein in 1976, Dr Black, Mr Hyde.

1 Why do horror film appeal to wide audiences? What are the horror conventions and why do they appeal?

2. The title of this film and its emphasis on the black aspects? The film as a black film for black audiences? Its quality as a horror film?

3. The particular American emphases in horror? The contrast with the English vampire style? What was particularly American, for example, blacks, car chases, Los Angeles locations etc.?

4. The importance of the prologue and its credibility? As setting a tone for the film? An indication of black themes and race prejudice? Was there sufficient follow-up on these initial indications?

5. Was the transportation of Blacula to America credible? Did the plot have an atmosphere of credibility?

6. Mamualdi as a person? A good man made evil? A presentation of the good and evil In ordinary people? As a vampire figure? His biting and terrorizing his victims? His search for his wife? His love for Tina? His death? Was he an interesting vampire character?

7. Gordon and the police investigations? How interesting? How conventional? Gordin and his relationship to Michelle?

8. Tina as the heroine and victim? Her ordinariness, relationship with Gordin and Michelle, the emotional attraction to Mamualdi? Her taking the place of his wife? Her death and her having to be killed?

9. The various sequences of horror, for example the photographer and her being killed, the taxi driver and the morgue attendant? Was the finale adequate for this kind of horror film? the pathos and horror of the deaths?

10. How good an example of vampire films was this?