History Film / Blacula

The plot: In 1780, African Prince Mamuwalde and his lovely wife Tuva (Vonetta [=McGee=]) visit Transylvanian [[{{Dracula}} Count Dracula]], to dine and discuss a proposition put forth by Mamuwalde: end the slave trade out of Africa. Dracula finds this idea ridiculous, given the "merit" he feels is inherent in slavery. He then makes a pass at Tuva. This leads into a fight between Mamuwalde and Dracula's {{mook}}s, and both are captured. Dracula turns Mamuwalde into a vampire, names him "Blacula," and seals him in a coffin, leaving poor Tuva to die helplessly beside the coffin in a chamber in the dungeon below the castle.

* TookALevelInJerkass: In the first movie, Blacula was often polite and rarely violent except when he needed to feed, refusing to force Tina to love him. After being brought back, even before [[spoiler:ThenLetMeBeEvil the end]], he's much crueler to the vampires he turns, forcing Willis to stay in his house and reminding him that he's a slave to him now. Then again, coming back to unlife against his will might have something to do with his personality shift.
* VampireMonarch: While Mamuwalde was also this in the first movie, this film emphasizes it when he commands his vampire minions that Lisa is not to be harmed, lest they suffer his punishment. He also exerts his power when Willis' girlfriend, whom Willis turned, get a bit too uppity at him at one point.

* VoodooDoll: Lisa uses one to in the ritual to restore his humanity. [[spoiler: As well as uses it to kill him in the climax.]]

* RealityEnsues: As Billy learns, vampire or not, being hit with a shovel will incapacitate you.

* BuryYourGays: Gay couple Bobby [=McCoy=] and Billy Schafer are Blacula’s first victims.

* RiseFromYourGrave: Gloria, one of the Blacula's victims and a friend of Lisa, wakes up in her coffin during her wake, right in front of Lisa.

* TookALevelInJerkass: In the first movie, Blacula was often polite and rarely violent except when he needed to feed, refusing to force Tina to love him. After being brought back, even before his [[spoiler:ThenLetMeBeEvil at the end]], he's much crueler to the vampires he turns, forcing Willis to stay in his house and reminding him that he's a slave to him now. Then again, coming back to unlife against his will might have something to do with his personality shift.

''Blacula'' is a 1972 horror film, produced by Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures, featuring the {{blaxploitation}} version of the ''{{Dracula}}'' character. It stars William Marshall (who some may recognize as The King of Cartoons from the later Saturday-morning television series ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'') in the title role. The movie was successful enough to spawn a sequel a year later and also inspired [[FollowTheLeader a number of imitators]], including ''Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde'' (which like ''Blacula'' itself was directed by William Crain). Blacula was also prominently featured in the fanfilm ''Film/BloodsuckersAnonymous'' as one of the main protagonists.

* HateSink: Though Dracula is only onscreen for the first 10 minutes of the movie, but he manages to show that despite being a vampire who deems himself superior to humanity, he's not all that selective with his racism.

* SaltAndPepper: Gordon Thomas and Lt. Peters.

* HateSink: Though he's only onscreen for the first 10 minutes of the movie, but he manages to show that despite being a vampire who deems himself superior to humanity, he's not all that selective with his racism.

* TookALevelInJerkass: In the first movie, Blacula was often polite and rarely violent, refusing to force Tina to love him. After being brought back, even before his [[spoiler:ThenLetMeBeEvil at the end]], he's much crueler to the vampires he turns, forcing Willis to stay in his house and reminding him that he's a slave to him now.

* TookALevelInJerkass: In the first movie, Blacula was often polite and rarely violent, refusing to force Tina to love him. After being brought back, even before his [[spoiler:ThenLetMeBeEvil at the end]], he's much crueler to the vampires he turns, forcing Willis to stay and reminding him that he's a slave to him now.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Dracula finds slavery a good idea in the intro. Again, he ''is'' a monster that makes a habit of turning people into his undead slaves.

* TragicMonster: Blacula himself, turned into vampire by Dracula and forced to give in to his vampiric urges. He actually seems like a decent person most of the time, and the sequel goes a little further, with him trying to get Lisa to undo the vampirisim on him via a voodoo ritual.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Blacula drags himself out into the daylight after Tina is shot, and thus lost to him forever.]]

* MythologyGag: Mamuwalde's backstory in the first movie is heavily influenced from TheMummy. Here it comes full circle, with [[spoiler: the heroine being a priestess and coming into her full powers to destroy Mamuwalde in the end.]]

* BackFromTheDead: Well it ''is'' a sequel. But yeah, [[spoiler: Blacula returns when Willis uses a voodoo ritual to bring him back. Largely as a way to have him kill Lisa when she's named head of their voodoo family.]]

* VampireMonarch: While Blacula was also this in the first movie, this film emphasizes it when he commands his vampire minions that Lisa is not to be harmed, lest they suffer his punishment. He also exerts his power when Willis' girlfriend, whom he turned, get a bit too uppity at him at one point.
* VampiresSleepInCoffins: Just before the raid on Willis house, we see a lower section where coffins are kept and the vampires within waking up to go combat the intruder.
* VoodooDoll: Lisa uses one to in the ritual to restore his humanity [[spoiler: as well as uses it to kill him in the climax.]]

* RaiseFromYourGrave: Gloria, one of the Blacula's victims, wakes up in her coffin during her wake, right in front of Lisa.

* TheStarscream: Willis at the start when he isn't named the next voodoo head of the family and instead Lisa, who was adopted into the family, is the one who gained the title. The story kicks off when he resurrects Blacula to kill her for him, only to be bitten, turned and put under Blacula's power instead.

