Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Origin By Josh Whedon and Dan Brereton

 Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Origin 

By Josh Whedon and Dan Brereton

This comic is often considered volume 0 and is adapted straight from Whedon's original script of the film. It was released as a 5 issue mini-series that ran from January 1999 to March 1999 printed by Dark Horse comics. Now Mr. Brerton wrote the comic itself, he's an American-born artist and writer known mostly for his work in comics. His best-known works are the comics Nocturnals and Giantkiller. Before I get into the comic itself though, we got into Joss Whedon. 

Whedon was born on June 23, 1964, in New York City. The middle born of 5 kids, all boys and a 3rd generation television writer. Whedon's father wrote for the Golden Girls and his grandfather was a writer on the Dick Van Dyke show. Whedon attended Winchester College in England and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987. He worked as a staff writer on Roseanne and Parenthood and was an uncredited writer on films like Speed, Waterworld, and Twister. He also co-wrote Toy Story, an early draft of Atlantis the Lost Empire, Titan AE, and Alien Resurrection, although he has publicly stated dissatisfaction with Alien Resurrection and Titan AE (I however am insane, and actually kinda like Alien Resurrection.  Mostly because Brad Dourif is my creeper-patronus, Winona Rider is always great, and I picked Signourney Weaver as my Mandatory Gay-Man’s Pop-Icon.  Kill me #RipleyClones.). 

His big break was when he convinced enough people to give Buffy Summers a second chance and produce a television show that became, well, huge. He then produced the spin-off Angel and went on to write or direct a large part of modern nerd pop culture. Television shows like Firefly and the film Serenity, a 24 issue run on The Astonishing X Men, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The films Cabin in the Woods, Avengers, Avengers Age of Ultron. Joss Whedon was rapidly becoming... The King Nerd on Nerd Mountain if you'll excuse my bluntness but here's where we got to grab the bull by the horns. 

Because things started to surface, there was a letter from his ex-wife accusing him of infidelity and predatory behavior throughout their marriage. This simmered for a few years until in 2020 Ray Fisher accused Whedon of unprofessional behavior on the set of Justice League. Fisher was supported by his co-star Jason Momoa and Gal Godot came forward stating that her own experience with Whedon was less than pleasant in her own words, she later expanded on them saying Whedon would threaten her career whenever she disagreed with him. Then Charisma Carpenter, came forward with her experience on the Buffy and Angel set basically calling out Whedon for being abusive, bullying, and basically acting like the villains he wrote for the show. Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg also backed up Ms. Carpenter as did basically the rest of the Buffy cast including Sarah Michelle Geller. Even other writers, like Jose Molina, called Whedon casually cruel and spoke about how Whedon enjoyed making women writers cry while working on Firefly. Detailing how Whedon once bragged about making one young lady cry twice in a single session. Which is not something a grown man should ever brag about! I mean making your employees cry once isn't a good thing never mind twice! (Frigid covered it pretty good.  I just want to say that bosses like this are one reason why people like me exist.)

So as of this writing, the King Nerd has fallen (Unfortunately, he didn’t get Romanoved. {If we start killing people in basements for being petty bullies, we’re going to run out of basements}), and it's nobody’s fault but his own. Because the guy who wrote Giles, Buffy Summers, Malcolm Reynolds, and Agent Colson, sure as hell knew better. He sure as hell was capable of better and decided to act like a petty cruel little bully anyway. So what does that mean for the body of work he leaves behind? For me, it doesn't change much. The works are still what they are and at this point refusing to partake isn't going to help anyone. Instead, maybe we should look at these works and use them as opportunities to realize that any of us can rise above ourselves and any of us can sink to dark depths. Let's turn to fiction, shall we? 

Buffy is a vampire hunter who outshines the vampires she is hunting.  It’s characters like her who bring the Vampire Hunter, an archetype that was present as far back as Carmilla but overshadowed by the monster they hunt, into the limelight.  Maybe it’s because in this case, the little blonde girl who we expect to be the victim is the one doing the hunting.  Maybe it’s because Buffy plays into the idea of Vampires as hidden predators and abusers and how they can be confronted (In a lot of ways, she is largely hunting toxic-masculine archetypes.  Or really just toxic human archetypes.  It’s great.). Or maybe it’s because Buffy is a Vampire Hunter whose entire life isn’t defined by the monsters she hunts. So Buffy is allowed to be a person with family, friends, and goals outside of killing the monster, whatever or whoever that monster may be.  The Origin is a look at how Buffy gets dragged kicking and screaming into her role as Slayer and a frank look at what crossing the threshold from normal life to heroism costs her. 

