Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

After a dying Voodoo queen, Mama Loa, chooses an adopted apprentice, Lisa Fortier (Pam Grier) as her successor, her arrogant son and true heir, Willis, (Richard Lawson) is outraged. Seeking revenge, he buys the bones of Mamuwalde the vampire from the former shaman of the voodoo cult, and uses voodoo to resurrect the vampire to do his bidding.This film seems to get a bad rap. In the first Blacula, there was an attempt to make the vampire more refined, more serious and a character who was not just a joke. Some say they did not take the same approach the second time around. Well, I don't agree with that. Having him be knowledgeable in African art seems pretty refined to me.Maybe an army of vampires or a voodoo priestess is a little silly, but this is AIP we are talking about. The point is to have fun, and this movie is fun.

Following up "Blacula", the title vampire is resurrected by a voodoo priest, who is promptly converted into one of the undead.I think the flaw in this movie is that it is never really clear what happens to people when they are converted into vampires. Do they just retain their normal urges? Or are they mindless minions of the master vampire? This movie has it both ways.Anyway, Blacula is trying to get a cure for his Vampirism by local Voodoo priestess Pam Grier, queen of Black Exploitation films. This movie only seems to hold together in that the main characters never talk to each other. Blacula says he wants the cure immediately (despite the fact he's sucked the life out of one of her friends) and wants to talk to her the next night, but he waits three days to do it, even taking time off to banter with her boyfriend, ex-cop/art collector/publisher dude.The movie ends with a fight between vampires and cops that seems a little pointless other than the bookkeeping.

An interesting and, dare I say it, better-then-the-original follow-up to Blacula. Where the first was essentially set-up, this is dynamite pay-off. William Marshall and his team of phantom vampires are generally creepy this time (thanks to a director who's been there before) and the story presents an interesting take on the vampire story with Voodoo elements combined. Pam Grier is an expert on the occult, and agrees, with some heavy reservations mind you, to take on Mr. Blacula and tries to rid his little problem with the help of voodoo dolls! If this sounds silly, it probably is, but it's presented quite interestingly and with a lot of style that the cheesiness isn't too obvious. Quite a little surprise.

Very camp, very strange sequel to an already outrageous movie. "Scream, Blacula, Scream" was the natural progression in the Blacula mythos: after having committed suicide by walking out into the sun in the original film, Mamuwalde (that's Blacula to you) finds himself unwillingly resurrected by a jive talking voodoo shaman who is insanely jealous of Lisa, a sexy voodoo chick played by none other than Pam Grier. Well, who wouldn't be jealous of Pam Grier? The lady does seem to have it all. But Blacula is no instrument of revenge, and pretty soon a bunch of blue-faced vampires are running around again.Mamuwalde wants to use Lisa's intense voodoo powers to perform an exorcism and remove the vampiric demon from him, perhaps rendering him human again. It's an interesting premise, and the movie is full of appealing locations and personalities. It goes wrong in the silly details though, like some hokey special effect shots of Blacula flying in bat form over Los Angeles, ending with a camp confrontation between Blacula and two jive-talking pimps who make the mistake of trying to mug him. But there's plenty of good to go around, too. The movie is full of beautiful people, both men and women, and the overall tone is very dark and frightening. The vampires violently attack their victims, and there are a number of memorable attacks that are pretty hair-raising. One finds a screaming young woman being stalked by two vampires in a large dark house; an extended chase sequence finds her confronted with both Willis and Mamuwalde, closing on her, until she faints from fright and Willis bites her.William Marshall plays Mamuwalde with his usual utter seriousness and dignity, but the movie will never truly let his character be taken seriously. Blacula apparently has been taking some tips from Count Yorga, too, because he's got a harem of vampire chicks following him around in this one. He also does that crazy thing Count Yorga did, running down the hallway toward victims with hands up in the air like claws, fangs bared, crazy look on his face. I wonder who stole it from whom? "S,B,S" seems to be considered vastly inferior by many, given its low ratings on 'net websites. Admittedly it has some serious problems, and is cursed by an unsatisfying ending that seems to just...stop...before anything really happens. But I still dug it, baby, and if you liked the first one, you probably will dig it, too.