Fun viewing for the type of film that it is, but it's not much different and not quite as clever as the 1972 original. In fact, certain elements of the film seem like they were taking directly from the original as if they knew that they would get fans of the original but didn't add much creativity. Prince Mamuwalde has been brought back from the dead through voodoo, his bones being seen as Richard Lawson performs a ritual on them and suddenly finding himself complaining about the fact that he can no longer see his reflection in the mirror. "A man's got to know what he looks like", he says, and he's basically the Igor to William H. Marshall's "Blacula".
One thing is clear. Marshall, like several other big screen and TV vampires, doesn't want to be the living dead, and spouts philosophies throughout the film that reveals the soul underneath the doomed creature of the night. Pamela Grier is his quite beautiful object of affection, so Blacula is a romantic creature at heart, and that does give his character some empathy. But a creature of the night is going to have enemies in the light, and their goal is going to be to destroy what they see as pure evil.
So while this is definite camp and has a few chills, there's nothing new to it, and obviously this would be the end of the line for the chocolate Mr. Toothy. Still, it's worthy of viewing as a Halloween distraction, colorful and frequently funny, and in my view, not worthy for its inclusion on the Golden Turkey list. Definitely not worth any screenplay praise either, and at times, it does go a bit overboard. But there definitely have been worse vampire films, and they are bloodier messes than this is.
One thing is clear. Marshall, like several other big screen and TV vampires, doesn't want to be the living dead, and spouts philosophies throughout the film that reveals the soul underneath the doomed creature of the night. Pamela Grier is his quite beautiful object of affection, so Blacula is a romantic creature at heart, and that does give his character some empathy. But a creature of the night is going to have enemies in the light, and their goal is going to be to destroy what they see as pure evil.
So while this is definite camp and has a few chills, there's nothing new to it, and obviously this would be the end of the line for the chocolate Mr. Toothy. Still, it's worthy of viewing as a Halloween distraction, colorful and frequently funny, and in my view, not worthy for its inclusion on the Golden Turkey list. Definitely not worth any screenplay praise either, and at times, it does go a bit overboard. But there definitely have been worse vampire films, and they are bloodier messes than this is.