Don't Believe the Hype

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Accidentally awakened in Los Angeles, an African Prince bitten by Count Dracula finds a young woman who is the reincarnation of his dead wife and woos her while leaving a trail of bodies in his path forcing them to stop the prince before she becomes his new bride.This was pretty good and had a lot to like about it. One of the best parts of the film is the fact that, despite the goofy title, it's premise and threat are entirely straight. The vampire angle is never taken as a joke and the camp factor is toned down compared to others which might take a similar approach due to the subject matter for once. Hearing a few jokes throughout about the cape or the accents are perfectly fine considering that the threat the vampire poses are treated with respect and fear. Also quite refreshing is the lack of overt-blackness in the film that could damage it from being seen by a different audience. This could've been made with a different cast and still would be enjoyable. There's nothing in here that really distinguishes it from either crowd, and it is a major compliment to the film. It is also a decent action film at times as he attacks a large number of victims here, upping his fear factor quite highly as well. The initial sequence that turns him into a vampire is great fun with the initial brawl following the double-cross and his eventual entrapment, the later resurrection is quite thrilling and the vampire attack in the graveyard is a rather enjoyable sequence. Beyond these scenes, the fun of the lengthier scenes gives this a lot to like such as the ambush in the dark-room as the initial attack occurs out of nowhere and the ensuing change into a vampire is handled well, the slow-motion attack in the morgue also gets in a nice scare as the vampire thunders down the hall teeth bared, hair whacked out and screaming like a banshee coming out of nowhere as well as the vampire attack in the warehouse which is really effective as more and more vampires crawl out of the woodwork to constantly plague the heroes, and their frequent charges are pretty creepy. The manner of dealing with them is nicely handled, providing some real action and spectacle to the proceedings. The finale is quite nice, with a great police massacre revealing all manners of deaths for the police squad before the final revelation as the heroes come out into the sun, pulls the cape back revealing a slowly disintegrating head with maggots crawling in the smoldering eye sockets until all that's left is the skeleton. This wasn't all that bad of a film as there wasn't a lot here that didn't work. About the only issue is that the relationships aren't all that convincing. Knowing pretty early on that threat isn't right, which is wisely revealed later on, it's still a little hard to believe that the characters would go into the situations with the knowledge of what's going on. Rather than be a little standoff, there's a willingness to stay despite there being plenty of evidence to support the views. Being this and a bit of cheese, though, nothing much sticks out as being that wrong with it.Rated R: Violence and Language.

A movie with a funny racist name that does not really treat the character differently from any other colored character. The movie starts with a cliché thunderclap and castle, where we are introduced to the infamous count Dracula himself and the soon to be blacula. The opening quickly establishes an initial set up and a good first impression of our main character. While the count provides us with the racism expected from the title. The fight scenes – if one can call them that – have poor choreography and are an embarrassment but taking the release date of this film in account (1972) could be considered nostalgic. Almost all the supporting vampires have zero to none acting ability or are overacting on purpose. The music is horrible in creating any kind of suspense but succeeds in other scene's when cutting to African groovy street music. Not 5 min in the movie, we have our first title drop after the count dooms Mamuwalde (Blacula) to his fate. The movie then cuts to what I personally found the most awkward opening ever. After which a flash forward to 150 years later follows. The first scene goes 180° in regards to the opening, where we see a mixed gay couple making the unfortunate purchase of blacula in his coffin and shipping said coffin to Los Angeles where the entire movie takes place. While at first thinking that the title might have been misleading and the movie would be about progress: being open to people of color and partner choices. This presumption is however quickly stomped back in the ground when the above mentioned couple is later multiple times referred to as the 'faggots'. Throughout the movie we have a black main cast with a supportive white cast including generic stormtrooper like cops. The only 2 fleshed out characters are blacula and his nemesis the doctor. Blacula is a funny poetic bitch slapping vampire and the doctor is a smart badass. The movie does a good job keeping the vampire mythos classic with the only missing element being garlic but this would have solved the vampire problem too easy. What was supposed to be a monster movie turns out to be a love tragedy about our beloved blacula missing his deceased wife but having no problems choosing the first black woman he sees as a substitute. The substitute in question is Tina, a character who is very fast love struck by the smooth count to a point of going against her friends. Another remark is that blacula is very OK with being in the future and adapts really well. Without any spoilers the movie is a better love story than twilight but the ending could have been handled much better. Overall the movie isn't bad, passing is good even though it feels like it's missing something. The current rating of 5.6/10 at IMDb fits this movie well. Recommend watching this with friends and/or alcohol.

SPOILERS! This was a film I had heard about for years. I recalled J.J. describing it as "a brother gives a bunch of foxy mammas hickeys," or something of the sort on Good Times.I actually found it quite entertaining. It stacks up well with other 1970s vampire films. I never quite got the "Blaxploitation" tag for films about black characters in the 1970s. The very name of the genre indicates blacks are being taken advantage of. If films with primarily black casts, aimed largely at black audiences is exploitation, what is the rap/hip hop industry?In any case, I found it an enjoyable film. Bass-voiced and classically-trained William Marshall was perfect for the role of Prince Mamuwalde, who came back after 200 years as Blacula. Thalmus Rasulala, a frequent face in TV shows, was outstanding as police detective Dr. Gordon Thomas. (Again, a black cop with an M.D., solving crimes & apparently well-respected by at least part of a large metropolitan police force in the early 1970s is exploitation?)Vonetta McGee and Denise Nicholas are strong as the two female leads, especially McGee in the dual role as the 18th-century princess and the modern-day Tina. No doubt, 99 percent of the audience was rooting for Mamualde to make her a vampire in time to escape and join him in vampiric matrimony. Mamuwalde is the only case I can think of in film history of a vampire suicide, at the end.Overall it is worthwhile watching for anyone who loves the vampire genre, "blaxploitation" films or who is a fan of any of the primary cast members.

At the beginning of the film, we see the first black actor William Marshall who plays the well known blood killer Dracula and his wife being invaded by vampires. It's a good idea but it pretty much didn't make any sense of me because it wasn't necessarily based on the real Dracula! I really would've thought that they would make this movie based on Dracula as it would've made sense then. Now, I'm gonna fast forward to the near end, Tina shouldn't have stayed in the coffin and get killed by a friggin stick! It just didn't stand out too well for this film and Dracula committing suicide by daylight already! C'mon what kind of ending was that?! He should've saved Tina like he is meant to be the most powerful vampire in the world right?! God its really a disaster!Also with the title, it just sounds so racist like, they shouldve stuck with the name Dracula, that's what I'm saying!