Scream Blacula Scream

1973 - American International
Directed By Bob Kelljan


SYNOPSIS

Police suspect a voodoo cult after several blood-less bodies turn up with puncture wounds on their neck. The recently-revived Blacula (William Marshall) is the real culprit and he needs a voodoo master (Pam Grier) to help extricate the demon inside of him so he can become human again and die peacefully.

MY THOUGHTS

This sequel is far superior to the original, not that that's saying much...

Scream Blacula Scream is uneven and has tone problems. Is it camp or is it horror? It seems to be wrestling with itself the entire way. The suspense of several chilling vampire attack scenes is deflated by many cheesy or downright ludicrous moments that occur way too frequently. (Blacula turning into a clearly animated bat, among others)


Those are not the film's only problems.There is little to no action and the makeup effects and the biting/gore are kept to a minimum (likely because of the tiny budget.)
Then there's the ending. It just ends. There's no resolution to the plot. Do the cops get Blacula? Does Blacula get de-vampired? Does Blacula become Pee Wee Herman's King of Cartoons? We'll never know.

William Marshall shows more dimension to the Blacula role here than in the first. He has a great screen presence and stands almost equal to the best of the big screen's vampires. The screenplay helps by almost making him a sympathetic monster like a King Kong. The little humanity left in him wants to extricate the demon inside so he can die and find peace. The inner battle of human vs. monster of the vampire was rarely touched-upon until this film (and later perfected on TV's Buffy The Vampire Slayer.)

Pam Grier showed boatloads of charisma in her star-making blaxploitation classics Coffy and Foxy Brown (made around this time.) Here, she's leaden and dull. But there's not much to her character. She's an expert in voodoo. That's about all we learn. But Marshall and Grier play off each other well.

Scream Blacula Scream is far from the perfect vampire film, but it is still good enough to hold interest for fans of the genre.