Scream Blacula Scream

As a film student at a university I will not identify, I must say that in spite of all its obvious limitations, I loved this film! In fact, I think it is equal if not better than the original "Blacula.' It is disappointing to me that many liberals (well, I am a moderate one myself) see these films as being politically incorrect stereotypes. I would argue that these were African-Americans making their own films and that they effectively broke or modified the stereotypes by taking them to extremes their own way. I think William Marshall is great in this film. He almost makes a better vampire than Bela Lugosi, but I don't know if I can put him alongside the great Max Shrek ("Nosferatu"). I was battling a case of the blues when I saw this,now happy days are here once again! Isn't that what movies are all about anyway? But, I do want to add one thing. Obviously, it is not an exceptional work of art. I gave it a 7 out of 10, but I did really, really enjoy this one!

William Marshall makes a second and final appearance as the vampire Blacula whom you thought might have been killed off. But he returns in this film to become part of a power play in a voodoo cult.

As the queen of a cult lays dying her last act is to select Pam Grier as her successor passing over her son Richard Lawson. Lawson ain't about to have anything of that so obtains the bones of the now legendary Blacula and with a few incantations Blacula reappears. But he lets Lawson know that as a vampire and an African prince he ain't about to be doing his bidding.

In fact when he hears that Grier has powers and abilities far beyond the usual voodoo black arts practitioner and she might even cure his vampirism Marshall starts seeing thing her way in the power struggle. Marshall wants Grier to start doing the voodoo she does so well.

In all of this former police detective and now writer of the occult Don Mitchell tries to be the Van Helsing of the film. But he's not up to the task as Thalmus Rasulala was in the original Blacula.

I guess there were no more demands for future Blacula sequels so with these two films Marshall got one of his two career roles, the other being Dr. Dengstrom in a Star Trek episode. Scream Blacula Scream was an enjoyable piece of entertainment in the horror genre.

But as I said before Marshall came along too soon or he would have been James Earl Jones.

"Let the cartoooooooooooon begin!" Sorry, but for my generation William Marshall is best remembered as The King of Cartoons from Pee Wee's Playhouse, but little did I realize that he was originally the super cool vampire Prince Mamuwalde AKA Blacula! Marshall returns in this sequel that's surprisingly good. Having been vanquished at the end of the first film, Blacula is resurrected by a drug dealer who wants to use Blacula to exact his revenge. Blacula instead turns the dealer into part of a vampire army he commands for his own ends, part of which is securing Pam Grier, who hadn't broke out yet with "Coffy" which was released this same year. The vampires are creepy, the voodoo themed storyline is entertaining, and the film features a strong leads in Marshall and Grier. Overall, this is pretty silly blaxploitation film, but it's also quite entertaining in a camp sort of way. And look fast for Craig T. Nelson as a police sergeant.

"Scream Blacula Scream" of 1973 is a funky and fun to watch sequel to the minor Classic "Blacula" which brought Vampires into Blaxploitation cinema for the first time the year before. The success of "Blacula" also spawned a bunch of other Blaxploitation Horror flicks, such as "Blackenstein", "Ganja & Hess" or "Abby". The sequel basically has the same qualities and faults as the original. "Scream Blacula Scream" once again delivers a groovy 70s feeling, and William Marshall is more than cool in the eponymous role. What makes this film especially worthwhile is the casting of the queen of blaxploitation, the wonderful Miss "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown" herself, Pam Grier. I also liked how Voodoo was added to the plot. While it is again a cool film with a funky atmosphere "Scream Blacula Scream" is (as it was the case with the original) never creepy or scary in any way. What also disappointed me about the original was the lack of sleaze and violence, and the same is the case here, too. Nonetheless, "Scream Blacula Scream" is fun to watch. Mamuwalde alias Blacula (William Marshall) is resurrected by voodoo. As in the first part, Mamuwalde is not really a villain, but merely a tormented soul, who cannot help but turn into Blacula to satisfy his thirst for human blood in order to survive. Soon after his resurrection, he runs into Lisa (Pam Grier) a beautiful young woman who has particularly powerful Voodoo-skills... What follows are 90 minutes of goofy, but entertaining fun in funky 70s style. This is certainly no highly memorable blaxploitation effort, but it is a good time-waster and definitely fun to watch.

On the contrary. Scream Blacula is the best of the two Blacula films. It has two of the scariest scenes in horror film history and some of the most ironic and funniest. William Marshall is an excellent actor and his regal portrayal of the cursed black prince. It was quite interesting to see Pam Grier play against type (at the time, at least) as a vulnerable female -- who happened to be a voodoo priestess. I was a kid when I saw this for the first time and the scene where William Marshall pounces on this unsuspecting fella on the stairwell still scares the hell out of me. I have often wondered why no one has done a remake of this film series, with the resurgence of black film making.

I would recommend this film and it's predecessor (Blacula) very highly.