Rating of
3/4
Surpisingly good, despite being tame for the genre
The M.O.W. - wrote on 09/07/08
Centuries ago, the African prince "Mamuwalde" (William Marshall) was bitten by the king of the vampires "Dracula" (Charles Macaulay, who is seen in flashback footage from the first movie). Now, thanks to a voodoo spell, the African vampire returns to 1970's Los Angeles to claim more victims and slaves who are doomed to serve him for eternity.
"Blacula," a bigoted name given to him by "Dracula" in the first movie in this short series of blaxploitation movies, comes across a Voodoo princess (Pam Grier), whom he believes can free him from his curse by performing a Voodoo ceremony.
However, the Voodoo princess, who is named "Lisa," is dating an African art dealer and ex-cop (Don Mitchell) who quickly realizes that the mysterious man with a very memorable voice is, in fact, a member of the undead. He tries to convince a local police investigator "Dunlop" (Michael Conrad) that "Lisa" was not the one who murdered a party-goer at a party he was hosting at his home, but it was a vampire. It takes a few more victims with the same two marks on their necks before "Dunlop" believes that the bodies that are piling up are victims of a vampire.
There are some unique visuals in this movie when it comes to the unique makeup for the vampires. The undead in this movie are the only ones I know of depicted in a movie which gains hair on their face and hair before they attack their victims. Also, for some reason, the vampire's faces are the only parts that turn gray.
There is also little blood in this movie. However, that may have been because of when the movie was released.
The performances from the cast is quite good. However, Marshall's talent is the least used in this film. Although his performance is memorable, he isn't in the film that much despite being the title character.
There are some plot holes in this movie, but they don't take away from the story too bad.
Despite the plot holes, and the overuse of dated slang, Scream, Blacula, Scream might be a good addition to your video/DVD library or a pretty good first-choice rental.