The Origin starts out much the same as the film but quickly gets darker in tone. The vampires are more menacing and savage with the characters being completely redesigned. Lothos especially is unrecognizable compared to his film counterpart and that's a good thing. You also have the battle between Slayer and Vampires take on a more cat and mouse tone. It feels like Merrick and Buffy are fighting a guerrilla war, ambushing vampires at their most vulnerable and trying to stay away from the stronger ones that Buffy can't fight yet. Mostly by actively fleeing whenever Lothos shows up. This creates a whole different tone to the business of being a Slayer. No longer I am wondering if Merrick is really in the business of setting up young women to be meals on wheels for a middle-aged, self-important predator. Instead, Merrick comes across as a desperate man who is outnumbered, outgunned, and just trying to get one Slayer across the finish line come what may. 

Pike also comes across as more harried in the comic, while in the movie his friend Benny whinging at the window to be let in so he can eat is played more for laughs. Here it's made to feel like Pike is put under siege every night and he sees his only options as escaping town entirely or helping Buffy kill his tormentors so he can at least get a good night's sleep. Which actually helps build a believable relationship between the two (I mean...yeah.  Helping kill vampires so you can actually nap is pretty reasonable.). Pike is at least roughly in Buffy's age group being under 21 and is the only one she can talk to as an equal about this insanity. Meanwhile, she is Pike's best chance of ending this nightmare and returning to a normalish life. As normal as you can live knowing vampires are a real thing and roam our cities anyways (Yeah, I would not be living normal after that.). 

Not much is changed about Buffy's friends, although their upper-class lifestyles are brought more front and center so that there's a greater removal between them and most of the victims (The vampire’s victims, or theirs? {They’re not really shown as having victims unless we count them bullying each other}). While they at least express fear and some wonderment at what the hell is going on around them, they still come across as callous and superficial but at least it's a bit more realistic (Rich teenagers being callous and superficial is hyper-realism.). Things really take a turn for the dark when instead of being killed by Lothos, Merrick actively kills himself with a pistol rather than be turned into a vampire and used as an intelligence source by Lothos (Based As Fuck.). Buffy has a near breakdown over losing the one adult in her life that had been a mentor figure to her and attempts to totally retreat back into her old life patterns, and this is shown and treated as the mental break it is. The finale only gets darker as the body count is rammed up, Buffy's friends betray her to the vampires and it ends with her burning down the school gym to kill all the vampires and fleeing to Los Vegas with Pike. 

I honestly like this version a lot better. It works better with the television show and while avoiding unnecessary gore or shock is still horrific and dark. We have Buffy's nightmarish situation of being thrown into a war completely cold, paired with Pike's situation of being besieged by a monster wearing his best friend's face. All of this juxtaposed with the banality of American high school and the superficial, self-absorption of your average (bourgeois {having run into teenagers from communist nations, there’s not much difference}) teenager.  Buffy and Pike are able to put an end to the abuse and predation they’re suffering from but because of the indifference of society around them, that end comes at a high price. 

This speaks to a lot of different real-life situations that people find themselves in and also just feels more grounded without the constant attempt to lighten the tone with hit or miss comedy. The Origin gets a B+ from me. I encourage you to give it a read, it's available as a graphic novel, part of the Dark Horse series omnibus or you can find scans of it online although I'm sure no one reading this review would ever google the title of this miniseries and add the phrase read online or some such. 

I hope you enjoyed this doubleheader review folks. Join us tomorrow for a guest review looking at vampires via Terry Pratchett. Next week, I look at how we fuse the vampire with the vampire hunter and get the qualities of both. We look at Vampire Hunter D and Blade! Now Fangsgiving is brought to you by our ever-wise Patrons. They voted to have this theme month and have it focused on vampires. You can join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads for as little as a dollar a month. See you soon and until then, stay safe and Keep Reading.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer film Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui

 Buffy the Vampire Slayer film 

 Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui

So what if there was a movie that had Luke Perry, Seth Green, Ben Affleck, Hillary Swank, Paul Rubens, and Donald Sutherland all together with dialogue written by Joss Whedon? (I mean, knowing what we know now about Joss?  Or not? {I’ll get to him in his own time, wait for it}) What if I told you this movie was produced by a company owned by Dolly Parton? (She is precious, and gets to live when the revolution comes.{I will note that the editors opinions are the not opinion of the review series}) Welcome to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Filmed in 5 weeks with a budget of 7 million dollars, you wouldn't think this film was the advance warning of a 7 season pop culture juggernaut that would launch multiple careers and create a multimedia franchise that would affect our views on vampires, werewolves, various other monsters and those who hunt them? Yet, here we are over 20 years later and I know people who aren't nerds who make Buffy Summers jokes. A quick google search shows articles being written about the show in 2021 when the show ended in 2003. Hell, there are still people writing fanfiction of this show! So let's dive in. 

Fran Rubel Kuzui is an American-born film director and producer. She received her master's degree at New York University and worked as a script supervisor for a decade before her first film. That film was 1988's Tokyo Pop which she not only directed but co-wrote. It was released in the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. It was there that she discovered the script to Buffy the Vampire Slayer written by the then little-known Joss Whedon (don't worry we'll get to him). She helped expand the character of Buffy and with her husband Kaz Kuzui, pulled together the deal to produce the film. She would later be a producer for the television show and its spin-off Angel. 

