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Scream, Blacula, Scream [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


Our Price: £6.35 (subject to change)

Say it with me Blaaaa-cuuuu-lalalalala. "Bleah, bleah, bleah. Hi I'm Blacula!",
Review date: 2007-10-16 Rating: 6 out of 10

One of my friends knew that I love Blax and Pam Gier films so she thought this was suitable gift me and for the month of horror. William Marshall returns in this follow up to Blacula, although more of a true horror flicks than the first one, it just isn't as good. If there is one thing that can be said for these Blacula flicks, is that they are definitely trend setting. Firstly, the original movie, while crappy, did balance the racial scales a bit by finally portraying a prominent African character as a feature vampire as opposed to the androgynous Eastern European ones that we usually get. Granted, the notion didn't really advance much beyond that, as all we have had since then in the way of African-American vampires is the cheesy "Vampire In Brooklyn" with Eddie Murphy.

In the first film Manuwalde was searching for his lost love and just happened to kill a few people in doing so, and then there was the sweet ending. However in this flick, Manuwalde is in more of a bad mood after being awakened from his eternal rest. In here, Prince Manuwalde has once again risen from the grave, but this time things are going to be different. Brought back from the void by a voodoo cult, Manuwalde sets about making a vampire horde to start a new kingdom, with him as king. Unfortunately for Manuwalde, a nosey cop and an occultist will be there to try and stop the undead African prince.

"Scream Blacula Scream" has it's moments like the first film plus raises the bar by showcasing a vampire who is struggling with his own inner bloodlust. Prior to this, most movie vampires relished their monstrous existence and sought for nothing more than to become the most fearsome nightmare in the land. But SBS humanizes the Manuwalde character a bit by showing the lengths he is willing to take to get rid of his vampiric side. Think about it - this guy comes completely out of the closet to a chick he barely even knows in the hopes of finding a resolution to his dietary dysfunction. That's pretty brave!

One of the best lines is after Manuwalde makes a gang guy one of his minions the newbie vamp looks in a mirror then at his master and says "I can handle the vampire stuff, but a man needs to see his face," good stuff. Also watching the police department storm the vampire lair is a blast. Marshall gets some fine companionship in this film as well when Pam Grier joins the cast as a voodoo priestess named Lisa. But all and all this one just isn't as fun as the first film, but it tries. William Marshall is great as Manuwalde and even keeps those funky side burns from the first film. Hey, if you're gonna be a vampire in the seventies you might as well have some style, but the character just can't carry the entire film this time around as "Scream Blacula Scream" just doesn't have the heart of the first film.


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Reviews


An impressive sequel to the classic blaxploitation original
Review date: 2005-07-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

In my opinion, Scream, Blacula, Scream is every bit as good as Blacula. Rather than offering a pedestrian rehash of the whole vampirism story of the original, the sequel throws another powerful force, that of voodoo, into the mix and gives the film a whole new direction. William Marshall is just as good as before in the title role, and he meets up with a worthy possible antagonist in Pam Grier, who plays the gifted voodoo priestess he seeks out for help. Blacula, resurrected in his undead state with no further possibility of reclaiming the modern incarnation of his beloved bride, now seeks to break the curse that has made him a bloodthirsty, yet exceedingly cool, pariah on society. That doesn't mean he's not going to keep killing people and turning them into vampires in the meantime, however, so expect more jugular action as this film winds its way to a conclusion.

If you've seen the first film, you know Blacula just didn't wake up and return to his vampire ways. It had to take something extraordinary to put that bag of bones back together - something like, say, a voodoo ritual. The local voodoo cult just so happens to be divided after the leader dies without naming a successor. The dead high priestess' son Willis (Richard Lawson) claims the top position, but everyone else defers to Lisa (Pam Grier). Willis wants revenge, and he finds what he thinks is the perfect instrument in the form of the resurrected Blacula. Of course, nobody tells Blacula what to do, and Willis is immediately made the first of the vampire's new minions (and he is far from happy when he learns he can no longer admire his good looks and unique fashion sense in the mirror). A number of vampiric murders ensue, drawing the critical eye of the local police, but Blacula sets his sights on Lisa once he realizes that her voodoo gifts may hold the power to free him of his horrible curse. Her boyfriend Justin (Don Mitchell), a former cop, is the first to put all the clues together, and all parties collide in the film's concluding scenes. Will Blacula be freed of his dreadful curse?

Scream, Blacula, Scream lacks some of the humor of the first film, and it doesn't really try as hard to scare the audience, either. Even still, I enjoyed this film as much as I did the original. It's really an impressive sequel, coming only a year after Blacula singlehandedly brought the blaxploitation horror subgenre to life. Pam Grier fans will be disappointed if they expect to see the bad action star of Foxy Brown and other films, but the character of Blacula should satisfy most of your butt-kicking needs. Personally, I think the filmmakers should have gone with the alternate title Blacula is Beautiful, but this is still a must-have blaxploitation horror film that looks and sounds better than ever thanks to modern technology.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
William Marshall
Pam Grier
Don Mitchell
Richard Lawson
Michael Conrad

Creators:
William Marshall (Primary Contributor)
Don Mitchell (Primary Contributor)
Isidore Mankofsky (Cinematographer)
Fabien D. Tordjmann (Editor)
Joseph T. Naar (Producer)
Joan Torres (Writer)
Maurice Jules (Writer)
Raymond Koenig (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: MGM
Manufacturer: MGM
EAN: 9780792859192
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 0792859197
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2004-01-20
Universal product code (UPC): 027616902191
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 96 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1973-06-27
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)

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