Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Blacula Blu-ray Movie Review

"I curse you with my name! You shall be... Blacula!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 16, 2023

The name "Blacula" has been whispered in cult horror circles for decades. I've heard the name. I've watched as friends grin when the flick is mentioned. I've seen the iconic shots from the movie, even the nods and references on classic episodes of SNL and other '70s and '80s sitcoms. And yet Blacksploitation Prince of Darkness Blacula has eluded me all these long years. I nearly laughed out loud and shuddered with joy (seriously) when Sandpiper Pictures announced its high definition release alongside a fleet of other other potentially campy catalog gems. I'm a dork, I know. But one of the delights of this gig is being "forced" to watch cult classics I might not make the time for otherwise. Does Blacula hold up? Surprisingly so. It's something of an era-bound blast too, partially because William Marshall, a Shakespearean stage actor with the voice of a velvety underworld god, is so sincere and so unironically good. Although it's also important to be in the right headspace going in. Cherry-apple blood, hisses that flash fangs, a high collared cloak, glowing crosses, flaming vamps, afro'd Van Helsings... how has it taken me this long to bask in the tragic, dramatic horror'sploitation that is Blacula?

'Blacula' rewrites vampirc lore with the story of Mamuwalde (William Marshall), an African prince who, in 1780, travels to Transylvania to seek the help of one Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) in hindering the slave trade. But after being mocked and bitten, he's cursed with vampirism and locked inside a coffin within a crypt. His wife Luva (Vonetta McGee) is left in the sealed crypt with the coffin to die, separated by mere inches from the love of her life. The devastated Mamuwalde awakes nearly two-hundred years later, in 1972, after two gay interior decorators transport the coffin to Los Angeles. When the pair open the coffin, though, they unwittingly unleash the insatiably hungry and still grieving prince -- rechristened "Blacula" by the Count -- on the city. After escaping, strengthened after feasting on the interior decorators, Blacula encounters Tina (also played by McGee), a woman who bears more than a striking resemblance to Luva, leaving the once human prince convinced that fate has reincarnated Luva and reunited him with his love. However, Tina's sister Michelle (Denise Nicholas) and her husband, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), an LAPD pathologist who conveniently believes a vampire is to blame for a recent string of murders, race to save Luva, prove vampires exist to Gordon's superior Jack Peters (Gordon Pinsent), and to stop Blacula from terrorizing the city once and for all.

"Blacula is the only vampire I am aware of who is not enjoying his drinks," said Marshall of his now iconic blaxploitation vamp, and if you have a moment to watch one of the rare interviews with Marshall you can find on YouTube, I highly recommend doing so. It's Marshall's gravitas and the pathos he infuses into his Dracula stand-in that makes Blacula an entirely different movie than most people expect going in. (Raises hand and nods.) The film itself had a budget of a mere $500,000 and its star had no interest whatsoever in playing the character when he was first pitched the part by producer Joseph Naar. He, like so many modern moviegoers, assumed Blacula would be pure, unadulterated camp. Instead, he soon learned, the goal was much loftier and the opportunity to bring something deeper to what might otherwise have become a forgotten-in-a-blink '70s comedy. The script was rewritten, tragedy, self-loathing and grief were pushed to the forefront, and Marshall's co-stars found themselves at the helm of something new, unique and... serious? Oh, there's camp aplenty, but only unintentional camp that bloomed as the years ticked away from the 1970s to the modern era. The film's low budget, stocky action, silly vampire tussles and other elements haven't aged well at all. But the actors' performances and, again, their desire to separate the tone of the film from the tone suggested by its title, has kept Blacula alive in the hearts and minds of horror fans and exploitation genre aficionados for decades.

The thing that charmed me so much is that I could feel my brain watching Blacula, simultaneously, in two completely different ways. The first was as it was intended, and as audiences and critics encountered in 1977 in small theaters across the country. The second was as so many have enjoyed it in the 2000s, full of the camp and unintentional laughs that, truth be told, Marshall would be aghast to know was apart of the film's legacy. But film evolves, or devolves as it were. It changes and can be embraced on its merits or with new sensitivities, sensibilities or delights. What matters is that this little "Dracula" adaptation that could takes its cues from Bram Stoker rather than Shaft (when the latter was likely far more tempting), as well as the fact that it legitimately holds its own as a worth entry in the catalog of noteworthy vampire flicks. Marshall isn't playing to a comedy crowd, nor does Blacula simply swap out Jonathan, Mina, Lucy and Van Helsing with black stereotypical heroes and villains of the day. It isn't a simple crowd pleaser or popcorn flick. It's a respectable adaptation, with sharp ideas and a boldness oozing with a very distinct attitude of 1970s rebellion and originality. This may have been my first visit with Blacula but it won't be my last, and I suspect the film will grow me more and more each time.

Blacula Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sandpiper, working with a solid but slightly flawed master, brings Blacula to Blu-ray with a notable 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer. Grain occasionally has a less-than-filmic appearance, no doubt the result of a bit of heavy handed noise reduction that's more easily spotted in problematic shots and extremely dark sequences. (Where grain likely would have spiked substantially and where far smoother, almost ink-blotted fine details reside in its place.) However, barring those thankfully infrequent instances, the film fares quite well. Grain is typically reliable and consistent, and rarely hinders the nuances of facial lines, hair or costume fabrics. Detail is more than decent, with clean, natural edges and reasonably well-resolved textures, even if the film overall often features a softer 1970s appearance than it might have had Blacula been granted a more thorough, technically proficient, high budget restoration. Colors, though, are more than adequately represented here, with striking primaries, exciting bursts of red, bottomless black levels, and warm, lifelike flesh tones. Contrast is also excellent, bringing a welcome vibrancy to the image without draining it of the lifeblood of its original photography. This is probably as close as fans will get to William Crain and cinematographer John M. Stephens intentions for the film in the foreseeable future.

Blacula Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blacula's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is less exciting but nevertheless represents a dutiful, faithful presentation of the film's original sound design. Voices are intelligible and well-prioritized, minus a handful of instances where volume leveling and other on-set/post-production audio issues impede fidelity. Likewise, sound effects are largely canned and tinny, but come with the low budget '70s horror territory. There obviously isn't any LFE support or rear speaker activity to speak of. That said, that doesn't mean the mix is weightless and ineffective.

Blacula Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sandpiper's Blu-ray release of Blacula includes a trailer. Nothing more.

Blacula Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blacula took me by surprise and definitely was not the film I was expecting. And yet I still enjoyed it as a walker of two worlds: serious '70s blaxploitation that holds up remarkably well and, at the exact same time, campy nostalgia that hasn't aged so well. Its Blu-ray also walks two worlds, albeit less successfully: one in which it offers a solid AV presentation, the other in which its video transfer is a bit flawed, its lossless audio offering doesn't include a new 5.1 remix, and its supplemental package amounts to little more than a trailer.