The making of the film was rocky, Mr. Whedon walked off the set upset at the changes they made to the story and the tone. As well as the fact that they basically let Donald Sutherland rewrite his dialogue on a whim (And it was glorious.). I think part of that might be the 5-week filming limit, imposed by the need to get Luke Perry back to his show Beverly Hills 90210 (So THAT’S where he got famous. Always wondered here he came from.  Kinda thought he was a thirst trap in this movie when I was younger…). I mean when you’ve got 5 weeks and your biggest star and veteran performer decides his lines are better, there's a lot of pressure to just let him have his way and get to the next scene I think. Originally written to be a fairly dark and fairly disturbing comedy (we'll go more into the changes in the next review folks) the studio pushed for a lighter tone and the removal of the more objectionable and darker events of the storyline. To the point that Mr. Whedon has announced the film non-canon to the main Buffy universe (Which, given he created it is, is his right. Even if he is scum. {I bloody well said wait for it!} That doesn’t mean we can’t make our own folks.  Death of the author and all that.). 

The film is about Buffy, a cheerleader and utterly neglected only child of a wealthy family (Funny thing, after a certain point, wealth actually starts to decrease life expectancy and happiness.  The sweet spot is about 80-100k per year, adjusted for the cost of living.  Funnily enough, this is about what tenured scientists make.  We study our own graphs, you see.  I make about half that though, because of civil service.). At the start of the film, Buffy is a very superficial and frankly air-headed high school senior whose biggest concern is making sure the senior dance goes well and staying in the good graces of her equally superficial friends. She is forced to grow up and realize that there's more going on in the world around her when she gets pulled into a war. Because she's been born as the Slayer, a girl with superpowers meant to hunt down and kill vampires and various creatures of the night. She's informed of all this by Merrick, a watcher, a person whose duty it is to track down Slayers, train them, and set them loose on said monsters. 

That said, the Slayers in the film aren't very impressive. They seem to be a long line of chosen girls who kill a number of newbie vampires and then get killed by the head vampire, Lothos, played by Rutger Hauer and his right hand Amilyn. A bit of a fun fact, Amilyn was originally written to be played by a woman but the actress was unable to take part so they hired... Paul Reubens, who's mainly known for playing Pee-Wee Herman (I didn’t even recognize him.  Good makeup work.). Now, I'm usually against type casing and I honestly believe we should let actors try different roles and things instead of straight jacketing them but Reubens is about as threatening as a bowl of lukewarm oatmeal here. He just isn't ‘creature of the night material (He was good comic-relief though. {He’s supposed to be the hatchetman of the main villain! We’re supposed to view him as a threat not as a giggle!}). 

 Honestly, Hauer isn't much better as his main role seems to be to walk into the scene, look at the slayer, tell them to come over here, and bite them without the ladies in question offering much resistance. Often flouncing about in clothes that make him look like a renfaire cosplayer having a mid-life crisis (Don’t judge them.{The cosplayers?  No judgment but I demand my vampires look more threatening than that!}). Which makes you wonder how the Slayers got their reputation in the first place and honestly leaves me questioning if the Watchers are actually training vampire slayers or if they're just feeding athletic girls to Lothos to keep him distracted (Maybe it’s a “Lothos gets to them before they get good” kinda thing. {for over 7 generations}). That said Reubens and Hauer do have some fun scenes together. 

The lack of menace, however, undercuts the film, even as characters are killed. Part of the problem is how indifferent everyone besides Buffy and Pike (Luke Perry's character) are to people they know turning up brutally murdered. I know this is meant to underscore how callous and superficial the characters are but combined with the comedic tone of the movie, the overall feeling is... Eh? Beyond that the acting is alright but I feel bad decisions were made in the casting beyond just non-threatening vampires. There's a lack of chemistry between Luke Perry and Kristy Swanson for example. This is maybe why the character of Pike just completely disappears from the story in the television show. Overall the movie isn't bad, I laughed at most of the jokes (although Reuben's death scene went on too long to be funny) and the dialogue isn't bad. The action is mostly okay but nothing special.

All that said, there is a good idea at the core of this movie, and Buffy even in the film is more interesting than the monsters she's killing. This is rare for a vampire hunter, I mean even Van Helsing, who is a very interesting character, takes a back seat to Dracula. I suppose to be fair, who doesn't take a backseat to motherfucking Dracula himself? Buffy, however, is mainly fighting off amped-up undead teenagers and vampires in the shape of middle-aged men, which isn't that deeply buried a metaphor. That said as a movie, I gotta give Buffy the Vampire Slayer a C-. As an adaptation, it scores much the same, as Whedon would later release his original script in a comic book form. Which we are gonna look at right now. 