* VampireMonarch: While Blacula was also this in the first movie, this film emphasizes it when he commands his vampire minions that Lisa is not to be harmed, lest they suffer his punishment.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Blacula's goal in this one. Once he finds out Lisa has voodoo heritage, he asks her to help break the vampire curse. [[spoiler: She comes close, but the cops interupting the ritual spoils things at the last minute.]]
* MuggingTheMonster: Attempted by a couple of pimps. Blacula puts them in their place easilly
* {{Sequel}}: 1973's ''Scream Blacula Scream'', which has the vampire revived by Voodoo cultists (and co-stars Creator/PamGrier).

* TheStarscream: Willis at the start when he isn't named the next voodoo head of the family and instead Lisa, who was adopted into the family, is the one who gained the title. The story kicks off when he ressurects Blacula to kill her for him, only to be bitten, turned and put under Blacula's power instead.

* AnimatedCreditsOpening: Which, like the rest of [[TheSeventies the '70s]], is funky as hell! (Watch it [[http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/blacula/ here]].)
* AntagonistTitle: The film is named after its bad guy.

* CampGay: The two men who unwittingly purchase Blacula's coffin are ''very'' flamboyant. Well, they are from California and all.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Mamuwalde encountering the reincarnation of his wife in the exact time and place where he's freed from his long confinement certainly counts.
* CreepyCemetery: Dr. Thomas and his girlfriend exhume one of Blacula's now-vampirized victims in one of these.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The African Prince Mamuwalde approaches the European nobleman Dracula suggesting that all of the slave trade in Africa be ended. Dracula does not agree, finding the very notion laughable. Indeed, as shown with his undead harem of girls at the beginning of the film, he himself makes a habit of turning people into his unwilling slaves -- and proceeds to do exactly this to Mamuwalde.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Blacula drags himself out into the daylight after Tina is shot, and thus lost to him forever.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: Count Dracula in this movie. He never appears again beyond the prologue, but he is very much responsible for Mamulwade's condition and far more evil than the eponymous AntiVillain.

* KarmaHoudini: Count Dracula does not reappear after the prologue. Then again, the beginning of the movie is set prior to the events of [[Literature/{{Dracula}} the main novel]], so he does eventually pay for his crimes, just not by Blacula's hands.
* KillItWithFire: Several vampires (but not Blacula himself) are dispatched in this manner.
* MaleGaze: During one of the musical numbers at the nightclub, we get some gratuitous closeups of the female singer's (and various female dancers') scantily-clad anatomy. Not to mention Tina's legs, when Blacula is following her from the funeral parlor.

* MuggingTheMonster: Attempted by a couple of pimps in the sequel.

* ReincarnationRomance: Mamuwalde's wife, Tuva, is apparently reincarnated as Tina, whom he pursues relentlessly.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Blacula, in the climax:
-->"Dr. Thomas! You and your dear friends are dead! Not one man shall escape my vengeance! Not one man shall leave here alive! Search out every shadow, every corner! This will be your inglorious tomb! Your tomb! Your tomb! Your tomb!"
* SaltAndPepper: Gordon Thomas and Lt. Peters.
* SealedEvilInACan: Blacula, trapped for over nearly two centuries in a sealed coffin, until the two CampGay men unleash him.

* {{Sequel}}: 1973's ''Film/ScreamBlaculaScream'', which has the vampire revived by Voodoo cultists (and co-stars Creator/PamGrier).
* ShesGotLegs: Reflecting the fashion of the period, Tina wears extremely short dresses in a couple of scenes.

* SuicideBySunlight: [[spoiler:Blacula ends his un-life this way, once he decides that there's nothing to keep him in the world anymore.]]
* TimeSkip: From 1780 to 1972 after the intro.

* UnexplainedAccent: Dracula speaks with a British accent, despite being a Romanian played by an American. The accent ''would'' make sense if he was getting ready for his trip to Britain, but this takes place over a hundred years before he leaves.
* VampireHunter: Dr. Gordon Thomas.
* WakingUpAtTheMorgue: One of Blacula's unfortunate victims rises from death after her body is removed from the freezer and defrosts.

The story was continued in a 1973 sequel, ''Scream Blacula Scream,'' in which Mamuwalde is resurrected by an angry young man to kill Lisa (Creator/PamGrier), the new leader of a group of voodoo practicioners. Instead he tries to get her help in curing him of his vampirism.

[[quoteright:285:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blacula_1972_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:285:Deadlier than {{Dracula}}!]]

* TheFutureIsShocking: Oddly averted. Vampire or no, you'd expect Mamuwalde to be at least somewhat nonplussed by the abrupt transition from the 18th Century to 1972 L.A., but if so he doesn't show it.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blacula_1972_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:280:Deadlier than {{Dracula}}!]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The African Prince Mamuwalde approaches the European nobleman Dracula suggesting that all of the slave trade in Africa be ended. Dracula does not agree, finding the very notion laughable. Indeed, as he shows with his undead harem of girls at the beginning of the film, he himself makes a habit of turning people into his unwilling slaves -- and proceeds to do exactly this to Mamuwalde.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The African Prince Mamuwalde approaches the European nobleman Dracula suggesting that all of the slave trade in Africa be ended. Dracula does not agree, finding the very notion laughable. Indeed, as he shows with his undead harem of girls at the beginning of the film, he makes a habit of turning people into his unwilling slaves -- and proceeds to do exactly this to Mamuwalde.

* AnimatedCreditsOpening: Which, like the rest of [[TheSeventies the '70s]], is funky as hell!