An ancient African prince (William Marshall), turned into a vampire by Dracula himself, finds himself in modern Los Angeles.
According to Colin McCracken, this was "the first successful horror film to star an almost entirely black cast". This is probably accurate. And it seems we have William Marshall to thank. The story goes that AIP was going to make just another of their low budget, silly horror films (which are great in their own way), but Marshall wanted to give the film some class and substantially reworked the script. Good for him.
Film historian David Walker says that before this film, "every time you saw a black character in a horror film... it would be a disposable joke of a character." He rightly acknowledges "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) for its contribution, but gives this movie even more credit. As for the "disposable joke" part, this is undoubtedly true, especially when we look back to the 1940s.
In some ways, though, it could be said that "Night of the Living Dead" was even more advanced than "Blacula". While this film has the predominantly black cast, without making them the butt of jokes, George Romero had a black hero in a white world and made no point of addressing this. By having the black man in charge without comment, he "transcended race". In "Blacula", race is a constant factor. By calling it "black horror" rather than just "horror", we see it has not been accepted as mainstream.
According to Colin McCracken, this was "the first successful horror film to star an almost entirely black cast". This is probably accurate. And it seems we have William Marshall to thank. The story goes that AIP was going to make just another of their low budget, silly horror films (which are great in their own way), but Marshall wanted to give the film some class and substantially reworked the script. Good for him.
Film historian David Walker says that before this film, "every time you saw a black character in a horror film... it would be a disposable joke of a character." He rightly acknowledges "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) for its contribution, but gives this movie even more credit. As for the "disposable joke" part, this is undoubtedly true, especially when we look back to the 1940s.
In some ways, though, it could be said that "Night of the Living Dead" was even more advanced than "Blacula". While this film has the predominantly black cast, without making them the butt of jokes, George Romero had a black hero in a white world and made no point of addressing this. By having the black man in charge without comment, he "transcended race". In "Blacula", race is a constant factor. By calling it "black horror" rather than just "horror", we see it has not been accepted as mainstream.