The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula By Eric Nuzum

  The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula

By Eric Nuzum 

Eric Nuzum is an American writer, podcaster, producer, and critic. He was born in Canton Ohio in 1966. He attended Kent State University from 1985 to 1988 and graduated with a Bachelor’s in the Arts. From 1998 to 2004 he went to work for WKSU, a non-commercial, educational radio station licensed in Kent that can be heard in Northeastern Ohio. From WKSU he moved to NPR and in 10 years rose to Vice President of programming before moving over to Audible in 2015 and leaving in 2018 to found his own podcast company, Magnificent Noise. During all of this, he earned the Edward R Murrow award for News writing (awarded to him in 2002). He also married a lady named Katherine and moved to D.C. Most importantly for us though he wrote 4 books, it's his second book that we're reviewing today. 

The Dead Travel Fast is a pop culture look at vampires. From various movies, books, playing one in a haunted house, or trying to track down and talk to people who claim to be vampires (Both fetishists and a certain Nicholas Cage film?  Or are we talking Fully Deluded here? {Yes}). Mr. Nuzum attempts a broad overview of the space that vampires occupy in American culture, what we get out of vampires, and why. Mr. Nuzum attempts in this book to try and dig out just why Vampires have taken such a deep root in our culture and look at the different cultural expressions of it. To do that he goes on trips across the country, taking vampire tours of San Francisco, attending a Dark Shadows convention (Dear God. I remember watching that as a child.  There are conventions for that? {Not many but yeah}), and interviewing people in New York. He also heads out to the United Kingdom and Romania taking various Dracula-related tours to try and dig out some information there because let's face it, you can't talk Vampires without talking Dracula. He also meets various people claiming to be vampires in chain restaurants and bars (Pre-arranged?  Or did he just run into them? {pre-arranged}). Plays a vampire in two haunted houses, drinks his own blood (Well alright then!), and attempts a ritual to become a vampire because... You know, I'm going to be honest, I have no idea why he did that other than to fill space in his book (I’m gonna give him points for taking his subject seriously.  Now I’m curious about the ritual itself to be honest?  What magical tradition are we talking here?  Unsystematized folk-magick, or are we talking something derived from Crowleyan Hermeticism? {AHAHAHAAHA, You think he went into that much effort?  It was a random list of ingredients and instructions from the internet}). Don't drink blood, not even your own readers, other people's blood is of questionable safety at best (That’s how you get the HIV!  Seriously, I don’t normally kink-shame, but the “Vampires” have like, the least-safe fetish ever.  Like, if you’re gonna do that shit, at least get on PrEP first.  This has been a PSA from a former University Dorm Sex Ed Sherpa!), and drinking your own blood is just silly and kind of gross (Eh, we’ve all done it. {I don’t recall guzzling down a shot glass’ worth of my own blood at any point in my life.  Granted I’m missing a few days here and there but pretty sure I would remember that}). 

The book is written in the first person and frankly, it's as much about Mr. Nuzum's quest to experience vampiredom directly or indirectly as it is any real study of what vampires are or what they meant to other people (It would kinda have to be.  No way something like this is dry and academic.). Very informal and breezy, the book is easy to read and is rather engaging. Mr. Nuzum knows how to entertain readers and keeps his narrative moving at a relaxed but brisk pace that I think other writers could learn from. You quickly come to empathize with him and respect his suffering for his quest (Tell us about the suffering…). Whether it be his exhaustion in playing a vampire in a haunted house (something I'm still questioning why on earth was even necessary[Because it’s fun.  Seriously, there was no actual point to this.  This is a passion project done for its own sake.]) or the battling of the infection of his thumb on the Romanian Vampire tour from hell (Oh Dear). Since he still has the thumb, be sure to ask him if he's sure a mosquito bit it, he still loves it when people make that joke. While I question why some of this was necessary, I will say I respect his willingness to do it and his willingness to admit how silly he made himself look in public for the sake of this book. Say what you will, that's a man devoted to giving you a good story and something to chuckle over, and we should treasure that. 

His collection of anecdotes from his quest are peppered with various vampire facts and historical data, although I openly question if he actually read the Vampyre by Dr. John Polodori. I can't fault him for backing away from Varney the Vampire, because I have the complete series on Kindle and it's almost 800 pages (I can.  We’ve all read 800 pages of madness before). I do believe that he did watch over 300 vampire films, although again I find myself questioning... Why? (Obsession Frigid.  Seriously.  He got a bug up his ass and became obsessed.  I got obsessed and am writing Psi Corps War and Peace, and am re-writing Harry Potter as communist propaganda.{Yes but you’re insane and prone to obsession, you’d have to be just to get your Ph.D.}) Something I wrestled with repeatedly over the course of this book, is why and what does this action have to do with learning any of the answers to the questions he asks. Maybe it's the anthropology training in me but I found his methods rather sloppy and haphazard (Oh, they were.  He basically took a year or whatever to completely dork out on something with no real rhyme or reason.  Clearly.). I also found the book in dire need of reorganization. Because much like Mr. Nuzum, it seems to meander all over the place, at times wandering into places that are barely connected to vampirism. Mr. Nuzum seems content to have the book be a collection of stories he did while researching vampires without tying it together into any real narrative or engaging any real themes or vampiric archetypes. So this comes across as less of a study of vampires per se and more of a broad survey of how the idea of vampires are treated and used. 

Not surprisingly, given that we live in a capitalist culture (we will now pause to give the editor a moment to wail in anguish [I’ll just be over here, wailing in anguish and trying to forge all the leftist organizations in CITY REDACTED into Marxist-Leninist Voltron.]) one position that Mr. Nuzum seems to examine a lot is vampires as a cash cow. Our modern culture is awash with vampire merchandise, from vampire-themed tours, hotels, and events, to vampire fashion and knick-knacks and Mr. Nuzum dives right in. He's even willing to try out Dracula novelty candy. I feel this is a missed opportunity in the book because there's something incredibly symbolic about the vampire of all monsters being milked for a profit but he really never discusses that, preferring to discuss various experiences he's having instead. 

My favorite example has to be his tour of Highgate Cemetery in London (Where Marx is buried. Has a big bust there.). You see, the cemetery Lucy was buried at in Dracula, Kingstead, doesn't exist. However, a lot of writers think that Bram may have based it off of Highgate Cemetery. I should note this is contested because what isn't contested in Dracula lore? Mr. Nuzum does a great job giving the history of the cemetery explaining not just its links to Dracula lore but to general vampirism, such as there being a brief vampire scare there in the late 1960s and early 1970s (So many drugs…). It basically started with people claiming to see ghosts in the cemetery at night, then claims of mutilated bodies and witchcraft. Next thing you know newspapers (What you have to remember is that a lot of British newspapers are worth less than the paper they are printed on.) are talking about claims of a vampire operating out of the cemetery. This led to a pair of occultists raiding the cemetery with one claiming to have been arrested for slamming stakes into corpses. This was 50 years ago! In England! A western, developed country where the population is supposed to have a basic education in science and biology. Today Highgate is a combination of the national landmark and nature preserve, as much of it has been overgrown and is slowly rewilding itself. The London government encourages this by keeping people out of the cemetery except for carefully guided tours. Because despite the small size, you can get lost in there. 

If Highgate is my favorite part of the book, my least favorite is anytime Mr. Nuzum deals with people who claim to be vampires or attempt to become one. This honestly comes across less as an investigation or research effort and more as an attempt to interject something sensational into the book (Alternative suggestion: when you deep-dive into vampires for long enough, you run into these people.  And it’s like watching a train derail, you can’t pull your eyes away.). To be honest, if it is an attempt at interjecting sensationalism into the book, it's an utter failure of one. I suppose the revelation that most of the people reaching out to claim the mantle of vampires are just as mundane and boring as the rest of us is comforting on a certain level. Also, I don't see what these subcultures really have to do with the subject of the book. If the book is about the cultural effect of the vampire then you should certainly touch on their existence but given how little cultural impact these groups have and how little they affect the cultural image of the vampire itself, I feel that Mr. Nuzum wasted time in Applebees and bars, he could have spent actually studying (I don’t know.  I feel like such people are so strange that there’s a certain draw to them.  The pull of the absurd, if you will.  And I say that as someone whose early Disney exposure turned him into a degenerate furry.)

That said, while a subculture is always interesting to look at, you can't really get anything done with a group like people who believe they're vampires unless you're willing to spend years building relationships. Studying groups of people, especially those who know they'll be mocked or worse if they reveal too much is a work of trust and care. It takes years.  So this part made my anthropologist self firmly stick his nose up in the air and declare, no, no you're doing this all wrong and if you're not willing to do this right why are you even bothering? Of course, we should keep in mind that Mr. Nuzum is not an anthropologist, but a man who is chasing a passion basically. Just keep that in mind if you're looking to approach a group as an outsider who wants to study said group, this isn't how you do it. 

  If I had to boil it down, I would say this book is fun and pleasant to read but not especially informative or revealing. Part of my antipathy I admit, is that maybe I'm generally not a fan of books that announce themselves to be a study of a subject and keep focusing on their authors instead. I had too many books like that in college. That said, Mr. Nuzum is a fun guy to read about and he takes pains to show us interesting and amusing things. Plus given that the book is under 250 pages, it's a fairly quick read. I blazed through it in a single sitting and at least I had some fun reading it. If you're looking for some serious vampire information, however, you're not gonna find a lot. This is broad but shallow, and honestly as much about a single man's desire to know what being a vampire feels like as it is about vampires; the monster or cultural icon. The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula by Eric Nuzum gets a C from me. If you're into vampires there are simply better places to go but if you read this book you'll at least be entertained. 

    Next week, I'm gonna look at something a bit to the side, next week we look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Until then, stay safe and Keep Reading.

Blackula Part II

 IV

Synopsis (Spoilers) The film opens in Transylvania to flashes of lightning and driving rain. Inside an appropriately spooky castle, Prince Mamuwalde and his wife Luva are escorted to an ornate dining table by Count Dracula himself. Mamuwalde is seeking the Count’s support for his African nation to be recognized by the courts of Europe and to put an end to the slave trade. Unfortunately, Dracula has a more...confederate opinion on human bondage, and starts to appraise Luva as a potential servant as an unimpressed Mamuwalde gives a glaring look of disapproval.

“Sir, I suddenly find your cognac as distasteful as your manner!”

The opportunity for a peaceful exit from this attempt at humiliation is snuffed out as Dracula and two goons descend upon Mamuwalde and his wife. After a brief struggle (in which Mamuwalde delivers a Trek-esque double-fisted blow to the upper back of one of the goons), he is overcome and struck unconscious. The numerous brides of Dracula, in some truly F-tier makeup, descend on Luva; Dracula himself delivers the vampire’s bite to Mamuwalde. The bite of Dracula transfers his vampirism to the African prince, an eternal thirst, as well as bestowing the name Blacula on him before shutting him away in a locked coffin. Luva is confined in the same room, doomed to watch until she dies of starvation and thirst.

Cue the really cool animated title sequence with some absurdly funky music - This song slaps.

The movie resumes in the present day; Two very... flamboyant American men (one white and one black) are being shown around the house by a caretaker. The two men agree to purchase everything in the house, intending to lean into the “camp” of Dracula in order to resell at steep markups. The guide assures them that Dracula was no legend, but was in fact very real. The two men are brought into a hidden room, which by coincidence was the same room as before. They insist on taking the coffins in the room with them to Los Angeles.

Their curiosity (and desire for a replacement for a guest bed) leads one of the two to open the coffin containing Mamuwalde; the other, in an attempt to pry open another crate, cuts his arm. The coffin lid slowly rises, and the ashen-faced Mamuwalde emerges from the coffin, fangs fully bared. The two men, distracted by their poor attempt at first aid, notice the predator too late - escape is quite impossible and they are quickly overwhelmed by Blacula’s superior strength and drained to death. Blacula looks upon his kills, perhaps slightly horrified by his savagery, but the feeling quickly passes as he puts on an appropriately spooky cape found amongst the collection. He laughs heartily as he lies back in his coffin.

A group of three (two women, one in a very curious purple cloak, and one man) are shown the body of the black man (Bobby) drained in the prior scene. As the woman in the purple cloak reveals her face, a concealed Blacula instantly sees her as if he were his wife Luva. The man in the group stays with Bobby, revealing himself as Dr. Thomas of the “Department of Scientific Investigation.” Dr. Thomas starts to investigate the body, including the deep puncture wounds on the neck and the total lack of blood in the body despite not having been embalmed. 

Meanwhile, the two women (Michelle and the woman in the purple coat) part ways on the street; the camera follows the woman in purple as she makes her way along an abandoned street at night. She collides with Blacula, who believes that she is his Luva. Terrified, she runs away and is pursued by Blacula into the city night. A distracted Blacula, finding her purse, is struck by a taxi cab, allowing her to get away. The taxi driver, a black woman, clearly crosses a line by calling Mamuwalde “boy” in a fit of frustration; needless to say, she does not last long. The woman in purple (Tina) makes it to her home, where she is rejoined by Michelle.

Blacula, seeming relatively well-fed, strolls across his warehouse lair, clutching Tina’s purple purse. He shuts himself back in his coffin, still holding it close to himself.

Dr. Thomas’s investigation continues at a local police station; he is brought into the morgue to examine the body of the taxi driver from the prior night. He finds two bite marks on the woman’s neck, and observes the total lack of blood in her veins. He then asks for the files on the two men (Bobby and Billy) from before, but the reports are lost. Without other leads, he arranges to autopsy the men.

Dr. Gordon Thomas, Michelle (his girlfriend), and Tina (Michelle’s sister) meet in a club that evening to celebrate Michelle’s birthday (the scene includes a nearly-full musical performance). Mamuwalde, appearing as mortal as possible, appears at the club to return Tina’s purse. Without a clear idea of what her attacker looked like, she invites Mamuwalde to join her friends at their table - His ability to charm is unmatched. The party is interrupted as Dr. Thomas learns that Bobby’s body has disappeared from the mortuary. Mamuwalde, upset by the flash of a camera, tries to leave - Tina follows him. They agree to meet again in the club the next evening. 

The photographer, an employee of the club, returns home to develop the photos she had taken… in which Mamuwalde was curiously absent from every shot. As she ponders over the man’s absence, Blacula attacks, taking the photos even as he feeds on the woman. The photographer, near death, stumbles out of her house to be discovered by a white police officer. Unfortunately for the man, she had already been turned, and she sank her teeth into the policeman’s neck.

Dr. Thomas, thwarted in his attempt to exhume Billy’s grave legally, resolves to dig up the body that night without delay. Meanwhile, Tina is visited by Mamuwalde, who cannot wait to see her. Like any good vampire, he asks to be let in. He confesses his feelings, believing her to be his wife; she hesitates to reject the idea out-of-hand. He tells her of his mission 200 years ago to end the slave trade, of his failure, and of the curse of undeath put upon him by Count Dracula. He requests her, the supposed reincarnation of Luva, to rejoin him. She rejects the appeal; Mamuwalde says she must come to him freely with love or not at all, and starts to leave, but Tina stops him and asks him to stay. They embrace.

In the graveyard, Dr. Thomas and Michelle are hard at work digging up the body of Billy McCoy. On opening the coffin, an undead Billy (with green face makeup reminiscent of Dracula’s brides) lunges out and attacks Gordon. Gordon drives a stake through Billy’s heart, killing him permanently. There is now no doubt; vampires stalk Los Angeles. Gordon comforts Michelle as they consider the situation. They set out to autopsy the cabbie, hoping that they will be able to prove his theory to Police Lieutenant Peters. 

At the morgue, the cabbie wakes from death and rises from the gurney, violently attacking the medical examiner. Across town, Mamuwalde and Tina part for the evening - After all, it is almost daylight.

Dr. Thomas and Peters arrive at the morgue and discover the grisly scene; blood stains the walls and floor. The cabbie, lying in wait under a shroud, tries to attack when revealed but is repelled by a crucifix and struck down by the light of the morning sun peeking through the window. Peters is convinced and agrees to act on the threat.

That evening, Tina, Dr. Thomas, and Michelle are back in the club; Mamuwalde joins them. Dr. Thomas starts to interrogate Mamuwalde about whether he has any interest in the dark arts; Michelle asks him directly if he believes in the existence of Vampires. Gordon tells Mamuwalde that the police are searching for the vampire’s coffin. Somewhat abruptly, Mamuwalde gathers Tina and leaves. Gordon, told by a friend at the club about the photographer’s disappearance, investigates her home. He discovers the photos, and remembering that night, realizes that Mamuwalde is the vampire he is looking for.

As Mamuwalde and Tina talk in her apartment, Dr. Thomas bursts in and tries to attack Mamuwalde. Gordon is no match for the vampire’s strength; Blacula escapes into the night and easily kills a pursuing policeman. Later, the police come across Bobby wandering the streets; Gordon and the Police Lieutenant leave to pursue, leaving Michelle and Tina behind. Bobby escapes into the night but is eventually tracked back to the warehouse where his and Billy’s bodies were discovered. The men are quickly surrounded by a whole pack of vampires (who are quite immune to revolver rounds). Cornered, Gordon and Peters are only able to escape by throwing oil-filled lamps at the vampires (which helpfully burst instantly into flames). While escaping, they encounter Blacula, who states he could easily kill them but “has business elsewhere,” transforming into a bat and flying away.

Dr. Thomas and Michelle eventually convince the emotional Tina to help them end the vampiric threat. Somehow, Blacula is able to communicate with Tina while in bat form, compelling her to leave the apartment and follow him. With a blank expression on her face, she walks through the city to an underground chemical processing plant. The police spot her and report her location to Gordon, Michelle, and Peters, who rush to catch up with her. In the plant, Tina reunites with Mamuwalde, and they share a kiss, but their moment is immediately interrupted by sirens and a swarm of police. A policeman catches up to Blacula and Tina, firing into the fleeing couple - Tina is mortally wounded; Mamuwalde then kills the officer in a rage. With no other option, Mamuwalde bites her on the neck, attempting to preserve her in undeath.

Swearing vengeance, Blacula begins killing his pursuers, shrugging off bullets and effortlessly staying one step ahead of the police. Gordon and Peters discover Blacula’s coffin; Unfortunately, as Gordon opens the coffin lid and Peters bears down with a wooden stake, Tina is revealed to be in the coffin instead; She is impaled and dies. Blacula corners the two men, giving him the chance to look upon Tina’s again-mortal body. Struck by grief, he refuses to attack and instead begins to ascend the stairs leading out from the chemical plant. In the light of the morning sun, he quickly wilts and dies, dissolving into insects and bones.

V

What worked:

• Casting: William Marshall was an excellent choice to play Blacula, combining regal sophistication and dignity with a certain menace and unnatural strength. His Mamuwalde was capable of love and tenderness and had a certain vulnerability with Tina that is absent from many portrayals of arch-Vampires. Marshall also provided an imposing physical presence as well as a rich, deep baritone voice - It is not impossible to see him as a plausible alternative to Darth Vader, but able to inhabit the place of both David Prowse and James Earl Jones simultaneously. Thalmus Rasulala was also very effective as the cool, collected, and intelligent Dr. Thomas - A worthy Van Helsing, even if a very distant cousin.

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• Music: The music in Blacula is solid, combining early-70s funk with shades of gothic horror. Granted, music in Blaxploitation films can be difficult to judge fairly when inevitably compared to Issac Hayes’s score for “Shaft,” but this soundtrack is consistently good. The title song in particular is outstanding; overall, Blacula’s soundtrack is a definite strength.

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• Pace/Directing: The direction of this film is reasonably good; shots are generally well-composed, action scenes are clear without relying on disorientingly fast cuts, and the movie moves along at a tight pace. Overall, one might say that this movie is economical in its plotting and directing, but I think this works in its favor; the film rarely drags and is easy to follow. 

What didn’t work so well:

• Makeup: The film’s overall special effects were fine - This film was a low-budget affair, but it rarely felt cheap. However, the character makeup (specifically for the undead) did feel cheap. Vampires frequently appeared in shades of green reminiscent of cartoon characters about to vomit, facial hair was applied unevenly over makeup, and even Blacula’s makeup looked bad at certain points. This may be a small quibble, but it can be hard to fear a swarm of undead killers when many have the complexion of Kermit the Frog.

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• Scares: This movie was able to create tension, but I think it fell somewhat short when it came to the fear factor. Mamuwalde could be scary, but his entourage was not. The film also fell somewhat short when it came to using the medium to enhance the horror inherent to vampires; I don’t think resorting to jump scares would have worked, but a few more dutch angles and lingering moments of quiet terror could have added to the overall effect.

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• The Ooof Factor: This movie is quite progressive when it comes to race, almost all major roles are portrayed by Black actors and the film rarely resorts to stereotypes. It was also relatively progressive in terms of gender roles, or at least not regressive. However, this movie is significantly less sensitive when it comes to its portrayal of gay men - This depiction crossed far into offensive/cringe territory at least a few times and pulled me out of the experience. 

VI

At the outset of this film, we are asked an interesting question - What if Dracula, along with all his other sins, was also one step removed from Nathan Bedford Forrest in his outlook on race? I think this helps set the tone for a movie that convincingly presents a sophisticated, confident Black Man as an arch-vampire stalking Los Angeles in 1972. Blacula’s predator is evil, yet restrained and erudite; violent, yet capable of real vulnerability and affection. Blacula is a walking contradiction; unlike the Count, he still seems to possess the humanity of Mamuwalde at some level; heartbroken, he opts for self-immolation rather than a last-ditch attempt to take revenge. He’s complex, suave, and cool, a man simultaneously out of time but also capable of thriving in any era.

I think William Marshall carries this movie quite well; his charisma and charm as Mamuwalde is impossible to ignore in any scene he’s in, and Blacula can be very intimidating. This is a performance that still holds up well, with some good cast performances alongside it. In all honesty, it can be a little difficult to take a movie seriously when its title is Blacula, but there’s an effort here, and this is not a farce. The city setting is believable, appearing lived-in and working-class without falling into exploitative shots of “the ghetto” as some other films in the genre might.

When considered as a horror film, I’m not sure that I would call Blacula “scary.” Granted, this was the early 70s, but films like Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby were already around. It’s a little hard to recommend Blacula as a pure horror experience, but overall I would recommend the movie as a fun thriller with a funky soundtrack and an interesting twist on the classic Dracula story. The movie goes along at a good pace, not wasting time, and the ending is satisfying. It also serves as an interesting entry point for blaxploitation, a film situated at the crossroads of Hammer Horror and Sweet Sweetback. It’s a fast 90 minutes, and can be seen for free on Pluto TV - Consider it for this Halloween season if you’re in the mood for something fun and a little corny. 

Score: 3 Velvet Vampire Capes (out of what, it’s hard to say. It’s way easier to recommend than a direct-to-video Disney sequel, that’s for sure)

As a postscript, the blaxploitation genre did not last long. A year later, Scream Blacula Scream would be released, with Marshall reprising his role but with a different director, attenuated production schedule, and significantly lower budget; reviews were far less favorable. 1971-1974 would be the crest of the genre, with films such as Cleopatra Jones, Foxy Brown, and Super Fly attracting large audiences and making huge profits on relatively small production costs. However, the contradictions inherent in the system had already started to appear - Black intellectual and civil rights leaders turned on the genre almost immediately, and Black audiences came to resent the sameness of the roles and the cheapness of the films. So many films in the genre were made *at* Black people, rather than by or for them; thus, by 1976 Blaxploitation was nearly spent. Younger black audiences had already turned their attention to Kung-fu films among other things, and in a short time everyone’s attention would be drawn to a certain  high-fantasy/science fiction movie directed by the “American Graffiti” guy - The heavy-handed reassertion of the studio system and the collapse of the auteur director-driven film industry was right around the corner. It is interesting to survey what emerged from a relatively brief moment in American film history when the sky was wide open; one wonders if such a period of unrestrained experimentation simultaneously accessible by a mass audience will come around again. Somewhere, a specter haunts a green-screen soundstage at Disney Marvel Studios… Or, at least, one might hope.